Editing Blueberry (comics) (section)

===Prequel: ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry (Young Blueberry)''===
{{Infobox comic book title
 | title = La Jeunesse de Blueberry (Young Blueberry)
 | image = Blueberry-comics series.png
 | caption = Young Blueberry as drawn by Colin Wilson
 | format = [[Graphic novel]]
 | genre = [[Western comics|Western]]
 | publisher = [[Dargaud]], {{ill|Novedi|fr}}, {{ill|Alpen Publishers|fr}}
 | date = 1968-
 | main_char_team = Mike S. Blueberry (born as Michael Steven Donovan)
 | writers =  Jean Giraud (1968)<br>Jean-Michel Charlier (1968-1989†)<br>[[François Corteggiani]] (1990-2022†)
 | artists = Jean Giraud (1968-1979)<br>[[Colin Wilson (comics)|Colin Wilson]] (1985-1994)<br>{{ill|Michel Blanc-Dumont|fr}} (1998-)
 | colorists = Jean Giraud (1968-1979)<br>{{ill|Janet Gale|fr}} (1985-1994)<br>{{ill|Claudine Blanc-Dumont|fr}} (1998-2012†)<br>Jocelyne Etter-Charrance (2015-)
 | creators =  [[Jean-Michel Charlier]]<br />[[Jean Giraud]]
}}
{{quote box|align=left|width=45%|quote="For purely commercial reasons, Dargaud wanted the adventures of the main heroes of the weekly (''[[Asterix]]'', ''Achille Talon'', ''Tanguy and Laverdure'', etc.) to appear as complete stories in this quarterly. Neither Jean Giraud nor I were particularly interested to have concurrent, both long and short but similarly themed stories, published in two different magazines. But abundant, enduring fan-mail from readers, who gave us their friendship by faithfully following his tumultuous adventures, told me that the Blueberry character posed many irritating enigmas for them. Why did he have a broken nose? Why did he stay in the army as he clearly did not possess the disposition, his bravery excepted, befitting a good soldier? And why this ridiculous name Blueberry? Blueberry is English for ''myrtille'': Lieutenant Myrtille, that was not a name for a Western hero! The questions came from all sides. Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to further encumber stories that were already quite heavy. Then the idea struck me to forge out a past for Blueberry through the stories we were asked to do for this ''Superpocket Pilote''. A past in which our readers would find answers to satisfy their legitimate curiosity. The idea excited Giraud, who decided, in order to differentiate between two series, to adopt a more lively style, more edgy, but less convoluted. Thus was born «''La Jeunesse de Blueberry''»".|salign=right|source=—Charlier, on conceiving the ''Young Blueberry'' series.<ref name="jeunesse">[[#Sources|Ratier, 2013, pp. 222-223]]; Charlier's other two Dargaud co-creations, ''Tanguy et Laverdure'' and ''Redbeard'', received  a similar treatment for ''Superpocket Pilote''.</ref>}}
A later created prequel series, dealt with Blueberry's early years, during the American Civil War, relating how the racist son of a wealthy plantation owner turned into a Yankee bugler and all the adventures after that. The material for the first three albums, conceived by the original ''Blueberry'' creators, was originally published in the 1968&ndash;1970 [[mass market paperback]] sized ''Super Pocket Pilote'' series,<ref name="pocketpilote"/> as in total nine 16-page short stories, eight of them constituting one story-arc set in the war. The first short story, "Tonnerre sur la sierra" ("Thunder on the Sierra"), was actually a post-war stand-alone adventure set before the events depicted in "The Lost Dutchman's Mine". With the exception of the first and the last, "Double jeu" ("Double Cross"), where the coloring was taken on by Giraud himself, all other shorts were originally published in black and white.

In 1995, Giraud slightly contradicted Charlier's birth account of ''La Jeunesse'' by divulging that he had already created the "Tonnerre sur la sierra" story by himself, before Charlier actually came up with the Civil War approach: "It was I who scripted the first episode of ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry''. It very much resembled a regular series episode, but much smaller. Charlier subsequently presented me with another idea, the one concerning the American Civil War. I found it an excellent idea and writing started up right away".<ref name="arthaud">{{cite news|last=Breuillier|first=Jean-François|date=November 1995|title=Interview de Jean Giraud|work=Arthaud BD News|issue=1|pages=2–4|publisher=Arthaud Grenette|location=[[Grenoble]]|language=fr}}</ref>

Giraud created his ''La Jeunesse'' art with the smaller digest size format specifically in mind, and adopted therefore a more loose, less "convoluted" art style which allowed him to create his pages more quickly, already applying the revised technique for "Tonnerre sur la sierra". Additionally, it was for these stories that he started to experiment with applying inks in pen &ndash; alongside the brush he had hitherto exclusively employed for the series &ndash; a technique he would perfect later on as "Mœbius". While the resulting spontaneous art worked out fine for the smaller sized pages of ''Superpocket Pilote'', it did suffer from the enlargement for the hereafter mentioned album releases, when compared to the larger, more detailed pages for the ''Pilote'' main series on which he concurrently continued to work.<ref name="bree64">[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 64-65]]</ref> Still, the experience gained on the ''La Jeunesse'' shorts served him well, when he had to create  ''Jim Cutlass'' in a hurry a decade later, utilizing a similar technique.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 70-71]]</ref>

The publication of "La jeunesse de Blueberry" ("Blueberry's Secret") in 1975, the first album to collect the first three shorts of the Civil War story-arc, came as a surprise to ''Blueberry'' fans. Having left ''Blueberry'' on a cliffhanger with "Angel Face", when Giraud took his extended leave of absence (see [[#Royalties conflict (1974-1979)|above]]), clamor for new ''Blueberry'' titles became such, that publisher Dargaud decided to make the move as a temporary stop-gap solution. For the book publication, the original pages were blown up and by Giraud extended in width,<ref name="jeunesse"/> rearranged and (re-)colored, with some panels omitted in the process to fit the then standard album format of 46 pages, when discounting the two disclaimer pages. While the removal of individual panels was regrettable from a graphic art point of view &ndash; as it, besides the missing art, also broke up the integrity of Giraud's carefully designed page lay-outs, especially in "3000 Mustangs"<ref name="bree64"/> &ndash; it entailed no consequences for the plot of the shorts, save the first one; in "Blueberry's Secret" the synopsis mentioned Long Sam had witnessed the murder Blueberry was accused of and therefore able to prove his innocence, but is gunned down before he is able to do so by the real murderer, who in turn is gunned down by Blueberry, leaving Blueberry without any recourse to prove his innocence. However, for the book publication, the two panels which showed the real murderer being killed were cut, causing a discrepancy as it left readers, unfamiliar with the original publication, wondering why Blueberry was so despondent, as, from their point of view, the real killer was still alive.<ref name="bree64"/>

The releases of the two follow-up collection albums, "Un Yankee nommé Blueberry" ("A Yankee Named Blueberry") and "Cavalier bleu" ("The Blue Coats"), four years later (in itself an indication that Dargaud had not planned to do so initially, if only for the substantial editorial effort it took in the pre-computer era to adapt the original digest size for the standard sized comic book), turned out to be in equal measure a stop-gap initiative. Unable to resolve the royalties conflict, which had dragged on for five years, Charlier and Giraud turned their back on the parent publisher, leaving for greener pastures elsewhere and taking ''all'' of Charlier's co-creations with them. Giraud though, conceded to do the same editorial work he did on behalf of the first album for its two follow-ups. Sensing that it might potentially turn out to be a costly defection, the two ''Young Blueberry'' titles were released to make the most of the fervor that had surrounded the return of ''Blueberry'' with "Nez Cassé". For Dargaud it indeed turned out to be a costly affair as the two 1979 titles were the last new titles they were able to release for nearly fifteen years, missing out on a period of time in which ''Blueberry'' reached the pinnacle of its popularity &ndash; seeing, besides new titles in the main series, the birth of two spin-off series as well &ndash; even though the publishing rights of the older book titles remained where they were. As the "Thunder on the Sierra" short numbered 14 pages instead of 16, no editorial cutting was necessary for the third book. Apart from the editorial changes to fit the book format and the creation of new covers for the two additional albums, Giraud also made use of the opportunity to recreate a small number of panels to replace those he had felt unhappy about in hindsight, spread over all three albums.

Dargaud considered their three, original creator's, ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' book titles as part of the main series, until they regained the ''Blueberry'' rights in late 1993, and as such have therefore seen translations in most of the aforementioned languages as well. Apart from the expedited release of the two additional ''La Jeunesse'' titles, Dargaud also undertook a subsequent action in an attempt to further profit from the upsurge in popularity of ''Blueberry'', by releasing the first six-volume ''Blueberry'' integral edition of 1984.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-7098-BD-Blueberry-Rombaldi-Dargaud.html|title=Blueberry (Rombaldi-Dargaud)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616204130/http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-7098-BD-Blueberry-Rombaldi-Dargaud.html|archive-date=2017-06-16|website=Bedetheque.com|language=fr}}</ref> A co-production with French publisher {{ill|Rombaldi|fr}}, each of the six volumes collected four titles of the then existing main series. Rombaldi was brought into the fold to act as an intermediary in order to negotiate a separate license from Novedi to have the then four Novedi main series titles included as well in volumes 5 and 6, though Dargaud performed a copyright infraction by making sure Novedi was not mentioned as copyright holder in the respective colophons. The three ''La Jeunesse'' titles were collected in volume 6. In recognition for their assistance, Rombaldi was retained for similar releases of the two other Dargaud Western series, ''{{ill|Jonathan Cartland|fr}}'' (see also ''[[#Second change of artist|below]]'') and ''{{ill|Mac Coy|fr}}'' &ndash; each, like ''Blueberry'', one of the "big five" 1970s Franco-Belgian realistic Western comics<ref name="bigfive"/> &ndash; combining all of them in one overall, eleven-volume ''Les géants du l'Ouest'' collection, as promoted in contemporary advertisements.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Les géants du l'Ouest''|url=https://rombaldi.info/19-les-geants-de-l-ouest|work=Rombaldi.info|date=3 May 2023|language=fr|archive-date=28 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828142029/https://rombaldi.info/19-les-geants-de-l-ouest|url-status=live}}</ref>

The 1990 English language edition of these books by [[Catalan Communications]] in their "ComCat" line, gave track of the changes and presented the left out panels in editorials in which Giraud himself presented clarifications for the choices made. It was in effect American readership that was first afforded a clarification for the discrepancy in the first book and the editorial changes made, before European readers were, in the editorials by Lofficier of the releases. Only these first three books were published in English. The three American albums, again translated by the Lofficier couple, were also, unaltered and unedited, included in the above-mentioned anthology collection from Graphitti Designs. The Graphitti Designs "Young Blueberry" anthology title differed from the others in that it was not printed on high gloss paper, but on matte paper as in the original ComCat publications, indicating that by then inclusion in the Graphitti ''Moebius'' collection was already accounted for and that the original print run of the interior pages was adjusted accordingly.

