Maxime Dalle is a journalist and writer. He directs the literary review
Raskar Kapac
.
To order the special issue: www.raskarkapac.com.
FIGAROVOX. - On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Blake and Mortimer, your magazine
Raskar Kapac
devotes a special issue to Edgar P. Jacobs and his mythical characters.
Why did you want to pay homage to them?
Maxime DALLE. -
Better than fictional characters, Blake and Mortimer are a friendly duo larger than life! They don't limit themselves to comics. When I travel to London with my colleagues from
Raskar Kapac
, we go to worship in front of Blake and Mortimer's cozy apartment at 99 bis, Park Lane. From the gates of Hyde Park, we call Nasir or Mrs Benson to share a hot tea with them… When I venture into the catacombs in Paris, I sometimes come face to face with the shadow of Olrik escaped from
The Affair of the Necklace
. I will not tell you here about my visit to the home of Professor Labrousse (
SOS Météores
) in Jouy-en-Josas… One thing is certain, the universe of Jacobs is diluted in our daily life and our geography.
The strength of Jacobsian fiction is its suggestion of a reality with which we identify.
This fervor around Blake and Mortimer can be seen in the eyes of the grandson as well as in those of the grandfather.
Maxime Dalle
In addition, there is in Blake and Mortimer an aesthetic, that of the British gentleman, and an ethic, that of the knight of modern times.
These paper beings revive our noblest instincts.
With Pierre Arditi, Jean van Hamme, François Rivière, Hubert and Laurent Védrine, we have created a team to bring out our common passion for these earthy characters.
This comic book series cannot be eaten like
Netflix
fast food
.
Blake and Mortimer
is more than just entertainment.
Behind each Jacobs album, a philosophy of history is revealed, an epic adventure, a dandy elegance.
What atmosphere emerges from this universe?
Jacobs propels us, like Professor Miloch with his chronoscaphe, into post-war Europe. There is this exquisite atmosphere of the 50s which mixes historical tragedy with a bygone savoir-vivre. In each album, Blake and Mortimer invite us to their table at the Centaur Club to converse about Olrik's Machiavellianism while tasting exquisite French vintages, notably their famous Pomerol 1947… This atmosphere exhilarates us. So, when a wave to the soul surprises me, I open my copy of
The Francis Blake Affair
and invite
myself
to Philip and Francis' table. Upstream, I ask James to serve me an invigorating Scotch whiskey. If the torpor still does not pass, I open
La Machination Voronov
de Sente and Juillard and once again ask Blake and Mortimer to welcome me to their table for a second serve.
On page 10, you can taste a sublime leg of lamb.
This is the atmosphere distilled by Jacobs.
An elegant world where courage prevails.
Dive into it, it's divine.
Does this universe make young and old alike dream?
I would say even more !
All children from 7 to 77 years old gather around these two mythical characters.
In our special issue, Pierre Arditi (who is almost 77 years old…) shares with us his childhood memories and his passion as an actor for
La Marque Jaune
;
screenwriter Jean van Hamme, brilliant creator of
Thorgal
,
Largo Winch
and
XIII
, tells us about his unique vision of Blake and Mortimer, his passionate work on the series.
It was he who first revived
Blake's
adventures
after Jacobs' death.
Read alsoFour writers tell us why they are fans of Blake and Mortimer
Everyone agrees that this fervor around Blake and Mortimer can be seen in the eyes of the grandson as well as in those of the grandfather.
The best proof of what I'm saying is this new duo formed by Hubert and Laurent Védrine.
Father and son united their sensibilities and their erudition to carry out a remarkable investigation of Olrik.
Blake and Mortimer
is a comic strip that abolishes ages and generations.
This is, moreover, one of the singular features of the masterpiece.
Colonel Olrik is a fictional character created by Edgar P. Jacobs for his comic book series Blake and Mortimer. Why did Laurent and Hubert Védrine decide to devote a biography to him?
Olrik is a fascinating character. He dresses in great couturiers, wears a monocle, enjoys his tobacco with a cigarette holder… He's a distinguished bitch! Laurent and Hubert Védrine carried out a bewildering investigation and scoured the four corners of the world to reveal the biography of the real Olrik, the man who inspired Jacobs. There are great similarities between the fictional and historical character. We discover an ambivalent Olrik who combines a Nietzschean will for power with a filthy sluggishness. The Védrine provide us with valuable information about Olrik's Baltic youth. He was a romantic dandy like Jacobs, dreaming of warlike heroism, in the pure tradition of his Teutonic ancestors. Then, vanity and megalomania made him an amoral being, hungry for power,without faith or law. Hubert and Laurent Védrine reveal in our file that they were subjected to external pressure during their investigation. As if the Olrikian networks are still at work ...
