Let's say it straight away, this new album is a success of its kind.
Not only because the humanist billionaire has adapted perfectly to the third millennium, but also because he knows how to constantly renew himself.
Here, by offering himself a suborbital flight, as practiced by Richard Bronson, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, he proves it brilliantly ...
Read alsoDiscover the new Largo Winch,
La Frontière de la nuit
After a Russian diptych focused on a financial plot that led to a “stock market crash” (
Morning Star, Scarlet Voiles
), Largo Winch relaunched in the adventure with the desire to do battle. For four years, his destiny has now passed into the hands of the novelist Eric Giacometti while Philippe Francq is still responsible for the designs.
With
La Frontière de la nuit
, the Giacometti-Francq tandem takes their hero white knight in space, the time of a suborbital flight.
“I had some concerns about this,”
says Philippe Francq.
Four years ago, when Eric Giacometti proposed this idea to me, it sounded more like science fiction than anything else.
And then this summer took place the first suborbital trip, linked to the development of space tourism.
Between Richard Bronson and his Virgin Galactics program, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musc, the general public has been able to become familiar with these tourists who float in weightlessness, not to mention the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet!
Finally, the album sticks completely to current events ...
"
On the hats of the wheel ...
Between Largo's incognito visit to an Indonesian tin mine, the impressive presentation of flying skateboards called "flyboards" in California, a fashion show that turns into drama, not to mention some settling of scores orchestrated by a mysterious " professor ”as terrifying as he is sympathetic, the first part of this new diptych starts off with a bang.
Largo Winch is even offered point-blank to participate in a suborbital theft by a young Californian couple of explosive entrepreneurs: Demetria and Jarod Manskind.
A new way for the seductive billionaire, rebel and brawler, to get laid.
Led with full speed, this 23rd adventure is full of twists and turns and features many action sequences.
"It had been a long time since I had so much fun,"
smiles Philippe Francq.
This album was a great pleasure to draw.
And wait until you see what happens next.
I really enjoyed drawing the first ten in the series, called
Le Centile d'or
... "
La Case BD
"
This board did not exist in the original scenario
", specifies Philippe Francq.
© Éditions Dupuis 2021.
Page 38 of
The Night Frontier
is a perfect example of the new direction taken by Largo Winch in
The Night Frontier
.
The decryption by its author:
“This board did not exist in the original scenario, specifies immediately Philippe Francq. But I was annoyed. Between the previous page where Largo is invited on a suborbital journey and the moment he takes off aboard the Stratolaunch, the carrier plane that takes Jarod's Asteria shuttle to space, there was a missing transition. The French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy who advised me throughout the development of the project, explained to me that future space tourists would be subjected to a battery of tests, at least three months of examination. So I decided to insert this page showing Largo Winch going through the centrifuge ... "
“
Here, all his features are twisted, distorted,
analyzes Philippe Francq.
Largo's eyes are almost bulging because the centrifuge's acceleration is incredible.
»© Éditions Dupuis 2021.
This passage through the centrifuge is of course reminiscent of a famous James Bond with Roger Moore released in 1979
Moonraker
.
“It was a wink of course,
laughs the designer.
Let's say this shows Largo Winch in a new light.
Readers have seen him suffer psychologically before, notably in
The Three Eyes of the Guardians of the Tao
.
But there he is in physical pain.
All his features are twisted, distorted.
Its flesh is pulled back by the centrifuge effect.
his eyes are almost bulging because the acceleration is incredible.
"
The centrifuge is of course a nod to the James Bond
Moonraker,
released in 1979, with Roger Moore.
© Éditions Dupuis 2021.
It should also be noted that test batteries are mandatory for any individual wishing to conduct a suborbital flight.
And Philippe Francq added: “
This stage is also a must for all fighter pilots.
"
“
As I didn't want an orange, I did a lot of testing,”
says the designer.
I opted for a slightly military green jumpsuit with a prototype side, and I was inspired by those of Richard Bronson. ”
© Éditions Dupuis 2021.
In the following strip, Largo Winch appears fresh as a rose after putting on a green jumpsuit.
“We discussed, Jean-François Clervoy and I the merits of not putting them in a pressurized suit,”
explains the designer.
Since I didn't want an orange, I tried it a lot. I think Elon Musk's space outfits are reminiscent of bad science fiction from the 1950s. So, I opted for a slightly military green jumpsuit with a prototype side, and I was inspired by Richard's. Bronson. ”
The doctor who auscultates him, while telling him that he should have passed a much larger number of tests before boarding Jarod Manskind's shuttle, maintains a certain resemblance to someone known.
“For the record, the doctor is me,”
reveals Philippe Francq.
I have changed my hair color and I appear left handed.
But it amused me to stage myself as a doctor!
Let's say it, I watch over my character ... ”
(Laughs).
Launched in 2011 by billionaire Paul Allen (1953-2018), the giant Stratolaunch plane serves as a carrier for the suborbital flight of the Asteria shuttle.
© Éditions Dupuis 2021.
In the last strip of this page, we discover the huge Stratolaunch plane, developed since 2011 by the firm of billionaire Paul Allen (1953-2018), co-founder of Microsoft.
This giant plane, the longest in the world.
It serves as a launcher for the Asteria shuttle of the couple Demetrya and Jarod Manskind.
“
This prototype had remained in a hangar after the death of Paul Allen in 2018,
notes Philippe Francq.
Eric Giacometti and I had decided to stage it again for the purposes of the script.
The real challenge was above all to draw this whole machine on the box.
It was a real headache for me to install the aircraft on the ground in the box.
He had to be majestic and we had to understand his size and his giant wings. "
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Inserted in this box, the astonished face of Largo who discovers the interior of the Asteria shuttle.
“I wanted people to understand that, even if he wants to keep face, Largo is worried and impressed,
concludes the designer.
The hero sets out - like the reader - towards an unknown destination.
He is at the same time elated, but also a little anxious.
And we understand it ... "
Largo Winch volume 23 La Frontière de la nuit,
by Philippe Francq and Eric Giacometti, Dupuis editions, 48 p., € 14.95.