{|| class="wikitable"
|+ Table of English book translations in order of the original French ''Young Blueberry'' book titles by Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud 
|-valign="top"
!width="2%"|'''#'''
!width="15%"|'''French original book release (publisher, yyyy/mm, ISBN'''{{efn|According to [http://www.bedetheque.com Bedetheque.com], the French albums of the main series were until volume 18 published in simultaneous conjuncture with Belgian publisher [[Le Lombard]] who released these for French-Belgium, initially as soft cover editions, contrary to Dargaud who released these from the start as hard cover albums. The same also held true for the first three ''Young Blueberry'' titles, then part of the main series. For expedience sake only the French editions from the parent publisher are mentioned. ISBNs were not issued until 1975, the Lombard releases actually never receiving any.}}''')'''
!width="25%"|'''French chapter titles (original order and magazine publication)'''
!width="15%"|'''English saga title/French story-arc'''
!width="25%"|'''English title and data'''
!width="18%"|'''Note'''
|-valign="top"
| rowspan="2" | 1
| rowspan="2" |  La jeunesse de Blueberry (Dargaud, 1975/01, {{ISBN|2205007785}})
| rowspan="2" |  
*2 "Le secret de Blueberry" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 2, Dargaud, 1968/10, 16 p.)
*3 "Le pont de Chattanooga" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 3, Dargaud, 1969/04, 16 p.)
*4 "3000 mustangs" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 4, Dargaud, 1969/06, 16 p.)
| rowspan="5" | '''Young Blueberry'''
| rowspan="2" |  '''Blueberry's Secret''' (ComCat comics, September 1989, {{ISBN|0874160685}}; ''Moebius #6'', Graphitti Designs, 1990, {{ISBN|0936211229}}{{efn|Stand-alone "uncut" anthologies of the shorts, predominantly in black and white as use was made of the original ''Super Pocket Pilote'' source material instead of the book versions, have previously been published in Denmark, Germany and Croatia, albeit it an illegal one in the latter case.<ref>''Blueberry i den Amerikanske borgerkrig'', Interpresse, Bagsværd, Denmark, 1990, {{ISBN|8745607222}}, ''Blueberry Sonderband'', Jurgeit, Krismann & Nobst, Berlin, Germany, 2003, {{OCLC|314617606}} and ''Bluberijeva mladost'', Crazy Cow "pirated edition", Croatia, 2003. The Danish editions lacks the "Thunder on the Sierra" short.</ref> With the exception of a latter-day 2017 illegal, extremely limited, Dutch-language edition,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/359225_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry_INT_B1_Mike_S_Donovan_De_burgeroorlog_18611865|title=Mike S. Donovan: De burgeroorlog 1861-1865|publisher=unknown (illegal)|year=2017|pages=180|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405105727/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/359225_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry_INT_B1_Mike_S_Donovan_De_burgeroorlog_18611865|archive-date=2023-04-05|language=nl}}; link includes other-language editions (both legal and illegal)</ref> none have seen the day of light to date in the rest of the world, including home country France.}}
| Three chapters in one book. Chapter titles:
*"Blueberry's Secret"
*"The Chattanooga Bridge"
*"3000 Mustangs"
|-valign="top"
|
*"The Emerald Lake" (non-''Blueberry'' short, 4 p.)
|-
|-valign="top"
| rowspan="2" | 2
| rowspan="2" | Un Yankee nommé Blueberry (Dargaud, 1979/01, {{ISBN|2205014854}})
| rowspan="2" | 
*5 "Chevauchée vers la mort" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 5, Dargaud, 1969/10, 16 p.)
*7 "Private M.S. Blueberry" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 7, Dargaud, 1970/03, 16 p.)
*8 "Chasse à l'homme (2)" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 8, Dargaud, 1970/06, 16 p.){{efn|In their haste to release the two follow-up titles, in the process also having to pay "renegade" Giraud for his input, the editorial office of Dargaud made a substantial editorial blunder. As stated, eight of the nine shorts constituted one long story-arc, but Dargaud placed "Chasse à l'homme" ("Manhunt", the fifth short in the story-arc) as the penultimate one in book 3, causing an awful continuity error. Readers, not familiar with the original ''Super Pocket Pilote'' publications, found themselves facing a baffling and inexplicable plot twist, only aggravated by the publisher who in unconvincing and confusing text captions tried to explain the discrepancy away, leaving uninitiated fans at the time erroneously suspecting that not all shorts were being published. In the publisher's defense however, Charlier had confusingly, but unintentionally, given two of his shorts an identical title in French and it is not that much a stretch of the imagination to assume the editors believing that the two stories belonged with each other. Fortunately for the American readership, the correct chronology, pursuant a first correction in the aforementioned Danish anthology earlier that year, was adhered to in the ComCat releases. Ironically, the French themselves, as indeed the rest of Europe, had to wait until 1995 (the Dutch actually beating the French to the punch by one year<ref>{{cite book|last1=Charlier|first1=Jean-Michel|last2=Giraud|first2=Jean|url=http://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/3075_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry_3_Blauwjas|title=De jonge jaren van Blueberry 3: ''Blauwjas''|location=Brussels|publisher=Dargaud Benelux|pages=48|isbn=9067930946|year=1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805103415/http://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/3075_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry_3_Blauwjas |archive-date=2016-08-05|language=nl}}; link includes other language editions.</ref>) before the publisher, pursuant regaining the ''Blueberry'' rights, could be bothered to correct the chronology for later reprint runs, after having it allowed to persevere for nearly two decades in numerous prior reprint runs for all language editions, the Danish and American editions excepted.}}
| rowspan="2" | '''A Yankee Named Blueberry''' (ComCat comics, March 1990, {{ISBN|0874160871}}; ''Moebius #6'', Graphitti Designs, 1990)
|Three chapters in one book. Chapter titles:
*"Death Ride"
*"Manhunt"
*"Private Mike.S.Blueberry"
|-valign="top"
|
*"Nuggets and Thieves" (non-''Blueberry'' short, 2 p.)
|-
|-valign="top"
| rowspan="3" | 3
| rowspan="3" | Cavalier bleu (Dargaud, 1979/10, {{ISBN|2205014854}}){{efn|Despite the creators being entitled to royalties, Dargaud's ploy to capitalize on the upsurge in popularity of ''Blueberry'' did not sit well with Charlier, who recognized it for what it was. In order to vent his displeasure, Charlier again made use of the exemption clause of his syndication agency, and established the temporary Editions Presses Internationales (EPI) imprint, under which he published a small ''Lieutenant Blueberry Pocket'' series of three outings in 1982, again using Koralle's &ndash; in whose employ he had been shortly before &ndash; infrastructure. Making sure that these three digit-sized releases were technically and legally magazine releases, akin to the ''Super Pocket Pilote'' source publications, all the shorts from Dargaud's two additional albums were reprinted in the series ({{OCLC|474042925}}). The shorts were presented uncut, with yet another new coloring, but featured Giraud's redrawn panels. Ironically though, Charlier too failed to correct the chronology. To drive home the point, the pockets also contained Charlier's two ''Redbeard'' shorts, as Dargaud had also employed a similar ploy for that series, as indeed they also had for ''Tanguy et Laverdure'' for that matter. Charlier licensed Koralle to follow suit by establishing the equally temporary Gary Publishing imprint for identical publication in Dutch.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/31652_Luitenant_Blueberry__Strippocket|title=Luitenant Blueberry Strippocket|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416221557/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/31652_Luitenant_Blueberry__Strippocket |archive-date=2017-04-16|website=stripINFO.be|language=nl}}; includes French editions.</ref> These were actually among the last known releases by Koralle, as the publisher was already in an advanced state of becoming defunct. That parent company Axel Springer even allowed the publications to go through at this late stage, should be considered another token of goodwill in recognition of Charlier's help in the smooth transition from Koralle to Novedi, as these pockets saw no release in the German home language, or in any other for that matter. Charlier concurrently farmed out a license to Danish publisher [[Interpresse]] (then the Novedi licensed ''Blueberry'' publisher) to publish the ''Blueberry'' shorts in their ''[[Jonah Hex]]'' monthly magazine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comicwiki.dk/wiki/Jonah_Hex_(serieblad)|title=Jonah Hex (serieblad)|work=Comicwiki.dk|language=da|access-date=2017-04-16|archive-date=2017-04-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416222516/http://www.comicwiki.dk/wiki/Jonah_Hex_(serieblad)|url-status=live}}; published between issues 28-42 in the period 1981-1982.</ref> Dargaud at the time had concurrent license agreements with competitors Oberon and Serieforlaget for the respective Dutch and Danish album publications.<ref>For the Netherlands: ''Yankee'' (1979, {{ISBN|9032002937}}) and ''Blauwjas'' (1979, {{ISBN|9032003003}}). For Denmark: ''En yankee ved navn Blueberry'' (1984, {{OCLC|60898806}}) and ''Blåjakken Blueberry'' (1984, {{OCLC|60898807}})</ref>}}
|Chapter titles:
*6 "Chasse à l'homme" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 6, Dargaud, 1969/12, 16 p.)
*9 "Double jeu" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 9, Dargaud, 1970/10, 16 p.){{efn|name="color"|These were the only two short stories, which had been colored by Giraud for their inaugural publication in ''Super Pocket Pilote'' (constituting a nice coincidental symmetry, as they concerned the first and last short stories made by the original creators), all the others were originally in black and white. For their album publications though, Giraud had to recolor them to fit the larger page dimensions, if only because the technology to blow up the original color films did not yet exist at the time besides not having fitted the panel left/right extensions and omissions anyway.}}
| rowspan="3" | '''The Blue Coats'''  (ComCat comics, July 1990, {{ISBN|0874160936}}; ''Moebius #6'', Graphitti Designs, 1990)
| Three chapters in one book. Chapter titles:
*"The Bluecoats"
*"Double Cross"
|-valign="top"
| rowspan="2" | 
*1 "Tonnerre sur la sierra" (''Super Pocket Pilote'', issue 1, Dargaud, 1968/07, 14 p.){{efn|name="color"}}
| rowspan="2" | ''one-shot'' ('''Lieutenant Blueberry''')
|
*"Thunder on the Sierra"
|-valign="top"
|
*"Blanco, king of the Prairie" (non-''Blueberry'' short, 4 p.)
|}
{{notelist}}

