97 - Hardy

Hardy MARC HARDY PIERRE TOMBAL Dupuis Night Walk, original illustration created in 2016. Signed. India ink on paper 98.8 × 73 cm (38.9 × 28.74 in.) A successor to the founding geniuses of Belgian comics — Jijé, Franquin, Morris, Peyo, Will, Roba — Marc Hardy became the assistant to Mittéï, Seron, and Aidans before drawing for Stephen Desberg and Arkel a story about demons in an expressionistic and humorous style that would become his trademark. In 1982, Raoul Cauvin offered him *Pierre Tombal*, a humorous series for all ages. Despite its dark theme, this comic found a home in *Le Journal de Spirou* and enjoyed considerable success. This large illustration epitomizes Marc Hardy’s distinctive style—as powerful in black and white as it is in color—whose meticulous details in this drawing evoke the mastery of Franquin’s *Idées noires*, which are also often imbued with macabre humor. Didier Pasamonik If there’s one illustration I’ll always regret parting with, it’s this one. I took immense pleasure in creating it. From the very first strokes, I knew that everything would fall into place as if in a dream, and that once completed, the passage of time could only enhance what I felt while drawing it. Pure joy! Marc Hardy