Editing Blueberry (comics) (section)

===Original publications in French===
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="Charlier, together with [[René Goscinny|Goscinny]] the editors-in-chief, wanted a western. He already had outlines in mind, but asked me to come up with a name. He suggested a couple of names, which sounded not bad, but I wanted something softer for this rough and basic character. It was then that I saw that somebody had signed with the name "Blueberry" in ''[[National Geographic (magazine)|Geographic Magazine]]'', which was lying opened in front of me, purely by coincident. That was the right choice, and Charlier liked the name as well. For the hero's facial traits, I chose Belmondo, as he was at the time something of an art symbol for guys my age".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, 1975, on his claim of inventing the name Blueberry.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 156]]</ref>}}
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="From the very beginning, I did not want the classic type of fearless lawman like ''Red Ryder'', ''The Lone Ranger'' or ''Jerry Spring'' as a hero. That kind of character had, in my opinion, already been done to death. That is why I made Blueberry the very opposite of these classic heroic archetypes. He is dirty, ugly, and bad-tempered. He drinks, smokes, gambles and swears. And also, to make him even more different from the other characters, who are more the wandering kind, I decided to make him a soldier. But again, I did not want him to be a good little soldier who follows orders and does what he is instructed to do. Blueberry is the exact opposite of that; he is undisciplined, cynical and hates authority."|salign=right|source=—Charlier, 1989, on making Blueberry intentionally the opposite of the comic heroes he had hitherto created.<ref name=blue2-afterword/>}}
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="[The idea of giving Blueberry Belmondo's face] originated from the both of us. That came about this way: To have Blueberry come across as a non-conformist, I described him right from the start as uncombed, disheveled, unshaven, broken nosed, etc. After he had read that, Jean exclaimed to me, ''"That's Belmondo!"''"|salign=right|source=—Charlier, 1978, on conceiving the initial countenance of Blueberry.<ref>[[#Sources|Berner, 2003, p. 24]] (quoted from the ''SCHTROUMPF: Les Cahiers De La Bd'', issue 37, magazine interview, [[Glénat Editions|Glénat]], 1978)</ref>}}
:''note: English titles in parentheses where they exist and when first mentioned, original titles only where none are available''
''Blueberry'' was first published in the October 31, 1963 issue of ''[[Pilote]]'' magazine<ref name=BDO-p>[http://bdoubliees.com/journalpilote/annees/1963.htm "Pilote année 1963"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930182511/http://bdoubliees.com/journalpilote/annees/1963.htm |date=2007-09-30 }}, BDoubliées.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> &ndash; hence Charlier's corresponding October 30 birth-date for his fictional character, when the magazine was printed and ready for dissemination. Initially titled "Fort Navajo", the story grew into 46 pages over the following issues. In this series Blueberry &ndash; whose physical appearance was inspired by French actor [[Jean-Paul Belmondo]] &ndash; was only one of many protagonists; the series was originally intended to be an assemble narrative, but quickly gravitated towards Blueberry as the central and primary character, even though the series' (sub-)title ''Fort Navajo, une Aventure du Lieutenant Blueberry'' was maintained for a decade by original publisher [[Dargaud]] for the numerous reprint, and international, runs, before the "Fort Navajo" (sub-)moniker was finally dropped in 1973 with the book publication of "L'homme qui valait 500 000 $" ("The Half-a-Million Dollar Man"). Charlier came up with the name during his American trip: "When I was traveling throughout the West, I was accompanied by a fellow journalist who was just in love with blueberry jam, so much in love, in fact, that I had nicknamed him 'Blueberry'. When I began to create the new series, and everything started to fall into place, I decided to reuse my friend's nickname, because I liked it and thought it was funny. [...] I had no idea that he would prove so popular that he would eventually take over the entire series, and later we would be stuck with that silly name!"<ref name="blue2-afterword"/> In an anecdote, Charlier related how caught off guard he had been: "My memory is a somewhat like a sieve. In the first album, Blueberry was called Steve. I forgot that first name and then I named him Mike. So, in order to get things straight, I coined him Mike Steve Blueberry eventually; this kind of forgetfulness happens to me often".<ref name="Ratier, 2013, p. 205"/>

