Editing Blueberry (comics) (section)

===Sequel: ''Blueberry 1900''===
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="After the first three volumes [of ''Marshal Blueberry''], I've a scenario ready for Michel-Blanc Dumont. Curiously, it resembles several outings of his ''Jonathan Cartland'' series, because it has indians, a magical aspect, is dreamlike with a main character who is truly down on his luck. My mind is in a certain way fully taken up with the scenario and the theme of the first album as I've structured the story much like a cinematographic adaptation with more modern, more contemporary, pessimistic concepts by introducing the dreamlike aspects associated with the magic of the Indians".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, on the original series concept he came up with in 1993.<ref name="Ledoux, 1993, p. 26"/>}}
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="In it, Blueberry is 57 years old, the same age I am now, and he lives with the Hopi Indians. It is a kind of a merging between Moebius and Giraud, as it concerns a story about sorcerers and [[sjaman]]s, quite out of this world".<br /><br />"The story involves the assassination attempt on President McKinley. Neither Jimmy McClure nor Red Neck will appear in it. Additionally, I had the following for ''Blueberry 1900'' in mind: President McKinley is lying in a coma and starts to levitate. Subsequently, they tie him to the bed so he does not float off, but then the whole bed starts to levitate. So now they have to nail down the whole bed. ''Blueberry 1900'' &ndash; it has its origins in a smart dream, I have dreamt in the [[Pyrenees]] in 1981".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, on his thoughts and intents for ''Blueberry 1900'' in several comments made for contemporary magazine interviews.<ref>[[#Sources|Förster, Svane, 2003, pp. 12, 35]]</ref>}}
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="Philippe Charlier, son of Jean-Michel, was opposed because he guards over the consistency of the series. The ''Blueberry 1900'' scenario was indeed very free and quite transgressive compared to the original depiction of Mike, even more pronounced so than the evolution of Jim Cutlass in his relationship to magic. I could not start this series anyway, as long as the ''Marshal Blueberry'' trilogy had not yet come to a conclusion. This would have caused too much confusion in the mind of the reader. François Boucq therefore could only start drawing after Vance had finished the third volume of ''Marshal''...which he never did! In the meantime, Alexandro offered him ''Bouncer'', which he naturally accepted. Of course, ''Blueberry 1900'' would have been pretty good, but ''Bouncer'' is so great that it would have been unbearable for me to have prevented such a series seeing the day of light. Even so, my frustration with my own scenario became total, forcing me to rework and update it, no doubt improving it as I go along, and I in particular will have to decide on how to proceed".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, 2008, in a public reaction on ''Blueberry 1900'' not coming to fruition.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.actuabd.com/Jean-Giraud-Moebius-3-3-Je-veux-continuer-Blueberry#nb3 | title=Jean Giraud – Moebius (2/3): "A mon âge, le dessin est une lutte à mort contre la déliquescence et la déconstruction" | work=Actuabd.com | first=Charles-Louis | last=Detournay | date=8 September 2008 | access-date=7 July 2017 | language=fr | archive-date=16 May 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516171646/http://www.actuabd.com/Jean-Giraud-Moebius-3-3-Je-veux-continuer-Blueberry#nb3 | url-status=live }}</ref>}}
A third spin-off series, coined '''''Blueberry 1900''''', was conceived by original creator Giraud in as early as 1993, intended as a bonafide sequel series. Set, as the series title already implied, in the era of the [[William McKinley]] presidency, it would not only have featured a 57-year old Blueberry, but his adult son as well, albeit in a minor role. The story line, intended to encompass five albums, was to take place around events surrounding the assassination of President McKinley. Pegged for the artwork was French BD artist [[François Boucq]] whom Giraud had met at a BD event in honor of his lifelong friend [[Jean-Claude Mézières]], and concurrently discussed the project with. Actually, Giraud had previously approached Michel Blanc-Dumont, whose "lyric" art work for ''Jonathan Cartland'' he adored, for the project in 1993, then still tentatively called ''Blueberry 20 ans après'' (''Blueberry, 20 years later''). Blanc-Dumont, despite being reciprocally an admirer of Giraud's art and aside from being still invested in his own Western BD, thought the project not suitable for him, deeming the script outline too ''Mœbiusienne'' for his taste, and had already suggested Boucq instead.<ref name="svane53"/> Boucq showed interest and was enthusiastic about the project, and indeed embarked on the production of pre-publication art studies, but deemed a cycle of five albums too much, managing to negotiate it down to a cycle of three albums.<ref name="boucq">{{cite news |last=Vidal |first=Jean-Marc |title=Jodo tire le premier" & "Boucq-berry |date=November 1999 |publisher=LZ Publications|location=Paris |work=BoDoï |issue=24 |pages=36–37 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Onvoltooid project: ''Blueberry 1900'' door François Boucq en Jean Giraud |date=8 March 2016 |website=Stripspeciaalzaak.be |url=http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Weetje-vd-Week/Weetje-vd-Week-126-150.htm#Weetje138 |access-date=10 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412032506/http://stripspeciaalzaak.be/Weetje-vd-Week/Weetje-vd-Week-126-150.htm#Weetje138 |archive-date=12 April 2016 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=nl }}; {{Cite web |title= Blueberry 1900 |website= ComicWiki.dk |url= https://comicwiki.dk/wiki/Blueberry#Blueberry_1900 |language= da |access-date= 2021-09-10 |archive-date= 2017-09-29 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170929231310/https://comicwiki.dk/wiki/Blueberry#Blueberry_1900 |url-status= live }}</ref>