====Change of artist (I)====
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="Obviously, I could have never imaged that I would be drawing ''Blueberry'' one day. That is why I deliberated for so long when they asked me to do the ''Young''-series. I mean, what I am doing is so close to Giraud, that everybody will think me a mere Giraud-imitator. Especially the first few pages. I think, as we go along, we will build something that is recognizably different from what Giraud has done up until now. Both publisher Novedi and writer Jean-Michel Charlier told me that they want me to make the series my own as soon as possible. That is why it is such a challenge. I'm looking for my own way. That will be the greatest task for the first album".|salign=right|source=—Wilson, 1984, on taking on ''Young Blueberry''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Apeldoorn |first=Ger |date=1984 |title=Colin Wilson: De toekomst zal verschrikkelijk zijn |work=Striprofiel |issue=50 |pages=4–9  |publisher=Uitgeverij De Meulder |location=[[Assen]] |language=nl}}</ref>}}
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="Jean Giraud has scrutinized the first trial studies of Colin Wilson: he supervised most of his drawings. This artist is quite capable of doing the series, but he is somewhat paralyzed by the fame of ''Blueberry'' and the personality of Jean Giraud. Ultimately, the most evident part of my work with him was to prevent him constantly wondering how Giraud would have drawn such and such panel in his place. ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' will not replace the series by Jean Giraud, who is absolutely not tired of drawing it. Quite the contrary, it is constantly on his mind! Since he has more or less identified with Blueberry, he is less and less inclined to drop the series. For example, the temples of the hero have turned white at the same time as those of the artist".|salign=right|source=—Charlier, 1985, in ''France-Soir'', reassuring ''Blueberry'' fans.<ref name ="ratier285">[[#Sources|Ratier, 2013, p. 285]]</ref>}}
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="Colin Wilson helped me out with "Le bout de la piste". I was extremely backlogged; he helped me with the three last pages in particular. I carefully did the penciling and some of the faces (that of General Golden Mane for example) and all the Blueberrys in detail, and Colin did the rest. But this was a special case, a kind of favor from a friend. I like Colin and his wife Janet very much. That I reverted the task to him, was not laziness on my part, but rather a gesture of friendship; I wanted to demonstrate to him that he could draw ''Blueberry'' every-bit as good as I did".<br><br>"It is a good series, keeping ''Blueberry'' alive, but I'm otherwise not involved in the least. If Colin wants, I can assume the role of a mentor. I told Colin he should in no way feel tied down, he should take all the freedom he needs; it is his series now. We have never cooperated [''on Young Blueberry''], but when I introduced Colin to Charlier, it was already clear to me that he was good. He was as impressed with ''Blueberry'' as I was with ''Jerry Spring'', back in the day. He did not create Westerns then, but SF, yet you could already see his potential".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, 1988, on getting his protégé on his way as an established  ''Blueberry'' artist.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 127 & 163]]</ref>}}
After "Angel Face" was completed in 1974, Giraud took an extended leave of absence from ''Blueberry'', because he wanted further explore and develop his "Moebius" alter ego, the work he produced as such being published in ''Métal Hurlant'' magazine, in the process revolutionizing the Franco-Belgian world of ''bandes dessinées''.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.causeur.fr/pilote-goscinny-mai-68-31599.html |title= La BD fait sa révolution / Comics make their revolution |work= Causeur.fr |first= Thomas |last= Morales |date= February 22, 2015 |access-date= May 27, 2017 |language= fr |archive-date= May 9, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170509090656/http://www.causeur.fr/pilote-goscinny-mai-68-31599.html |url-status= live}}</ref> Having ended "Angel Face" on a cliffhanger, Giraud's return to ''Blueberry'' five years later with "Broken Nose" became a media event of considerable proportions and demand for ''Blueberry'' reached an all-time high. It was then that the creators decided to revisit the ''Young Blueberry'' adventures as well, which had ended its run in ''Super Pocket Pilote''. Giraud was nowhere near able to take on yet another major series himself, as he was still working on his ''Incal'' series as Moebius, besides having embarked on ''Blueberry'' again.<ref name ="ratier285"/>

There actually had been an additional, more prosaic reason as well for the decision to do so. After Giraud had finished "La dernière carte" he, having been very much invested throughout most of his adult life in [[New Age]] beliefs and practices (which included the use of mind-expanding substances<ref name="sadoul">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991]]; Giraud has never been shy about the subject of mind-expanding substances, frankly admitting their use in numerous interviews and discussing it in-depth in the Sadoul's book.</ref>), had already left for Tahiti to join the [[Intentional community|commune]] of mystic Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry, the latter had set up there. After a stay of nearly two years, Giraud moved to the United States in late 1984 and set up shop firstly in Santa Monica, and subsequently in Venice and Woodland Hills, California. It was in this era that his work was published by Marvel/Epic for the US market.<ref name="bdpa">[http://www.bdparadisio.com/scripts/detail.cfm?Id=296 "Jean Giraud: Bibliographie, Photo, Biographie"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080925123136/http://www.bdparadisio.com/scripts/detail.cfm?Id=296 |date=2008-09-25}}, BDparadiso.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Publisher Novedi feared, not entirely unjustified &ndash; as the release lag between two titles had already increased from eighteen months to three years &ndash; that it endangered the publication regularity of the main series, and resurrecting, or more accurately, creating the ''Young Blueberry'' series, was the back-up strategy they had in mind.<ref name="Svane, 2003, p. 45">[[#Sources|Svane, 2003]], p. 45</ref> Novedi had solid reasons to do so, as any new ''Blueberry'' title in that particular period of time enjoyed an (all-language) European first print run of 500.000 copies &ndash; thus discounting any later reprint run &ndash; for European standards a very respectable print run.<ref name="novedi"/><ref name="Telegraaf">{{cite news |last=Wilbrink |first=Felix |date=2 April 1982 |title=Tekenaar Jean Giraud "leed" onder zijn succes, maar... |work=[[De Telegraaf]] |publisher=[[Telegraaf Media Groep]] |location= [[Amsterdam]] | language=nl}}; in which it is stated that the Dutch first printing of "La tribu fantôme" numbered 30.000; at the time the rule of thumb was that Dutch-language first print runs numbered approximately 10%-20% of that of their French counterparts, reflecting to some extent the relative sizes of the French, and Dutch speaking European populaces. Furthermore, since Dutch first print releases traditionally number in the 5.000-15.000 range for the vast majority of comic titles &ndash; discounting those few blockbuster staples such as ''Asterix'' &ndash; it was also indicative of the immense popularity main series ''Blueberry'' enjoyed at that time.</ref>

Publisher and creators subsequently embarked on a search for a suitable artist to take on the task. It was then that fate intervened when Giraud, before his departure to Tahiti, discovered the work of the still unknown ex-pat [[Colin Wilson (comics)|Colin Wilson]] from New Zealand, who was publishing a science fiction comic series ''Dans l'Ombre du Soleil'' &ndash; for which Wilson did both the writing and the art &ndash; for the French ''Circus'' comic magazine, which featured the character "Raël" (also the first story title) that shared a stunning resemblance with Blueberry. Wilson was actually a huge Giraud fan himself and had modeled his "Raël" character after a Western hero he had created for the New Zealand fanzine ''Strips'', and who in turn was modeled after Blueberry. Ironically in hindsight, it were the original black & white ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' shorts that introduced Wilson to ''Blueberry'' as some ''Super Pilote Pocket'' issues had somehow found their to way to New Zealand, then a country without a comic tradition to speak of, according to Wilson. His admiration for Franco-Belgian ''bande dessinée'' artists, Giraud in particular, became in 1980 the driving force for Wilson to try his luck as such in Europe, aside from the fact that his native country did not afford any opportunities to become one professionally.<ref>[[#Sources|Ernst, 1987, pp. 8-11]]; [[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 49]]</ref> Wilson reiterated in 1986: "Those drawings of Giraud convinced me to leave New Zealand. If that's what European comics are like then I wanted to be a part of it".<ref>[[#Sources|''Collective'', 1986, p. 31]]</ref> It was comic artist [[François Corteggiani]] who brought Wilson to the attention of Giraud by sending him a few pages of the "Raël" comic, and who in turn brought them to the attention of his co-worker Charlier (or vice versa as sources are not in concordance with each other).<ref name="ernst">[[#Sources|Ernst, 1987, p.12]]</ref>

Unaware that his work was already brought to the attention of his idol and ''his'' co-worker, Corteggiani arranged Wilson's first face-to-face meeting with them in September 1983 in Paris. Wilson said: "To have a discussion with Giraud, what a chance! That's why I immediately said yes to François Corteggiani". Much to his own surprise, Wilson was almost immediately asked if he was interested to take on the new ''Young Blueberry'' series.<ref name="ernst"/> After having accepted, he developed a close and warm working relationship with Charlier, and the Wilson/{{ill|Janet Gale|fr|lt=Gale}} couple befriended both him and his wife Christine, with household visits back and forth. The Charlier couple not only helped their friends (neither of them French-speaking and staying on a tourist visa in Amsterdam at the time) to settle firstly in Brussels, Belgium, and subsequently in the [[Provence]], France,<ref name="Svane, 2003, p. 46">[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 46]]</ref> but with practical work details as well, as Wilson later recalled: "Janet and I were tremendously lucky, Charlier was in many respects something of a kind uncle to us. He did not make a fuss about anything. He really stuck out his neck for me by involving me, a virtually unknown young artist, in a success series. I know he could be tough as nails with publishers. We were fortunate though, that he negotiated on our behalf as well, and we profited very much from the deals he struck".<ref name="wilson">{{cite news|last=van Oudheusden|first=Peter|date=August–September 2006|title=Colin Wilson: Tekenaar tussen twee werelden|work=ZoZoLaLa |issue=149|pages=4–6 |publisher=Stichting Zet.El|location=[[Nijmegen]]|language=nl}}</ref> Wilson was signed for five albums.<ref name="lechat">{{cite news|last=Lechat|first=Jean-Louis|date=1985|title=Dossier Wilson: La deuxième jeunesse de Blueberry|work=TinTin|issue=23|pages=48–49|publisher=Le Lombard|location=Brussels|language=fr}}</ref> Corteggiani himself was yet to leave his mark on the ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' series later on. Wilson became the second, and last Charlier artist, after Giraud, whom the author provided with script pages in a timely fashion, once even receiving a page overnighted from Kuwait where the author then was on documentary assignment, just to keep his artist working.<ref name="Svane, 2003, p. 46"/>