Part of the Blueberry's breakout  popularity, had been his rebellious, anti-establishment character traits he had been intentionally and uncharacteristically endowed with by co-creator Charlier and very much the opposite of the other law abiding, squeaky clean comic heroes, Charlier had usually created up until then. This was however, in line with the prevailing mood of the [[counterculture of the 1960s]], influences from which even the right-wing conservative Charlier could not escape entirely. It has enticed him to indulge in a little creative experimentation with the Blueberry character, having become somewhat bored and fed up with his own squeaky clean comic heroes, the military ones like ''[[Buck Danny]]'' in particular &ndash; Charlier usually reserved foibles for his secondary main characters to provide his creations with some levity and humanity, such as Blueberry's flawed friend Jimmy McClure.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Charlier |first1=Jean-Michel |author-link=Jean-Michel Charlier |last2=Giraud |first2=Jean |author-link2=Jean Giraud |last3=Bocquet |first3=José-Louis |author-link3=:fr:José-Louis Bocquet |title=Blueberry: L'Intégrale 1 |date=November 2012 |publisher=[[Dargaud]] |location=[[Paris]] |page=168 |isbn=9782205071238 | language=fr |quote=Bocquet editorial, pp. 12-14  (edited from the ''SCHTROUMPF: Les Cahiers De La Bd'', issue 37, Charlier magazine interview, Glénat, 1978)}}; Realizing the potential of flawed heroes making his comics more appealing to an increasingly sophisticated public, Charlier did endow his primary heroes with more raw character edges in later series outings. However and with exception of the later created Jim Cutlass, he never again went as far as he had with Blueberry in the main series, not even with the ''Young Blueberry'' outings he wrote for Colin Wilson two decades later, where Blueberry had essentially reverted back into the mold of the classic Charlier comics hero.</ref> In stark contrast, one of the other intended major characters of the ''Fort Navajo'' series had been Blueberry's friend and colleague [[List of Blueberry characters|lieutenant Graig]], who was very much a classic Charlier comics hero, law abiding, a stickler for rules and regulations, unquestioning in his blind obedience to, and acceptance of, authority, and so on. Charlier had apparently expected the presence of the Blueberry character in his creation to be of a transient nature, as he represented everything that Charlier was personally opposed to in private life, quite strongly so according to biographer Ratier.

Due to the fact that Blueberry became the most popular character so early on in the ''Fort Navajo'' story-arc, Charlier was forced to do an about-face and started to write out the other main characters, including lieutenant Graig, he had in place in order to make room for Blueberry. However, in one instance that had an unexpected side effect; when Charlier killed off the Native-American [[List of Blueberry characters|lieutenant Crowe]] in the fifth and last installment of the story-arc, "La piste des Navajos" ("Trail of the Navajo"), the editorial offices of ''Pilote'' received many angry letters from readers accusing Charlier of murdering a sympathetic protagonist. Taken aback, Charlier later stated: "It was too late to do anything about it, it was done. A strange experience, Giraud in particular took it very hard". Still, while all characters slated for prominence were written out, Blueberry excepted, one major, recurrent secondary character was written in over the course of the story arc in "Le cavalier perdu" ("Mission to Mexico"), Blueberry's friend and sidekick Jimmy McClure. Actually, and by his own admission, Charlier had originally written McClure as a temporary, minor background character, but Giraud was so taken with the character that he asked Charlier to expand his role in the series, and which stands out as the earliest known instance of Giraud exercising influence on the scripts of his senior colleague.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 41]]</ref>

