EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 31 © 2020 Book Palace Books * 96 PAGES in FULL edition

91 Born with pencil in hand, our editor’s love for Westerns, both on TV and movies, have accompanied him all his life, so it wouldn’t be strange that he would end up drawing Western comics when he grew up. TENNESSEE WILDE “This series was about a ‘tenderfoot’ from the East, who didn’t carry a gun but instead was a card-shark, a cheat, a cad, and a womanizer travelling through the American Wild West. Oh, and he also bore more than a passing resemblance to Hollywood actor Errol Flynn. The character had an American state as part of his name because every Western character created for the European market had names like that (just go and ask Luc Cornillon). Although proposed as a series for the American market in the 1990s, it ended being only a 12-page story that appeared in the French comics magazine AARGH! in 2013. The fact that the magazine didn’t last very long might be the reason for the series ending so soon. The image at the bottom shows Jonathan ‘Tennessee’ Wilde (that was his name) in a duel with an outlaw. I threw everything but the kitchen sink into that panel, as I drew every citizen from the town of Utopia. The image at the right is of one of the outlaws who comes to avenge his brother who was shot earlier by Tennessee. I created dozens of characters, each with their own particular faces, bringing to mind the Western films of Sergio Leone, my favourite filmmaker.” CHEYENNE “I have to confess that this character’s name was based on the Franco-Belgian series Comanche , which also gave an Indian name to a white person (in their case it was a girl). This was supposed to be another long series, telling the life-story of this character from his birth until his death. Created in the late 1980s, it also ended when the series was cut short after only three episodes. Not wanting to leave a good series behind, I re-coloured it digitally in 1999 (at a time when most European artists didn’t care about using computers for their artwork). I re-send it to various publishers again. Their reply was, “Nobody cares for Westerns anymore”. Funnily enough, there have been many Western series published over these past two years. But I’m too old to be breaking my back anymore over this, so I will only let you have a peek at a short introduction of how the two main characters met.” BELOW: Astute readers will notice that the perspective on the image is completely crooked. It wasn’t an error on the part of the artist, as Western towns were constructed haphazardly — with no right angles — on a rough terrain, and wherever there was an empty spot left.