However, Philippe Charlier, son of the late Jean-Michel Charlier and proprietor of "JMC Aventures" &ndash; the foundation and legal copyright owner, set up back in 1990 with the specific intent to safeguard the creative integrity and legacy of his father, both in a spiritual as well as a commercial sense, but which had become dormant after the failed experiment at Alpen Publishers<ref name="Giger"/> &ndash; was nowhere near as enthusiastic as Boucq was. He became increasingly alarmed and downright aghast when reading commentaries, Giraud made in contemporary magazine interviews, clarifying his intentions and premises for the proposed series of a Blueberry residing with the [[Hopi]] tribe, meditating under the influence of mind-expanding substances,<ref name="sadoul"/> while President McKinley was levitating in the [[White House]] due to a Hopi spell. As heir and steward of his father's co-creations and legacy, being the 50% co-owner of the ''Blueberry'' brand, he still had the unequivocal right to veto any and all proposals regarding the trademark ''Blueberry'' and did not hesitate for a moment to exercise his prerogative in this case, going as far as threatening Giraud with a lawsuit, resulting in that the project fell through. As per a horrified Charlier Jr. in a contemporary statement: "The script is unbelievably horrifying. It is an effrontery, constructed out of implausible circumstances. Like in the new [''OK Corral''] story cycle, we find a totally passive Blueberry, only meditating, while the president, enchanted by Indians, is levitating in the White House".<ref name="fueri"/> As he indicated, though he had given his seal of approval in this case, Charlier Jr., also became wary and disapproving of Giraud depicting the former lieutenant as a passive loafer in the ''OK Corral'' story arc, only aggravated from his point of view by the fact that Giraud could not refrain himself from including some elements from Native-American mysticism in "OK Corral" and "Dust" &ndash; though not anywhere near as extensive as he had apparently intended for ''Blueberry 1900''.<ref name="jurg">[[#Sources|Jürgeit, 2003, p. 12]]</ref>