After a short apprenticeship (during which he produced ''Blueberry'' study art) to fine tune his art style, already close to that of Giraud, in order to have it move even closer to that of Giraud, Wilson embarked with fervor on the project with his first outing "Les démons du Missouri" ("Missouri Demons"), which essentially became the rationale for the ''Young Blueberry'' adventures to become a spin-off series onto their own.<ref name="Svane, 2003, p. 45"/> Working seven days a week for ten to twelve hours, Wilson produced five to six pages a month, using a combination of pen and brush for the inks, just as his idol had done for his ''Jeunesse'' stories and which had become the inspiration for Wilson to abandon the [[Rotring]] technical utensils he had originally used in New-Zealand.<ref>[[#Sources|Ernst, 1987, pp. 8, 18]]</ref>

As it had in 1980 when Giraud was working on "La longue marche" with an assistant (see ''[[#Intermezzo: Marshal Blueberry|below]]''), rumors quickly abounded in the tight-knit ''bande dessinée'' community that Giraud intended to abandon ''Blueberry''. This time around however, and unlike 1980, the rumors found their way to the outside world, causing anxiety in the fan community. Despite the publisher's standing policy of releasing comics directly in album format, it was decided to have "Les démons du Missouri" pre-published in the newspaper ''[[France-Soir]]'', one of the largest newspapers in France at the time, in an effort to counteract the growing disquiet. A first for ''Blueberry'' insofar daily newspapers were concerned, black & white publication began at the start of 1985, with Wilson feeding the newspaper with half-pages as he went along. The first half-page was accompanied by an editorial from Charlier, in which he tried to allay the fears of the fans (see ''quotebox''). The format was for good measure repeated in 1987 with Wilson's second outing, "Terreur sur le Kansas" ("Terror over Kansas"), for the same newspaper, but abandoned afterwards when Wilson had become an established ''Blueberry'' artist himself. ''France-Soir'' saw two half-pages (1b and 2a) from "Terreur sur le Kansas" published that were not incorporated in the album, released later that year, for print technical reasons (see also ''[[#The Blueberry biography|The Blueberry biography]]'' in this regard).<ref>[http://www.jmcharlier.com/blueberry3.html#9 "Les Démons du Missourri - Terreur sur le Kansas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806232027/http://www.jmcharlier.com/blueberry3.html#9 |date=2019-08-06 }}, JMCharlier.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Despite the initial trepidations of fans, Wilson's ''Blueberry''s were favorably received, achieving print run numbers approximating those of the main series, as well as seeing translations in nearly as many languages, with English being the glaring one of the few exceptions as of 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/948_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry|title=''De jonge jaren van Blueberry''|website=stripINFO.be|language=nl|access-date=2017-06-26|archive-date=2023-04-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407143734/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/948_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Wilson has divulged that Novedi released the first album in a first French printing of 150.000 copies (Novedi had by then taken over the publication for France as well) and a Dutch first printing of 50.000 copies, a huge step up from the initial French only 12.000 copy release for the "Raël" album. The French edition sold out in a matter of weeks, and an additional 20.000 copies followed suit in a hurry.<ref>[[#Sources|Ernst, 1987, pp. 12, 18]]</ref> Compared to the main series, the first printing was conservative for the French edition and ample for the Dutch edition.<ref name="Telegraaf"/> It even had a positive side-effect on his science fiction series ''Dans l'Ombre du Soleil'', which saw a Dutch and German series translation after he had embarked on ''Blueberry'', with a Danish and English translation of "Raël" only to boot.<ref>[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/316_In_de_schaduw_van_de_zon "''In de schaduw van de zon''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731163104/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/316_In_de_schaduw_van_de_zon |date=2017-07-31 }}, stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Wilson though, had to abandon this series in 1989, having added two more titles, because ''Blueberry'' demanded all his attention and energy, aside from the fact that it was the more successful one by far, allowing the couple to move to the Provence.<ref name="wilson"/> It were not only the fans who were relieved, Wilson too had his trepidations alleviated when he met the fans face-to-face for the first time at several comic convention book signings after the release of the first album, grateful for their gracious reception and acceptance of his ''Blueberry'', even though most of them concurrently ''and'' emphatically expressed their relieve that Giraud would continue to be the artist for the main series.<ref>[[#Sources|Ernst, 1987, p. 18]]</ref>

While Wilson was working on "Terreur sur le Kansas", he was asked by Giraud, who had shortly returned to Europe, to finish up on "Le bout de la piste" as well, as he was pressed for time, preparing to leave for California where he just had set up shop. Wilson did part of the inking of "Le bout de la piste", while his girlfriend Janet Gale, who had followed him from New Zealand, took on the coloring. Giraud himself assigned her the task, being impressed by the work she had done on her fiancé's album. Gale was actually a relative novice, as she only started coloring on her fiancé's ''Dans l'Ombre du Soleil'' series, having been unable to find legitimate employment in Europe due to her visa status.<ref>[[#Sources|Ernst, 1987, pp 13-15]]</ref> She would continue to color all her future husband's ''Blueberry'' books, as well as several albums from other artists released by Novedi.<ref>[https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?auteur=317&sort=strip "Janet Gale"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911163321/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?auteur=317&sort=strip |date=2017-09-11 }}, stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}, includes other language editions.</ref> Giraud himself was from the moment Wilson took over the series no longer involved creatively, aside from occasionally giving his young colleague some advice, but did receive a "small inventor's fee" per title, as he himself had coined it.<ref name="Sadoul, 1991, p. 163" />

While several European countries (including outliers like Iceland and Turkey<ref>''NeoBlek'' magazine for Iceland, and ''[[Doğan Kardeş]]'' magazine for Turkey, though neither country has seen book publications as of 2017.</ref>) had, no post-original creators title &ndash; discounting the newspaper serialization of the first two Wilson titles &ndash; has seen serialized comic magazine pre-publication in France/French-Belgium itself, where the titles were instead directly released as books. By the time the 1990 "Le raid infernal" was released, virtually every other country had followed suit due to the demise of the serialized magazine format.<ref name="croa"/>

Like parent publisher Dargaud, publisher Novedi considered the ''Young Blueberry'' books part of the main series at first until 1990, before they were instituted as a separate spin-off series, mostly for the practical reason of wanting to avoid further pollution of release numbering and chronology. Dargaud's stance was adhered to in other European countries, among others in Spain where then regular ''Blueberry'' publisher [[:es:Editorial Grijalbo|Grijalbo/Ediciones Junior]] released their 1988-1996 ''Las aventuras del teniente Blueberry'' eight-volume integral collection, encompassing all hitherto released ''Blueberry'' albums, including those of Wilson.<ref>[https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?collectie=4637&sort=collectienr "''Las aventuras del teniente Blueberry''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730203657/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?collectie=4637&sort=collectienr |date=2017-07-30 }}, stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}</ref> Like Dargaud had to do for their previous ''Les géants du l'ouest'' collection, the Spanish had to separately negotiate licenses from Koralle and Novedi for their ''Blueberry'' releases, but unlike the Dargaud release, these publishers were dutifully mentioned as copyright holders in the colophons of the respective volumes. Wilson's "Terreur sur le Kansas" became the first album to be released as a separate ''La Jeunesse'' series title in 1987, as indicated on its back cover. It was therefore not Dargaud who took the initiative for the move, but rather Novedi, due to the fact that Dargaud had lost the publishing rights for new ''Blueberry'' titles, actually missing out on the first five, most successful, titles of the new series as explained. But Dargaud did adopt the format, once these rights had returned to them in late 1993.

Catalan Communications ''had'' planned to publish "Missouri Demons", "Terror over Kansas", and beyond in English as well, as additions to their ''Young Blueberry'' series in the "ComCat" line from 1991 onward (alongside Hermann's ''Comanche'' Western incidentally, another favorite of Wilson),<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jordan |first1=Gil |last2=Thompson |first2=Kim |author-link2=Kim Thompson |title=From Europe with Love: An Interview with Catalan's Outspoken Bernd Metz" & "Approaching Euro-Comics: A Comprehensive Guide to the Brave New World of European Graphic Albums |date=March 1989  |publisher=[[Fantagraphics Books]]|location=[[Westlake Village, California]] |work=Amazing Heroes |issue=160 |pages=22–52}}</ref> which was already indicated on the back covers of the three original ones published in 1989–1990. The former had in effect already received an ISBN. Publication came to naught, due to the near-concurrent, but otherwise coincidental, demises of both Novedi ''and'' Catalan Communications in early-1990 and mid-1991 respectively.