In post-war Europe, it has been tradition to release comics in "pre-publication" as serialized magazine episodes, before publication as a comic book, or rather [[comic album]] (in North-American understanding though, "[[graphic novel]]" is the more applicable terminology in this case, particularly where the physical properties of the book format are concerned, the distinction being otherwise  a non-issue in native France), typically with a one to two year lag. In French, ''(Young) Blueberry'' has firstly seen serialized pre-publication in ''Pilote'' (issue 210, 31 October 1963 &ndash; issue 720, 23 August 1973) and ''{{ill|Super Pocket Pilote|fr}}'' (issue 1, 1 July 1969 &ndash; issue 9, 19 October 1970)<ref name="pocketpilote">[https://www.bedetheque.com/revue-Super-Pocket-Pilote.html "''Super Pocket Pilote''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803213011/https://www.bedetheque.com/revue-Super-Pocket-Pilote.html |date=2017-08-03 }} ({{OCLC|474397159}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> from publisher Dargaud, the parent and main publisher of ''Blueberry'', with Giraud frequently creating original ''Blueberry'' art for the magazine covers and illustrations for editorials, aside from creating on occasion summarizing, introduction plates, none of which reprinted in the original book editions.<ref>[http://bdoubliees.com/journalpilote/series1/blueberry.htm "Fort Navajo (Blueberry) dans Pilote"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113224635/http://bdoubliees.com/journalpilote/series1/blueberry.htm |date=2007-11-13 }}, Bdoubliees.com {{in lang|fr}}; Where applicable, the introduction plates, as were some of the magazine covers, ''were'' included in the American Epic publications.</ref> Nonetheless, much of this material did find its way in later reprint variations, particularly in the editorials of the [[#The commemorative omnibus collection series (2012–2019)|2012-2019 main series anthology, or omnibus, collection]] &ndash; invariably called "integral(e)s" in the respective languages of mainland Europe &ndash; of parent publisher Dargaud,<ref name="integrale">{{cite web |title=''Blueberry Intégrale'' (2012 nine-volume series) |url=http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-5160-BD-Blueberry-Integrale.html |work=Bedetheque.com |language=fr |access-date=2017-04-12 |archive-date=2017-04-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413071034/http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-5160-BD-Blueberry-Integrale.html |url-status=live }}; Actually, when discounting the [[#Prequel: La Jeunesse de Blueberry (Young Blueberry)|1984 co-publication with Rombaldi]], Dargaud's first serious attempt to release an integral &ndash; main series only &ndash; collection themselves, after a [https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Blueberry-INT-1-Integrale-1-21347.html 1988 false start] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803212827/https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Blueberry-INT-1-Integrale-1-21347.html |date=2017-08-03 }}, and only initiated ''after'' the previously licensed Egmont releases had proven to be successful, particularly in Germany. As of 2023, Dargaud's collection is translated in Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish (the Swedes having previously foregone participation in Egmont's collection project) with German, Danish, and Serbo-Croatian added at later points in time.</ref> and in those of their licensees such as [[Egmont Group|Egmont]] for their earlier German/Danish/Norwegian 2006-2017 ''all''-series integral edition collection<ref name="egmont">{{cite web |title=''Die Blueberry Chroniken'' |url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?collectie=1937&sort=collectienr |work=stripINFO.be |language=nl |access-date=2017-07-07 |archive-date=2017-08-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803220443/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?collectie=1937&sort=collectienr |url-status=live }}; includes all three language editions. By 2006 Egmont and its foreign subsidiaries had acquired for the second time in its history a European license for a large part of Europe, to wit, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Poland. Normally, a publisher then proceeds to reprint the individual albums under the new imprint, but in this case it was decided on a different approach. An ambitious project was conceived in the form of an international integrale hardcover edition, each volume containing between two and four of the individual albums, chronologically collecting ''all'' three ''Blueberry'' series in one edition, beefed out with elaborate editorials, illustrated with as much ''Blueberry'' material as possible Giraud had created outside the scope of the standard albums. The Norwegian Harry Hansen was appointed the project's overall editor-in-chief, though editor Martin Jürgeit enjoyed certain freedoms where cover design and editorial contents for the German edition were concerned. In 2006, the edition started its run in Denmark, Norway and Germany. Originally this collection was also slated to appear in Swedish, but the Egmont affiliated publisher for that language edition opted out at the last moment, whereas  Poland saw a simple, main series only integrale edition, without the extras, not related to the three edition as released in those countries. Due to the diminishing popularity of the ''Young Blueberry'' series as created by Blanc-Dumont en Corteggiani, the Norwegian (17 volumes) and Danish (12 volumes) versions were terminated prematurely, whereas only the German version saw a completed 20-volume release, finished in 2017. Still, as of 2020 these releases stand out as the most comprehensive ''Blueberry'' release ever attempted, easily surpassing in scope similar efforts of parent publisher Dargaud, including its own comprehensive 2012 integrale edition which only deals with the main series.</ref><ref name="werkausgabe">{{cite web |title=Blueberry-Werkausgabe |url=http://www.comicforum.de/showthread.php?73522-Blueberry-Werkausgabe |work=EhapaComicForum.de |language=de |access-date=2016-06-18 |archive-date=2016-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808051459/http://www.comicforum.de/showthread.php?73522-Blueberry-Werkausgabe |url-status=live }}; Martin Jürgeit's long-running blog dealing with the German version of the Egmont integrale edition in particular, and with the international project itself in general.</ref>