Philippe Charlier, conservative by nature like his father, had, unlike his father,<ref name="bree41"/> no patience whatsoever with Giraud's "New Age" predilections (also serving as an additional rationale for his decision to proceed with Alpen Publishers back in 1990, instead of Les Humanoïdes Associés, renowned for its catalog of more adult, "esoteric" BDs, like those of Boucq and [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]), particularly for his admitted fondness for mind-expanding substances. It was he (after his father's death), who testified in a [[Deposition (law)|deposition]], that his father had always "detested" Giraud's work as "Mœbius" and that he considered that work as "treason",<ref name="flip"/> after which Giraud &ndash; known for his lifelong aversion to any kind of legal proceedings<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 24-25]]; It were Giraud's spouses, first wife Claudine and second wife Isabelle, who usually looked after the business aspects of his work.</ref> &ndash; backed down. While Philippe was unable to stop the ''OK Corral'' cycle, because of the "longest living survivor" main series covenant Giraud and Charlier Sr. had signed, he was legally able to stop Giraud in his tracks for ''Blueberry 1900'' because it had never been presented by Giraud as a ''main series'' effort, but rather as a '''brand''' expansion (notice the legal difference), and on this Charlier Jr. had veto rights.<sup>[[#footnote 14|14]]</sup> Reinforced by the for him favorable court ruling, Charlier Jr. was therefore subsequently able to veto Giraud's 1999 scenario outline for a ''Fort Mescalero'' movie, which was to feature Blueberry in extensive substance-induced hallucinatory scenes, besides Giraud's intention to have the ''Jim Cutlass'' series merge with the ''Blueberry'' main series, due to the fact that later volumes of that series also increasingly incorporated likewise scenes, arguing that such a merging would indeed constitute another brand extension.<ref name="fueri"/><ref name="stripspeciaalzaak.be"/>

How far Giraud actually already was in his thinking was exemplified by the inclusion of his art featuring Blueberry with Hopi tribesmen, endowed with the caption "In Hopi Towns",<ref>Actually, after a historical photograph ([http://blueberrybr.blogspot.nl/2013/06/inspiracoes-de-charlier-e-de-giraud.html blueberrybr.blogspot.nl] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817090831/http://blueberrybr.blogspot.nl/2013/06/inspiracoes-de-charlier-e-de-giraud.html |date=2016-08-17 }})</ref> as the interior flyleaf illustration for the regular 1990 "Arizona Love" French album release,<ref>{{cite web|title=Blueberry #23 - Arizona Love|url=https://www.comics.org/issue/906539/#2033786|work=comics.org|access-date=2022-08-22|archive-date=2023-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405105723/https://www.comics.org/issue/906539/#2033786|url-status=live}}</ref> reprinted as such, without the caption, in the last 1991 Graphitti Designs release, ''Moebius #9''. Additionally, Giraud had sneaked in some ''Blueberry 1900'' elements (including floating Washington dignitaries) in the non-''Blueberry'', Native-American themed, short story "The Words of Chief Seattle", which saw English publication in Epic's second ''Blueberry'' book release, "Ballad for a Coffin".

Giraud's fascination with [[shamanism]] went even further back than that, when he was introduced by Jodorowsky &ndash; during the failed ''Dune''-project &ndash; in 1974 to the writings of [[Carlos Castaneda]], who had written a series of books that describe his training in shamanism, particularly with a group whose lineage descended from the [[Toltecs]]. The books, narrated in the first person, related his experiences under the tutelage of a [[Yaqui]] "Man of Knowledge" named [[Don Juan Matus]]. Castaneda's writings made a deep and everlasting impression on Giraud, already open to Native-Mexican folk culture due to his three previous extended trips to the country (he had visited the country a third time in 1972,<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 22-24]]</ref> also see ''[[Jean Giraud#Notes|Giraud on Carlos Castaneda]]''), and it did influence his art as "Mœbius", particularly in regard to dream sequences, though he was not quite able to work in such influences in his mainstream ''Blueberry'' BD.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 39-45]]</ref> Yet, unbeknownst to writer Charlier, he did already sneak in some Castaneda elements in "Nez Cassé".<ref name="burns">{{cite news  |last1=Burns |first1=Mal |last2=Friedrich |first2=Mike |title=Gir/Mœbius: Interview met Jean Giraud |date=Winter 1978–1979  |publisher=Uitgeverij De Meulder|location=[[Assen]] |work=Striprofiel |issue=36 |pages=19–21 |language=nl}}; Interviewer Friedrich double-checked with Les Humanoïdes Associés publishing editor [[Jean-Pierre Dionnet]], and was told that a Mœbius album did 40,000-50,000 copies per title at the time, contrary to the 10,000 Giraud claimed.</ref> Castaneda's influence reasserted itself in full in Giraud's later life, having worked in elements more openly after Charlier's death in "Geronimo l'Apache", becoming, as indicated, a major element for ''Blueberry 1900''.