[[Jean-Michel Charlier]] and [[Colin Wilson (comics)|Colin Wilson]]
* 4: ''Les démons du Missouri'' (Novedi, 1985/09, {{ISBN|2803900262}})—'''Missouri Demons''' (ComCat comics, January 1991, {{ISBN|0874161096}}; canceled)<sup>[[#footnote 5|5]]</sup>
* 5: ''Terreur sur le Kansas'' (Novedi, 1987/10, {{ISBN|2803900467}})—'''Terror Over Kansas''' (ComCat comics, 1991, canceled)
* 6: ''Le raid infernal'' (Novedi, 1990/03, {{ISBN|2803900645}})

====Change of writer====
While Charlier's death in July 1989 did not cause succession problems for the main series as explained, it did not held true for the ''Jeunesse'' series as both Charlier's heir, Philippe Charlier, and the publisher considered Wilson too much of an inexperienced novice to take on the writing of a major series himself, or as he himself had later put it: "I doubt if "Raël" or "Mantell" accounted for anything at Dargaud [''sic'', Wilson meant Novedi] in this regard".<ref name="svane46">[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, pp. 46-48]]</ref> However, the search for a replacement for Charlier, turned out to be a rather tall order, as none of the established names in the Franco-Belgian comic world were found willing to fill the shoes of the legendary Charlier, whereas non-established names were rejected for pretty much the same reasons why Wilson was not considered as replacement. It was then, in order to break the gridlock, that Wilson suggested François Corteggiani as replacement, deeming it "logical", as he assumed Corteggiani to be an admirer of Charlier.<ref name="svane46"/> Corteggiani had been one of the lesser names in the Franco-Belgian comic world, having predominantly written a couple of short-lived humorous comic series and one realistic series, the heavily ''[[The Godfather (film series)|Godfather Trilogy]]'' inspired mafia saga ''De silence et de sang'' &ndash; which he had abandoned in 1986 after only two volumes, only to take it on again ten years later, piggybacking on his newfound notoriety as ''Blueberry'' writer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?auteur=141|title=François Corteggiani|website=stripINFO.be|language=nl|access-date=2017-07-30|archive-date=2017-07-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730150657/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?auteur=141|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Both critical and commercial success have always eluded Corteggiani, and by the time he was approached by Novedi and Philippe Charlier, he had suspended his own career as a ''bande dessinée'' artist, instead becoming a tenured script writer for the French Disney studios.<ref name="svane46"/> To his credit, Corteggiani refused at first, for the same reason his more established colleagues had already done previously, but eventually conceded on the insistence of Wilson.<ref name="svane46"/> Wilson had personal reasons to do so, as Corteggiani was a personal friend of the Wilson-couple, aside for the practical reason that he was living in the vicinity of the Wilson-couple at the time. When the non-French speaking Wilson couple first arrived in Europe, they met Corteggiani at the annual Italian [[Lucca Comics & Games]] festival. Corteggiani took a shining on the newcomers and took them under his wing. It was Corteggiani, using his vast Franco-Belgian comic world social network, who introduced Wilson to publisher Glénat, resulting in his first European comic series ''Dans l'Ombre du Soleil'', in the process negotiating on behalf of his friend. As already related, it was Corteggiani who, while keeping tabs on the work of his friend, introduced Wilson's work to the ''Blueberry'' creators.<ref>[[#Sources|Ernst, 1987, pp. 12-13]]</ref> Wilson reasoned that by suggesting Cortegianni for a major series, he could return the favor he had provided him a few years earlier, by getting his friend's ''bande dessinée'' career back on track. Actually, he and Wilson had already started their own ''Thunderhawks'' comic series before Charlier died,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/1150_Thunderhawks|title=''Thunderhawks''|website=stripINFO.be|language=nl|access-date=2017-07-30|archive-date=2017-07-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730151207/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/1150_Thunderhawks|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref> an aviation comic set shortly after the first world war in the American South-West, but which had to take a backseat due to the fact that the ''Blueberry'' series took precedence.<ref name="wilson"/>

Corteggiani's first order of business was to finish up on the script for "Le raid infernal" which was halfway completed by Charlier at the time of his death. This he did to the satisfaction of all parties involved, including Wilson,<ref name="svane46"/> and Corteggiani was retained as the ''Jeunesse'' writer ever since.

The publication of Wilson's fourth album "La poursuite impitoyable" in 1992 was surprisingly still under the Novedi imprint, over a year after the publishing house had ceased to exist. This can only be explained by the fact that Wilson was originally signed for five albums by Novedi,<ref name="lechat"/> and that the [[Receivership|official receivers]] of the defunct publisher wanted the revenues for the legal and financial finalization of the bankruptcy. The album therefore became a posthumous Novedi release. All legal issues were apparently resolved by the time of the publication of the fifth Wilson album, "Trois hommes pour Atlanta" one year later, as it was released by Novedi's successor Alpen Publishers, becoming the only ''Jeunesse'' title they were able to release, before they themselves lost publication rights to Dargaud in late 1993.

[[François Corteggiani]] and Colin Wilson
* 7: ''La poursuite impitoyable'' (Novedi, 1992/01, {{ISBN|2803900734}})
* 8: ''Trois hommes pour Atlanta'' (Alpen Publishers, 1993/06, {{OCLC|413528824}}, no first printing ISBN issued)
* 9: ''Le prix du sang'' (Dargaud, 1994/10, {{ISBN|2205042823}})

====''Emmet Walsh'' and the departure of Colin Wilson====
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="What started to irk me a lot was the cartoonish writing style - the brawls, the sleazebag comedians, the clichés, the never-ending out-of-the-blue coincidences, these unbelievable, unrealistic situations that were weaved more and more into the scenarios".|salign=right|source=—Wilson, 2000, expressing his growing displeasure over the Corteggiani scenarios.<ref name="Svane, 2003, p. 47">[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 47]]</ref>}}
Wilson came to regret his loyalty to his friend Corteggiani; while pleased with the scenarios for ''Le raid infernal'' and ''La poursuite impitoyable'', he became considerably less pleased with those following these two outings. The artist complained in a 2000 interview (quote box to the right) that Corteggiani's scenarios became increasingly juvenile and decreasingly serious. Wilson reacted by the rapidly declining quality of the scenarios by letting the quality of his artwork, which had been of such a high Giraud-like quality, slide for the two last albums he was yet to pencil by largely reverting to the less detailed loose art style he usually had been (and would be) employing for the American-Anglo comic industry. Even Giraud started to harbor doubts in the same series of interviews albeit in a far more veiled fashion, when he stated that he was " (...)not here to discuss Corteggiani's work" when asked about him,<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, pp. 35, 47]]</ref> though he was a little more outspoken five years later as evidenced in the quote box below.

After the 1994 album ''Le prix du sang'', Wilson had had enough and decided to create a more mature ''Young Blueberry'' story by himself. Taking his cue from Charlier's [[#The Blueberry biography|Blueberry biography]] where a single mention was made of Blueberry's [[post-traumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD), he was suffering from when he returned home after the war, Wilson decided to tell a mature, psychological story of how Blueberry contracted the condition during the war. Coined "Emmet Walsh", the story revolves around the so-named naive southern youth who dreams of heroism and glory and leaves his mother's homestead to join the Confederate forces. It was only five to six pages into the story that young Walsh meets up with Blueberry who takes him under his wing. During their time together both men are confronted with the true horrors of war and young Walsh meets a gruesome end ultimately, leaving a distraught Blueberry well on his way to his PTSD. Wilson, knowing full well that he still lacked the experience to write a scenario for a prime series like ''Young Blueberry'', sought out the advice of both the senior editors at Dargaud and his former mentor Giraud who by then ''had'' acquired the experience to write for a prime BD series. Wilson had a tough time convincing the Dargaud editors that knew what he was doing and what he was trying to achieve with his story. Dargaud though requested that Wilson adapted his story so that Blueberry already made an appearance from page one onward. Not wanting to spoil his chances to see his story published, Wilson gave in to their demands and even penciled the first four pages showing the by Dargaud requested adaptations.<ref>These four pages were published in the Swiss comics journal ''{{ill|Swof|fr}}'' and its German reference book derivative ''Zack-Dossier 1: Blueberry und der europäische Western-Comic'' &ndash; see ''[[#Sources|below]]'' for bibliographical details</ref> He refused to budge to Giraud's suggestions though, as they were so many and so drastic that the entire Emmet Walsh storyline vanished almost entirely into the background.<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 48]]</ref> Giraud however, had not the intention to belittle his younger colleague, but rather wanted to safeguard him from the confrontation he knew Wilson was headed straight into with both Dargaud and Philippe Charlier in particular.<ref Name="Bosser84">[[#Sources|Bosser, 2005, p. 84]]</ref> Dargaud had just reacquired the ''Blueberry'' copyrights after the very costly defection of the Giraud/Charlier creator team back in 1979, and Giraud was acutely aware &ndash; unlike Wilson as the defection had taken place long before his ''Blueberry'' engagement &ndash; how sensitive the matter of rebellious BD artists was to the publisher. Even more pertinent was the fact that Giraud knew that Philippe Charlier would never go along with the more mature, psychological story Wilson had written, as he as the guardian of his late father's artistic legacy, was of the firm conviction that any addition to his father's body of work should be fast-paced, light, commercially attractive, shallow adventure stories intended for a (male) adolescent readership only, completely unencumbered by mature themes (especially when it concerned something heavy-handed like PTSD), just as Charlier, Jr. believed his father had always intended.

The inevitable took place shortly thereafter when Corteggiani and Charlier Jr. were informed of Wilson's script by Dargaud. As Giraud had already suspected, Charlier Jr. was vehemently opposed and the reaction of Corteggiani was no less vicious. Considering the script a backstabbing betrayal from someone he had considered a friend, Corteggiani's friendship with the Wilson couple was terminated right there and then. Wilson on his part immediately terminated his participation on the second outing of the duo's ''Thunderhawks'' aviation series, work on which had just started up by Wilson.<ref>Cortegianni tried to continue the series afterwards with another, obscure and unsuccessful artist, to no avail however, as it failed commercially like as all his other non-''Blueberry'' series had.</ref> Now Wilson found himself faced with the dark side of the tight-knit Franco-Belgian ''bande dessinée'' community, the backstabbing backroom politics, discovering to his detriment that Charlier Jr. was very much unlike his father and most definitely not his friend &ndash; something that his former mentor Giraud had already discovered for himself in his very own specific case.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, pp. 222-224]]</ref> Both Corteggiani and Charlier Jr. immediately set to work in order to have Wilson &ndash; who still was a non-French speaker and therefore completely defenseless against the backroom machinations &ndash; entirely removed from the Franco-Belgian ''bande dessinée'' scene. Corteggiani in particular set to work with a vengeance as he not only used his Franco-Belgian BD social network (he had previously used to get Wilson his start in the industry) to make absolutely sure that Wilson would never again work in the Franco-Belgian BD industry, but also by already starting his search for a replacement while Wilson was still employed by Dargaud. The latter was only too happy to give in, and in 1996 Wilson was aggressively manipulated into departing on his own accord. As fully intended by Corteggiani, neither Wilson nor his fiancée (who freelanced as colorist for other Dargaud artists as well besides her fiancé, but who was also targeted by Corteggiani's wrath) were able to find work anywhere else in the industry afterwards, and were forced to leave the EU after Wilson's work permit had expired the following year. The Wilson couple did not return home to New Zealand however, but to Australia as that country did have a comics scene, contrary to their native country, albeit a small one, and it was from there that they were able to slowly rebuild his comics career.<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, pp. 50, 53]]</ref>

