Editing Blueberry (comics) (section)

====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}})