====Ramifications====
Boucq was disappointed with the project falling through, disagreeing with Charlier Jr.'s assessment: "Quite the contrary, depicting him as an old man, forced us to endow him with a special kind of dignity".<ref name="boucq"/><ref name="jurg"/> Yet, for him it turned out to be a blessing in disguise eventually, as it became an inspiration for Jodorowsky (co-creator of Giraud's acclaimed ''Incal'' series, and already a frequent Boucq collaborator), to co-create with him their own acclaimed western BD, ''{{ill|Bouncer (bande dessinée)|fr|lt=Bouncer}}''. Even the fictional "Fort Mescalero" has resurfaced as Blueberry's first Far West posting in the 2007 prequel album ''Apaches'', aside from the fact that much of what he had envisioned for this project actually turned up in the 2004 ''[[Blueberry (film)|Blueberry]]'' movie. As a warming-up for ''Blueberry 1900'', Boucq and Giraud had already collaborated on a Native-American themed project when they both contributed to the 1995 "Laissé Pour Mort", a to 500 pieces limited CD/Portfolio release from Parisian-based publisher Stardom, Giraud's own publishing house/art gallery, ran at the time by his second wife Isabelle. Later, in 2008, Giraud submitted a "Blueberry-meets-Bouncer" contribution to the 250-piece limited "Bouncer" art portfolio from short-lived publisher Osidarta, aside from providing a foreword.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bouncer|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/142255_Bouncer_PF1_Bouncer|work=stripINFO.be|language=nl|access-date=2022-08-22|archive-date=2022-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822001626/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/142255_Bouncer_PF1_Bouncer|url-status=live}}</ref>

Despite Charlier Jr.'s vehement resistance, Giraud himself seemed to have never abandoned the notion of doing ''Blueberry 1900'' as was evidenced in a 2008 interview, when he was asked if he would ever return to ''Blueberry'' after he had once stated in a prior magazine interview that he was done with his creation upon the conclusion of the ''OK Corral'' story arc.<ref>''BoDoï'', Hors Séries 15, Paris: LZ Publications, July 2006</ref> Giraud's answer was: "Looking back at it, I realized that I really wanted to continue ''Blueberry''. This would probably not be the case if I were to re-start a cycle of 5 albums, because I do not think I have the energy left for another ten years of work. Actually, I want to take up the idea of ''Blueberry 1900'' again, which has a very realistic side, sometimes a more crazy one: the Indians were a magical people, that was part of their culture, and I want to stage the collision between our world, through the conquest of the West, and the world of Indians who resist. It is often shown how events took place in a strategic sense, but I wish to plunge into Indian sociology, like it was done in ''[[Dances with Wolves]]'', by replacing our materialistic vision of the world, and by explaining the clash of cultures that took place. Of course, there is a certain challenge in doing the story this way, because I might possibly yank the rug from under the feet of the reader. I still have to rework the script and do the page divisions, but I think it will take between 100 and 200 pages".<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.actuabd.com/Jean-Giraud-Moebius-3-3-Je-veux-continuer-Blueberry#nb3 | title=Jean Giraud – Moebius (3/3): "Je veux continuer Blueberry" | work=Actuabd.com | first=Charles-Louis | last=Detournay | date=30 October 2008 | language=fr | access-date=13 April 2017 | archive-date=14 April 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414081150/http://www.actuabd.com/Jean-Giraud-Moebius-3-3-Je-veux-continuer-Blueberry#nb3 | url-status=live }}</ref> Giraud's death in 2012 ended all notions of a ''Blueberry 1900'' installment, and quite possibly any further installment of the main series as well.