Wilson himself was in the years directly thereafter reluctant to delve too much into the details surrounding his departure, only speaking about it in more generic terms, such as, "(...)it is an immensely popular series, and as one of its creators is no longer among us, it has now become the purview of many other people who have a say in it. So it has become inevitable that series changes. I've played my part...and now it is in the hands of others. I think the readership should make up its mind for themselves", and "I think that nowadays the whole problem with the ''Blueberry'' realm is lying in the circumstance that several key persons are making rather dumb decisions. I at least do not wish to be part of it anymore..."<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, pp. 47, 50]]</ref> On one rare occasion in 2006 though, he did allow his true feelings and frustrations to show through when he stated, "Philippe Charlier was dead-set on making his mark on all series, editors came and went, it became too complicated. I started to pencil comics, because I was a fan, and only wanted to continue doing that, to tell stories without any kind of business hassles."<ref name="wilson"/> Former mentor Giraud actually came to substantiate Wilson's latter statement in 2015.<ref name="rev">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2023, pp. 222, 225]]; Having already vented his anger at Philippe Charlier for devaluating his idol Blanc-Dumont, it was virtually certain that Giraud must have been aware of the exploitative nature of the contract Blanc-Dumont had signed with Charlier Jr. and that it had been very much on his mind when making the remark. Giraud was also referring to Philippe Charlier's incessant hiring and ruthless firing revolving door policies of follow-up artists set to work on his father's aviation co-creations, ''Buck Danny'' and ''Tanguy  and Laverdure''. Giraud incidentally, had personal reasons for not using his veto prerogative; he had partaken in the 1968 artist's revolt at Dargaud, precisely because of the social insecurities their already precarious jobs did entail at the time, and which had bothered him to no end (see: "''[[Jean Giraud#Notes|Giraud on his part in the uprising at Pilote]]''"), in the process explaining his reluctance to rob Corteggiani of his livelihood &ndash; despite his severe misgivings about Corteggiani's scenario writing qualities.</ref>

Dargaud has never issued any kind of official proclamation on Wilson's departure, and when the next ''Young Blueberry'' installment was released in 1998 that was not penciled by Wilson, it came as an utter and complete surprise to the ''Blueberry'' fanbase and the rest of the outside world. What statements about Wilson's departure there were made thereafter, Dargaud had left entirely to the artists involved who were inclined to do so. Giraud had seemed to err on the side of caution by apparently siding with the new creator team, when he stated in 2005, "When Charlier died, we couldn't continue. He [Wilson] lacked the sharpness and speed to continue alone. He was gradually taken out of the loop by the publisher and the rights holders. I tried to help him, but in vain."<ref Name="Bosser84"/> The remarkable thing about Giraud's short statement is that it is riddled with half-truths: the later lack of sharpness and his attempts to help him are confirmed, the supposed soft-handed handling of Wilson's departure as well as his supposed lack of production speed are outright lies, besides the false impression he invoked by implying that he and Wilson formed a creative team on the series &ndash; as already stated, Giraud had no creative input whatsoever after the original stories he and Charlier had created in the 1960s. A comparison of the publication dates of Wilson's body of work above and those of his replacement below, learns that Wilson produced right on schedule, neither slower nor faster. Stronger still, it was his replacement who started to lag considerably from 2010 onward, not to mention Giraud with both his ''Marshal Blueberry'' series as well as his "Mister Blueberry" cycle, a circumstance that had not been lost on Wilson himself.<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 50]]</ref> The duplicitous Corteggiani himself spin-doctored Wilson's departure as the artist suffering from a severe bout of homesickness and was dying to return home, a lie he already told Wilson's successor in 1996,<ref name="dacier">{{cite web|last=Dacier|first=Marc|title=Michel Blanc-Dumont: "Je porte le western en moi."|url=https://www.actuabd.com/Michel-Blanc-Dumont-Je-porte-le-western-en-moi|work=actuabd.com|date=18 October 2014|language=fr|access-date=22 August 2022|archive-date=22 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822105757/https://www.actuabd.com/Michel-Blanc-Dumont-Je-porte-le-western-en-moi|url-status=live}}</ref> and one he would repeat at the very few comics conventions he attended directly after the release of the first non-Wilson ''Young Blueberry'' album.

In May 2020, Wilson divulged for the very first time, that he too had a signed "longest-living clause" contract with Jean-Michel Charlier. Wilson recounted with a certain sardonic measure of glee, how the discovery of his late father's copy of the contract among his papers left Philippe Charlier frothing at the mouth from anger. It went a long way explaining why Charlier Jr. was so fanatically determined to get rid of Wilson (a voluntary departure of Wilson would leave Charlier Jr. legally free to do whatever he pleased with the ''Young Blueberry'' series, such as attracting any new artist entirely subject to his bidding and with only the absolute bare minimum of legal entitlement &ndash; as eventually realized), but the latter also reiterated that he did not possess the stomach to engage in a long, drawn-out and undoubtedly bitter legal conflict, which explained his willingness to leave on his own accord, as already stated in earlier, above referenced interviews.<ref>{{YouTube|rlPaj_csRQQ|Colin Wilson interviewed - The 2000 AD Thrill-Cast Lockdown Tapes (May 12, 2020)}}; The "longest-living clause" contract was after Wilson's departure conveniently "disappeared" by Charlier Jr.</ref> Incidentally, Giraud and Wilson were the ''only'' two artists known with whom Jean-Michel Charlier had ever entered into such a legally binding arrangement, again underlining the special place the ''Blueberry'' series held in Charlier's body of work.

====Second change of artist====
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="He is an artist whose body of work I love for its lyric qualities. There is in his  BDs a real attention to detail and investment rarely equaled. ''Jonathan Cartland'' is a very ambitious graphic work, but ''Colby'' with [[Greg (cartoonist)|Greg]], is somewhat below his potential. On ''Blueberry'', I find him a little less invested, but it must be said that it is not really his series and the scripts don't possess the extraordinary quality of those of {{ill|Laurence Harlé|fr|lt=Harlé}} on ''Cartland''. Even I find weaknesses in the scripts of François Corteggiani, but is not my place to stick my nose in his work. And of the script writers under consideration at the time for ''Young Blueberry'', François was the better one".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, 2005, opining on the quality of ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' by Blanc-Dumont and Corteggiani.<ref name="bosser68"/>}}
The artist Corteggiani approached in 1996 turned out to be {{ill|Michel Blanc-Dumont|fr}}, the artist of one of the "Big Five" Franco-Belgian western BDs in the 1970s, the critically acclaimed ''Jonathan Cartland'' series.<ref name="bigfive"/> It was almost certain that Blanc-Dumont had been the only artist Corteggiani sought out as the latter was well aware of the fact that he was a favorite of both Giraud as well as of the late Charlier Sr., who had once stated, "Had I not coincidentally met Jean Giraud, I would have preferably started the long ''Blueberry'' saga with Michel Blanc-Dumont."<ref>{{cite book|last=Collective|title=''L'Universe de M Blanc-Dumont''|year=1984|publisher=Dargaud|location=Paris |pages=44|isbn=2205026801 |language=fr}}</ref> To his credit, Blanc-Dumont had no idea what was going on with the ''Young Blueberry'' series and could only rely on what Corteggiani cared to tell him, which was in a non-committal way informing him that there were "some differences of opinion" with Wilson and if Blanc-Dumont was interested to do ''Blueberry'' or "something else" with him. As Blanc-Dumont recalled, "He therefore made me a [generic] proposal, like all good scenario writers do." On that occasion Blanc-Dumont had to decline though, as he had to finish up on his aviation BD ''Colby'' he had created with Greg and the replacement BD for ''Cartland'' (in which he had been very much invested), he, to his immense regret, had to stop due to the illness and ultimate death in 2005 of his scenario writer Laurence Harlé, with whom he had a very close and warm working relationship.<ref name="svane53">[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 53]]</ref>

A few months later, in January 1997, Blanc-Dumont was again approached by both Philippe Charlier and Jean Giraud during breakfast in a hotel during the [[Angoulême International Comics Festival]], and this time he was asked straight up front if he wanted to take over the ''Young Blueberry'' series. Wilson had by then already left, so there was no danger of any potential guilt feelings on the part of Blanc-Dumont. "This series had already been taken over by Colin Wilson, who had delivered very good series outings, the scenarios having been taken over by François Corteggiani. I think it was François who first told me that Wilson wanted to quit to return to his country, New Zealand. And in Angoulême, Philippe Charlier and especially Jean Giraud went further by really asking me to resume the series. Giraud was so happy that I accepted that, when we took the train together to return to Paris, he had to tell me three stories of Blueberry during the trip, he was so overflowing with ideas. This was a great moment for me as well. And I took over ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' without stress, because I had nothing left to prove," Blanc-Dumont recalled.<ref name="dacier"/> As it turned out, this was one of the very rare occasions, arguably the only one, that Giraud and Charlier Jr. were of the same mind. As indicated in the quote box above, Giraud was a great admirer of Blanc-Dumont's ''Cartland'' art, and had actually already asked him a few years earlier to provide the art for the ''Blueberry 20 ans après'' ("''Blueberry, 20 years later''", the later coined ''[[#Sequel: Blueberry 1900|Blueberry 1900]]'' sequel) project he had in mind, a project Blanc-Dumont declined as he was finishing up on the last ''Cartland'' outing, ''and'' because he deemed Giraud's synopsis too ''Mœbiusienne'' for his tastes. Blanc-Dumont had one condition however, "I wished to create a Blanc-Dumont BD, come what may; a ''Blueberry'' that is clearly mine, despite the characteristics he had been given by those who had drawn him before, especially those he received from Jean and Charlier. It really had to become my ''Young Blueberry''."<ref name="svane53"/> Giraud's glee over the appointment of Blanc-Dumont as the new ''Young Blueberry'' artist, also served as a rationale for his lackluster support of his erstwhile protégé Colin Wilson.