{{
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| image2 = Opdracht Volkskrant, stripwinkel Lambiek, Bestanddeelnr 926-7108.jpg | alt2 = | width2 = | caption2 =
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| footer_align = center
| footer = Bookshelf with French-language ''Blueberry'' hardcover comic albums (l), some of them as 1973 imports on display at the Dutch [[comic book store]] [[Lambiek]] in the lower right corner (c), very shortly before the first Dutch-language (softcover) translations were released by [[Le Lombard]] (Flanders)/{{ill|Helmond (Dutch publisher)|nl|Uitgeverij Helmond}} later that year, and the spines of the six ''Blueberry'' volumes in the 1984 deluxe {{ill|Rombaldi|fr}} intégrale collection (r).
}}
The first (French) ''Blueberry'' comic album, "Fort Navajo", was released in September 1965 and originally appeared as the 17th (and last) volume of the ''La Collection Pilote'' series.<ref>{{cite web|title=La Collection Pilote|url=https://www.bedetheque.com/search/albums?RechCollection=La+Collection+Pilote&RechEO=1|work=Bedetheque.com|language=fr|access-date=2017-07-20|archive-date=2017-07-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729104744/https://www.bedetheque.com/search/albums?RechCollection=La+Collection+Pilote&RechEO=1|url-status=live}}</ref> Actually, this collection had been an initiative of Charlier himself in his function as publishing co-editor, and the 17 titles in the collection were in effect Dargaud's first comic album releases, and an influential release at that. In order to give these releases a more "mature" image, the books were from the start executed as hard cover editions. Favorably received and though not being the first, the hard cover format became the norm in France definitively, where henceforth all comic albums were executed in the format &ndash; becoming indeed generally accepted as a mature part of French culture eventually<ref>In France, and at a later point in time in French-Belgium &ndash; the actual birthplace of the modern European comic &ndash; as well, comics are invariably considered, and officially recognized, as "[[:fr:Classification des arts|Le Neuvième Art]]" ("the 9th art"), in no small part due to the efforts in the 1980s of French minister of culture, [[Jack Lang (French politician)|Jack Lang]]. While the expression is also used in other countries, albeit unofficially, none have afforded the medium the same status. Lang incidentally, personally presented Giraud his 1985 Angoulême Award for ''Blueberry''. ({{Cite web|url=http://www.bdparadisio.com/scripts/detail.cfm?Id=296|title=Jean Giraud: Bibliographie, Photo, Biographie|work=BDParadiso.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080925123136/http://www.bdparadisio.com/scripts/detail.cfm?Id=296|archive-date=2008-09-25|language=fr}})</ref> &ndash; whereas the vast majority of the other European countries continued to employ the soft cover format for decades to come, somewhat reflecting the status comic books held in their respective societies at the time. These included for the time being French-Belgium as well, Charlier's native country, where the exact same collection was concurrently licensed to, and released by [[Le Lombard]], albeit as soft cover only. Charlier's initiative was not entirely devoid of a healthy dose of self-interest, as over half the releases in the collection, were, aside from ''Blueberry'', titles from other comic series he had co-created. After "Fort Navajo", the collection was suspended and each comic hero hitherto featured therein, spun off in book series of their own, including ''Blueberry'' or rather ''Fort Navajo, une Aventure du Lieutenant Blueberry'' as it was then still coined.<ref>''L'Intégrale Tanguy et Laverdure 2'': "L'escadrille des cigognes", Paris:Dargaud, 2015, pp. 6–8, {{ISBN|9782205073119}}</ref>