In December 2012, nine months after Giraud's death, a lengthy interview with Philippe Charlier was published in the French BD journal ''{{ill|Casemate (magazine)|fr|lt=Casemate}}''. In it, Charlier Jr., taking considerable care not to speak out of turn for the Giraud heirs, laid out his vision for the future of the ''Blueberry'' series. He explained that he saw no reason why of all his father's creations,<ref>Despite him paying lip-service to the Giraud heirs, Philippe Charlier has never considered Jean Giraud as a co-creator of the ''Blueberry'' series, but merely as one of his father's many bought and paid for "gun-for-hire" underlings.</ref> Blueberry should be the only one left without a future, and that if the main series was to be continued (which he fully expected) he would only sign off on ''Young Blueberry'' artist Michel Blanc-Dumont as the main artist &ndash; unsurprisingly perhaps, considering the exploitative nature of the contracts signed, which were designed to mostly benefit Charlier Jr. in particular. He justified that choice by claiming that he had been the late Giraud's favorite as well &ndash; Charlier Jr. was apparently unaware that Giraud had over the years become increasingly disenchanted with the quality of Blanc-Dumont's art, which he had previously admired. (see ''[[#Second change of artist|above]]''). Furthermore, Charlier Jr, inspired by similar initiatives launched for the equally successful ''[[Thorgal]]'' and ''XIII'' (William Vance's magnum opus) BD series, fully advocated the launch of multiple spin-off productions based on the secondary characters introduced in the two ''Blueberry'' series (Charlier Jr. did not consider ''Marshal Blueberry'' as part of ''Blueberry'' [[Canon (basic principle)|canon]]), to be created by artists of ''his'' own choosing. When checking in over the telephone with both publisher Dargaud and Giraud's widow Isabelle on a potential main series continuation, the insensitive ''Casemate'' editors received an irked "far too soon to be even discussed" reply from Dargaud, and a very terse and curt "A continuation? Why not." reply from the still grieving Isabelle Giraud.<ref name="casm54a"/>

Philippe Charlier's grandiose vision of a large, commercialized and lucrative multi-media ''Blueberry''-franchise came, contrary to the successful ones established for ''Thorgal'' and ''XIII'', to naught however, for two reasons. Firstly, as already related above, Blanc-Dumont had effectively all but retired from the ''bande dessinée'' industry in 2015, which was in part due to the commercial failure of his ''Young Blueberry'' version in the end. Secondly, and more pertinently, Charlier Jr. discovered that an equally shared veto right is a double-edged sword, as heir Isabelle Giraud turned out every bit as protective, aggressively so even,{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} of her late husband's artistic and commercial legacy as Philippe Charlier has ever been of his father's. Having had had a ringside view, Isabelle Giraud had witnessed firsthand the frustrations and aggravation Charlier Jr. had caused her husband in the last decade-and-a-half of his life, as related in the [[#Sources|below-listed 2015 Numa Sadoul biography]], and has [[#Sfar and Blain|until 2019]] not approved a single ''Blueberry'' publication project beyond the 2012 ''Intégrale omnibus collection'', let alone a new artist for the continuation of the main, or  ''Young Blueberry'' series &ndash; in stark contrast to her late husband's work signed as "Mœbius". Like Jijé's widow before her, Isabelle Giraud had no intention whatsoever to let Philippe Charlier profit from her late husband's body of work by even a penny above and beyond he was legally owed.<ref name="annie"/>