After the (by Philippe Charlier desired variant) contracts were signed on 8 April 1997,<ref name="swof39">{{cite journal |last=Svane |first=Erik | date=May 1997 |title=GIR |journal={{ill|Swof|fr}} |volume= |issue=24 | location=[[Genève]] |page=39 | language=fr}}</ref> Blanc-Dumont committed himself to deliver four pages a month, stating, "If you have reached page 23, it becomes easier. After that you work in a far more relaxed manner."<ref name="svane53"/> The first Blanc-Dumont ''Young Blueberry'' album, "La solution Pinkerton" was released in November 1998, four years after the publication of the last Wilson album, without any serialized magazine pre-publication. Blanc-Dumont's wife, {{ill|Claudine Blanc-Dumont|fr|lt=Claudine}}, who had since their betrothal been the colorist on all her husband's work (including ''Cartland'' and ''Colby''), was retained as such for his new commission. Claudine incidentally, had already been given the assignment by Dargaud to replace Claude Poppé's original coloring of the first four ''Blueberry'' albums for their 1993/94 reprint run and beyond &ndash; though the original coloring was restored for the 2012 commemorative omnibus collection.<ref>Nothing is known about Claude Poppé, as he was in the 1960s an anonymous studio colorist employed by Dargaud. Giraud took over the coloring himself from the fifth story onward for the next decade, with the exception of The Lost Dutchman's Mine diptych, which was done by {{ill|Évelyne Tranlé|fr}}, the sister of his lifelong friend [[Jean-Claude Mézières]]. That the name of the original ''Blueberry'' colorist is even saved for posterity at all, is solely due to an almost throwaway remark Giraud made in the [[#Sources|first edition of Numa Sadoul's biography]]; it was only from the mid-1980s onward that colorists started to receive credit for their work in the BD industry.</ref>

As touched upon above, the fanbase and outside world were entirely unaware that an artist change had even been in the making, due to Dargaud's complete information black-out, and therefore completely taken aback after the four-year series suspension by the unexpected publication of the first Blanc-Dumont album. While the first Blanc-Dumont outing did reasonably well, because it was a ''Blueberry'' installment after all, fans were not quite sure of what to make of it for two reason; firstly the scenario quality that kept declining, and secondly, Blanc-Dumont's artwork itself. Fans could not get used (nor would they ever be, as it turned out) to the somewhat static, almost wooden art style, which worked perfectly for his baroque, psychological and subdued ''Cartland'' BD, but considerably less so for a dynamic, action driven BD like ''Blueberry'' &ndash; nor had it ever done so for his own ''Colby'' action BD for that matter, and which was therefore canceled by Dargaud after only three series outings as a commercial failure, though it did leave an entirely unencumbered Blanc-Dumont completely free to accept the ''Young Blueberry'' commission. Foreboding signs on the wall though, became already apparent a couple of years later, painfully so, when Dargaud found itself confronted with ever declining printing numbers for subsequent volumes, as specified hereafter, and the fact that from the very start far fewer foreign publishers were found willing to pick up the Blanc-Dumont version of the series for their territories.

Despite his lack of public support for his erstwhile protégé Wilson, Giraud actually turned out to be in agreement with the latter's critical assessment of Corteggiani's scenarios. Sensing the disquiet among ''Blueberry'' fans, but ''also'' driven by his desire to get his idol Blanc-Dumont as good a start as humanly possible, Giraud had already in 1997 expressed his interest to take on a more active role in the scenario writing by stating that young Blueberry "would continue to traverse through the war on his merry way, but by taking the realities and the sufferings that war entailed a little bit more seriously." Additionally, he came up with an idea to mitigate the negative effects Cortegianni's increasingly juvenile scenarios had on the ''Blueberry''-brand by having Blueberry integrated in a more mature manner into the ''Jim Cutlass'' series (created in 1979 by the original ''Blueberry'' creators and started up again by Giraud in 1991). "After the Civil War," Giraud clarified in 1997, "we find Blueberry back in a deplorable state; he's wounded, has lost his memory, and it is Cutlass who will help him to regain it. But that's not a blessing at all, because the reason he has amnesia is that he was responsible for a mistake that cost the lives of many people. The story is so crazy that the reporter it is related to, foregoes on publishing it out of fear that no one will believe him."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Svane |first=Erik | date=May 1997 |title=Mike Steve Blueberry |journal={{ill|Swof|fr}} |volume= |issue=24 | location=[[Genève]] |page=49 | language=fr}}</ref> Philippe Charlier however, immediately exercised his veto right to torpedo both Giraud suggestions, rather unsurprisingly actually, as they were in effect indirect, veiled endorsements of the ideas Wilson had put forward in his rejected ''Emmet Walsh'' scenario. Charlier Jr.'s obstinacy irked Giraud to no end, and he stated in a later interview, "If I were doing it, I'd give it more energy, give it some structure: develop an arc, and end it. And have a very dramatic climax that shows why, after the Civil War, Blueberry heads out west again, broken down, limping, why he's so unhappy...Someday, I'll have to reveal that secret!"<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2023, p. 226]]</ref> Giraud actually acted upon this impulse to an extent, by incorporating flashback scenes in the "OK Corral" cycle (later collected in the 2007 stand-alone album "Apaches"), where a bed-ridden Blueberry tells a reporter the story of how he arrived at his first Far West posting directly after the war, completely ravaged by PTSD.

Shortly before his death in March 2012, after having pussyfooted around the subject matter for years, the gloves came finally off when Giraud came with both barrels after the two men he held personally responsible for the devaluation of the ''Blueberry''-brand in the below referenced 2015 Sadoul biography. He blasted Phillipe Charlier in particular for dumbing down the ''Young Blueberry'' series by his incessant insistence on commercial infantile shallowness, thereby becoming the prime responsible agent for turning ''Young Blueberry'' into a "ridiculous" series, conceding that he "was shocked, even, by how lightly he [Corteggiani] took certain scenes", which he considered an affront to the American Civil War itself and its victims, having in his eyes been reduced to a disrespectful joke and banality. The second sin, equally heinous as far as he was concerned, Giraud had squarely laid at the feet of both Charlier Jr. and Corteggiani was the fact that he was deeply pained to see a BD artist of Blanc-Dumont's stature being "forced to pick up a spinoff", after coming from his own major series [''Cartland''] and being reduced to take on "a sequel to something that wasn't even his own!",<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2023, pp. 225-226]]; When Giraud died in March 2012, Blanc-Dumont and his wife were in attendance at the funeral service as honored invited guests, but the uninvited and unwelcome Corteggiani and Charlier families were not.</ref> which was in effect very similar to the fate that had befallen Giraud's old mentor Jijé in the end at the hand of Charlier Sr.<ref name="annie"/>

Giraud's ''Young Blueberry'' author rights incidentally, extended beyond merely collecting the aforementioned "small inventor's fee", as it turned out that he too was entitled to exercise veto rights.<ref name="swof39"/> Giraud however, had never chosen to exercise these rights, despite his displeasure over the quality of the ''Young Blueberry'' series. His reasons for this was that he did not want to be the one, responsible for "artists and scenario writers" becoming unable "to feed themselves" &ndash; meaning Blanc-Dumont in particular unsurprisingly, but surprisingly the in Giraud's view deeply flawed Corteggiani as well &ndash; , adding sardonically that Philippe Charlier had no such qualms whatsoever and that the latter "disgusted" him by his ruthless haste to "coolly" rake in the royalties as quickly as he was able to without exhibiting any other consideration beyond that.<ref name="rev"/>

François Corteggiani and [[Michel Blanc-Dumont]]
:''note: the last figures specified between the parentheses denote the first Francophone print-run of each individual volume, where known.''<ref name="oplages">{{Cite web|title=Stripjaarrapport 2015: lichte daling|url=http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/StripFacts-1601.php#Stripjaarrapport|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305162222/http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/StripFacts-1601.php#Stripjaarrapport |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}} & {{Cite web |title=Franse oplages |website=Stripspeciaalzaak.be| url=http://stripspeciaalzaak.be/beelden/StripFacts-2016/Franse-oplages.jpg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213181147/http://stripspeciaalzaak.be/beelden/StripFacts-2016/Franse-oplages.jpg |archive-date=13 February 2016 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=nl}}</ref>
* 10: ''La solution Pinkerton'' (Dargaud, 1998/11, {{ISBN|2205045180}})
* 11: ''La piste des maudits'' (Dargaud, 2000/01, {{ISBN|2205048511}})
* 12: ''Dernier train pour Washington'' (Dargaud, 2001/11, {{ISBN|2205051741}}, 100,000)
* 13: ''Il faut tuer Lincoln'' (Dargaud, 2003/05, {{ISBN|2205052012}}, 100,000)
* 14: ''Le boucher de Cincinnati'' (Dargaud, 2005/09, {{ISBN|2205053744}}, 90,000)
* 15: ''La sirene de Vera-Cruz'' (Dargaud, 2006/10 {{ISBN|2205055267}}, 80,000)
* 16: ''100 dollars pour mourir'' (Dargaud, 2007/09, {{ISBN|9782205056594}}, 60,000)
* 17: ''Le Sentier des larmes'' (Dargaud, 2008/11, {{ISBN|9782205058444}}, 66,000)
* 18: ''1276 âmes'' (Dargaud, 2009/09, {{ISBN|9782205061444}}, 55,000)
* 19: ''Redemption'' (Dargaud, 2010/09, {{ISBN|9782205063226}}, 55,000)
* 20: ''Gettysburg'' (Dargaud, 2012/05, {{ISBN|9782205066548}}, 45,000)
* 21: ''Le convoi des bannis'' (Dargaud, 2015/12, {{ISBN|9782205067781}}, 40,000)
As already observed by Wilson, the quality of Corteggiani's scenarios kept falling steadily over the years to the point that Swiss BD reporter Erik Svane felt already in 2003 compelled during an interview with the disgraced artist to let slip that "Corteggiani's scenarios can not hold a candle to those of Charlier", in essence giving voice to what the vast majority of the Blueberry fanbase was already starting to feel by then.<ref name="Svane, 2003, p. 47"/> A salient detail was, that François Corteggiani had all but disappeared from the public eye by that time; had he still made some rare BD festival appearances at the debut of ''La solution Pinkerton'' in 1998–1999, no public appearances and less than half a dozen of very short publicized non-Blueberry related interviews were known since then. By February 2015, criticism of his ''Blueberry'' writings had apparently reached to the point at which Corteggiani even felt compelled to take his personal web-blog offline. Tellingly, Corteggiani had never discussed ''Young Blueberry'' even once on his mere five-year old blog.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le blog de François Corteggiani | url=http://www.francois-corteggiani.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218021534/http://www.francois-corteggiani.com/ |archive-date=18 February 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=fr}}</ref> His complete absence from the 2003 German ''[[#Sources|Zack-Dossier 1: Blueberry und der europäische Western-Comic]]'' reference book (where the long dead Jean-Michel Charlier was extensively covered by archival interviews), was equally telling and conspicuous in this respect.