Would you say that Blake and Mortimer are “childhood rediscovered at will” so dear to Baudelaire?
The comic reminds us of our childhood souls. It is not a minor art. To be an adult like the others? Comics teach us the opposite. She invites us to follow Tintin in his wanderings in Tibet and Théodore Poussin in his maritime adventures to Saigon! Beyond the history of the album, Blake and Mortimer remind us of our hidden dreams, of our childhood vocations. Pirate or astronaut? Whatever. We want a Peter Pan destiny! Nietzsche said that we had to be faithful to the child that we were. So, when the doldrums lurk, let's get involved in the bubbles of
Blake and Mortimer
. Let us not sink into heaviness and the spirit of seriousness. May the spirit of childhood remain a permanent consecration.
What did Jacobs, who died in 1987, understand about our time?
Jacobs had a clear vision of Humanity and its destiny.
He knew that history is a tragic cycle that repeats itself.
It must be said that both Jacobs and Hergé were screenwriters with an inner density.
They built themselves up on their own.
They did not go to a comic book school because this profession did not exist.
They had a panoramic artistic vision, a real erudition, an extremely rich existential course.
Jacobs was not a born commercial.
He was a perfectionist and could spend years on the same scenario.
Maxime Dalle
Jacobs got into comics at the age of over forty. When he was younger, he wanted to be an opera singer. He was a great lover of popular and fantastic literature devouring the books of Jules Verne from which he drew part of his inspiration. He also liked books on lost civilizations.
The Enigma of Atlantis
is never far away… Jacobs was a genuine curious person who carried visionary insights within him. He had an almost paranoid dread of an atomic war that would destroy the planet. In
The Devilish Trap
, album which earned him the absurd wrath of censorship, Philip Mortimer travels through time and lands in the future.
The least we can say is that this future sketched out by Jacobs is not glorious.
Hyper-technique has caused the self-destruction of civilization… Behind technicism and human vanity, we see barbarism reborn.
Did Jacobs have the now spectacular success of Blake and Mortimer?
Without having known the tragic fate of Van Gogh, Jacobs ended his life rather sparingly. He only saw the dawning of the success of
Blake and Mortimer
. When
L'Espadon
was published in the newspaper
Tintin
in 1946, readers were delighted. We discovered a UFO in literature: the adult comic strip. But the success of the hardback albums was relative. François Rivière, Jacobs' biographer, explains in our dossier the scabrous behind the scenes of
Blake and Mortimer
. Jacobs was not a born commercial. He was a perfectionist and could spend years on the same scenario. It took him almost ten years to write
The three formulas of Professor Sâto
whose second volume was completed by Bob de Moor.
Like all great artists, Jacobs could not lay on commission.
He had a scriptwriting intuition that he followed to the end.
Thanks to his successors, his work is today read and appreciated by the Queen of England as well as by the spiritual children of Professor Septimus.
Who are Blake and Mortimer's heirs today?
Each year, we have the pleasure to discover a new adventure of
Blake and Mortimer
. In 2021, it's
The Last Swordfish
by Jean van Hamme with Teun Berserik and Peter von Dongen drawing. An epic that takes place in 1948 when the IRA instigates an attack against Buckingham… I say no more. These are new boxes and pretty replicas that add to Jacobs' heritage. There is also Yves Sente who treats us with his thrilling adventures carried by the sublime drawing of André Juillard. These artist-heirs respect the universe of Jacobs while bringing a new density to the chronology of
Blake and Mortimer
. I think of the
Sarcophagi of the sixth continent
which is a remarkable diptych where Sente makes us discover the Indian and tumultuous youth of the young Mortimer…
But the heirs of Jacobs are also a new generation full of talent.
I am thinking, for example, of the designer Hubert van Rie who produced for this special issue of
Raskar Kapac
several unpublished drawings around the world of Jacobs.
We find there the clear line of the greatest.
As Francis Blake would say:
Bye Jove!
Comics still have a bright future ahead of them!
"On the trail of Blake & Mortimer", Raskar Kapac,
€
15
Raskar Kapac