====Translations====
No formal post-original creators editions have seen the day of light in the English language as of 2016<sup>[[#footnote 5|5]]</sup>, but, like the source series, the ''Young Blueberry'' spin-off series did see translations in numerous languages, the three titles by the original creators and the Wilson outings specifically, but appreciatively less so for the subsequent releases. The latter is amply exemplified by the Corteggiani/Blanc-Dumont versions, which are not that favorably received &ndash; unlike the Wilson versions, whose first three outings were notably well received, in no small part due to the fact that they were still being written by co-creator Charlier &ndash; as indicated by its steadily diminishing popularity; had volume 12 still seen a French-language first-print run of 100.000 copies in 2001, by 2015 that number had dwindled to 40.000 (which is approaching the cut-off point for a standard Francophone BD album being economically viable to become published) when volume 21 was released,<ref name="oplages"/> aside from the fact that several publishers had foregone the publication of these book titles in their countries altogether.

As of 2019, the spin-off series by Corteggiani and Blanc-Dumont remains only published in French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish and Italian,<ref>{{Cite web|title=''De jonge jaren van Blueberry'' 21: Het konvooi van de ballingen|website=stripINFO.be|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/274497_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry_21_Het_konvooi_van_de_ballingen|language=nl|access-date=2019-10-03|archive-date=2019-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731200438/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/274497_De_jonge_jaren_van_Blueberry_21_Het_konvooi_van_de_ballingen|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref> a far cry from the nearly two dozen languages the main series had once been published in, or the by Colin Wilson penciled ''Young Blueberry'' volumes for that matter. Additionally, most non-French editions only enjoyed a print-run of no more than 5.000 copies. Worse still, in Croatia and Finland the Blanc-Dumont series only saw a partial one-time-only release before becoming canceled altogether, while Denmark and the Netherlands did not see any reprint-runs after their initial, small first printings, which is again a far cry from the main, and Wilson series. Ironically, that has made some sold out volumes expensive collectibles in these countries. The Germans and Norwegians (the latter likewise only seeing three individual Blanc-Dumont volumes released, though they added three more volumes into their Egmont omnibus collection version, before quitting the collection in 2010) were fortunate in this regard as those countries saw reprints as part of their 2006 aforementioned Egmont omnibus collections (the Danes had not even bothered to include the Blanc-Dumont series into their version of the Egmont omnibus collection, though they had been very keen to have the Wilson series version included);<ref name="egmont"/> whereas the Spaniards enjoyed a reprint run in their 2017/19 "Edición Coleccionista" by Altaya, and the Italians two, in their 2014/16 "Collana Western" and 2022/23 "Collana Blueberry" releases, both published by [[RCS MediaGroup]].<ref name="westernIT"/><ref name="blueberryIT"/> The only countries known to have seen magazine (pre-)publications of Blanc-Dumont episodes were Italy, in the weekly magazine ''[[Skorpio (magazine)|Skorpio]]'' during 2014,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zona-bede.blogspot.com/2015/02/la-giovinezza-di-blueberry-le-ultime.html?m=1|title=La giovinezza di Blueberry, le ultime storie|date=25 February 2015|work=ZonaBédé|language=it|access-date=18 April 2023|archive-date=18 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418092736/http://zona-bede.blogspot.com/2015/02/la-giovinezza-di-blueberry-le-ultime.html?m=1|url-status=live}}; It were volumes 14-20 that were serialized in ''Skorpio'' magazine in 2014 &ndash; after their earlier Italian-language album publications.</ref> and Serbia, which saw a partial series publication between 2015 and 2018 in their monthly ''{{ill|Stripoteka|sr}}'' comic magazine.<ref>The ''Stripotekea'' issues concerned numbers 1126 (volume 10, 2015/06), 1130 (volume 11, 2015/10), 1135 (volume 12, 2016/03), 1144 (volume 13, 2016/12), and 1166 (volume 14, 2018/10), where the Blanc-Dumont versions were published in their entirety albeit in back and white only.</ref> Local publishers in Serbia waived the release into a bonafide album format though.

====Coda====
In the same year Giraud died, Blanc-Dumont's wife and life-long colorist Claudine also died. Being also confronted with the fast dwindling popularity, continued criticism of his ''Young Blueberry'' version, and the potential growing realization that contracts signed with Philippe Charlier were not that advantageous for him, Blanc-Dumont appeared to have lost all motivation and interest in further creating ''bande dessinées''. For the longest of times it looked like the conclusion of the intended two-volume ''Le convoi des bannis'' story would never see the day of light, made even more unlikely by the death of Corteggiani on 21 September 2022. Still, Blanc-Dumont had been working on the conclusion, albeit at a very slow pace. He posted a first update on his "L'univers de Michel Blanc-Dumont" Facebook page on 25 July 2016, which he followed up with eight short Facebook postings of partial page preview teasers over the 2016-18 time period to demonstrate that the concluding "L'antre du serpent" ("The lair of the serpent") volume had remained in the works all this time. The last of the page preview teasers (p. 37, usually with only nine more pages to go) was posted on 22 November 1918, with Blanc-Dumonts optimistically expecting the albums release to occur in the spring of 2019. This did not come to pass however, and six years later Blanc-Dumont came forward in June 2024 with the revised announcement that he now expected the album to be released in "early 2025". However, he concurrently announced that volume 22 would also be his very last ''Young Blueberry'',<ref name="blu25">{{cite web|url=https://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/stripnieuws/tweemaal-afscheid-van-blueberry-2025|title=Tweemaal afscheid van Blueberry in 2025|website=StripSpeciaalZaak.be|date=2024-10-09|access-date=2024-10-13|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241109074316/https://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/stripnieuws/tweemaal-afscheid-van-blueberry-2025|archive-date=November 9, 2024|language=nl}}</ref> which almost certainly will also mean the definitive end of the ''(Young) Blueberry'' series as Giraud heir Isabelle inherited the right &ndash; shared equally with Philippe Charlier &ndash; to block the appointment of any and all new, third artist, a right which she, contrary to her late husband, has continued to exercise to this day, the [[#Sfar and Blain|below mentioned one-shot]] excepted.

In a sense, it was the maligned Colin Wilson who came out on top in the end. Not only have his ''Young Blueberry'' albums retained their popularity among fans, particularly the ones written by Charlier (a first-time Polish release of all his ''Blueberry'' work in one omnibus collection was published as recent as 2022<ref>{{cite web |title=Młodość Blueberry'ego #2 |url=https://polter.pl/komiks/Mlodosc-Blueberry-ego-2-n52949 |work=KomiksPolter.pl |language=pl |access-date=2022-08-26 |archive-date=2022-08-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826120441/https://polter.pl/komiks/Mlodosc-Blueberry-ego-2-n52949 |url-status=live }}</ref>), he has also managed to rebuild his comics career. Firstly in the US and subsequently in the UK and Italy (where he penciled a successful outing in the Italian ''[[Tex Willer]]'' series, another legendary European western comic<ref>{{Cite web|title=De laatste rebel|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/232918_Tex_Willer_Classics_Hum_1_De_laatste_rebel|work=stripinfo.be|language=nl|access-date=2022-08-21|archive-date=2022-08-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220821231232/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/232918_Tex_Willer_Classics_Hum_1_De_laatste_rebel|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref>), before coming full circle with a triumphant return on the Franco-Belgian ''bande dessineé'' scene which was topped of by a successful latter-day neo-western mini-series set in the 1920s, thereby completely thwarting the original intent of his erstwhile friend Corteggiani, who himself was rapidly fading into oblivion after 2015. That 2019–2021 series, ''Nevada'', saw a partial return to the detailed meticulous art style Wilson had employed for his ''Young Blueberry'' work.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Nevada'' (Wilson)|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/40401_Nevada_Wilson|work=stripinfo.be|language=nl|access-date=2022-08-21|archive-date=2022-08-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220821231134/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/40401_Nevada_Wilson|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Furthermore, when Wilson started to tour the comic-con and BD festival circuit again in the late-2000s, he quickly found out that the art he created for fans at album/comic book signing sessions (called "dédicases" in French) was in high demand and that of ''Blueberry'' in particular, especially when created in his best possible meticulously detailed Giraud-like dynamic art style which had made his ''Young Blueberry'' so popular with fans to begin with. Wilson continued to do so ever since right up until the present day,<ref>{{cite web|title=Paw, paw, paw - Dedicaces and illustrations|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/46397_Paw_paw_paw__Dedicaces_and_illustrations|work=stripinfo.be|language=nl|access-date=2022-08-21|archive-date=2023-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405112757/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/46397_Paw_paw_paw__Dedicaces_and_illustrations|url-status=live}}; {{cite web|title=Commissions|url=https://colinwilsonbd.com/commisssions|work=colinwilsonbd.com|access-date=2022-08-21|archive-date=2023-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331225808/https://colinwilsonbd.com/commisssions/|url-status=live}}</ref> and has during signing sessions confided to sympathetic BD album store owners that the ''Blueberry'' art he creates on commission basis alone is currently already enough to earn him a decent living. As with the not-for-regular-publication ''Blueberry'' art his former mentor Giraud had created on personal title and for his own Moebius Production company, the quite prolific ''Young Blueberry'' art Wilson has made since then in like fashion,<ref>{{cite web|title=New Colin Wilson Artwork|url=https://www.comicartfans.com/comic-artists/Colin_Wilson.asp?m=newart|work=ComicArtFans.com|access-date=2022-09-18|archive-date=2023-11-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111201301/https://www.comicartfans.com/comic-artists/Colin_Wilson.asp?m=newart|url-status=live}}</ref> remains well outside the legal purview of Dargaud &ndash; which is clearly regulated in EU copyright law, where, contrary to the US, it is stipulated that the rights of artists are prevalent over those of publishers. Blanc-Dumont's similar art on the other hand, is shunned by ''Blueberry'' fans as a cursory glance on [[eBay]] (France) teaches the observer; owners of such art find that they can not even give away their possessions &ndash; though typically, this has not applied to his ''Cartland'' art, which has remained current to an extent.