After Dargaud had lost publishing rights for over a decade for new ''Blueberry'' titles to firstly German publisher {{ill|Koralle-Verlag|de}} and subsequently to Belgian publisher {{ill|Novedi|fr}}, as a result from a conflict with the creators over ''Blueberry'' royalties, the series has seen, predominantly one-time only, French pre-publication in such comic magazines as ''[[Métal Hurlant]]'',<ref>[http://bdoubliees.com/metalhurlant/series1/blueberry.htm "Blueberry dans Metal Hurlant"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305223954/http://bdoubliees.com/metalhurlant/series1/blueberry.htm |date=2016-03-05 }}, Bdoubliees.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> ''[[L'Écho des savanes]]''<ref>[http://bdoubliees.com/echodessavanes/series1/blueberry.htm "Blueberry dans l'Echo des Savanes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803132944/http://bdoubliees.com/echodessavanes/series1/blueberry.htm |date=2017-08-03 }}, Bdoubliees.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> and ''{{ill|Super As|fr}}''.<ref>[http://bdoubliees.com/superas/series/blueberry.htm "Blueberry dans Super As"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521072846/http://bdoubliees.com/superas/series/blueberry.htm |date=2016-05-21 }}, Bdoubliees.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Other European countries followed the same template with local magazines. However, the format, for decades a staple in Europe and shaping entire generations of comic readers, went out of vogue in the late 1980s/early 1990s and the vast majority of European comic magazines have since then become defunct by the mid-1990s, including those from Belgium, the country were the phenomenon was born in the late 1930s.<ref name="croa">A very notable exception had been Croatia, where the format has managed to persevere, as recent as the late 2000s/early 2010s.</ref> Ironically, while "Le bout de la piste" ("The End of the Trail") and "Arizona Love" became main series titles to see serialized pre-publication elsewhere, neither were serialized as such in France itself, where "La tribu fantôme" ("The Ghost Tribe") had previously become the last ''Blueberry'' title pre-published as such in ''L'Écho des savanes''.<ref>[http://www.tebeosfera.com/obras/series/blueberry_charlier_giraud_1963.html "FORT NAVAJO (LIEUTENNANT BLUEBERRY)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406114910/http://www.tebeosfera.com/obras/series/blueberry_charlier_giraud_1963.html |date=2016-04-06 }}, Tebeosfera.com {{in lang|es}}</ref> Henceforth, new ''Blueberry'' titles were until 1997 directly released in album format, starting with the 1990 ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' (''Young Blueberry'') title, "Le raid infernal". Any subsequent French magazine, or newspaper serialized publication occurred ''after'' the initial book release while ''Blueberry'' was housed at Novedi and its successor, Swiss publisher {{ill|Alpen Publishers|fr}}, and which had actually already included "Angel Face" in ''[[Tintin (magazine)|Nouveau Tintin]]'',<ref>[http://bdoubliees.com/journaltintin/series1/blueberry.htm "Blueberry dans le journal Tintin"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521072830/http://bdoubliees.com/journaltintin/series1/blueberry.htm |date=2016-05-21 }}, BDoubliees.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> and "La dernière carte" ("The Last Card") in ''Spirou''<ref>[http://bdoubliees.com/journalspirou/series1/blueberry.htm "Blueberry dans le journal Spirou"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521072819/http://bdoubliees.com/journalspirou/series1/blueberry.htm |date=2016-05-21 }}, BDoubliees.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> previously, both having been serialized after their respective book releases.

After Charlier had died on 10 July 1989, Giraud, aside from completing "Arizona Love" on his own, wrote and drew five albums, from "Mister Blueberry" to "Dust" (constituting the ''OK Corral'' story arc), until his own death in 2012. Additionally, Giraud also scripted the intermezzo series ''Marshal Blueberry'' (1991-2000), but had no creative input for the ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' prequel series, after the first three, original volumes.

By the time Giraud embarked on the ''OK Corral'' cycle, publishing rights had returned to Dargaud, and that publisher decided to revitalize the magazine serialized pre-publication format as part of their marketing effort on behalf of ''Blueberry''{{'}}s return  (see ''[[#Return to the parent publisher (1993-)|below]]''), albeit with a twist; As Dargaud no longer had a comic magazine of their own (''Pilote'' had become defunct in 1989), it was decided to farm out pre-publication to parties who showed the most interest, resulting in that ''Blueberry'' titles in that cycle became serialized in different publications, not all necessarily comic-related by origin. The summer of 1997 saw the serialization of "Ombres sur Tombstone" in the French daily [[newspaper]] ''[[Le Monde]]'', followed by the pre-publication of "Géronimo l'Apache" in the monthly ''{{ill|BoDoï|fr}}'' comic magazine,<ref>[http://bdoubliees.com/bodoi/series1/blueberry.htm "Blueberry dans BoDoï"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803131747/http://bdoubliees.com/bodoi/series1/blueberry.htm |date=2017-08-03 }}, BDoubliees.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> directly before the album release in October 1999 as part of Dargaud's substantial marketing campaign for the album. The next title, "OK Corral", was published in a similar manner in the summer of 2003 in the "L'ExpressMag" appendix of the non-comic weekly [[news magazine]] ''[[L'Express]]''.

The mere fact that serious newspapers and magazines were by then vying for the opportunity to run ''Blueberry'' in their publications first (aside from the above-mentioned publications, the newspaper ''[[France-Soir]]'' had already run the first two outings of the revitalized ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' series in 1985 and 1987 &ndash; see ''[[#Change of artist|below]]''), was testament to the status ''Blueberry'' and its creator(s) had by then attained in Francophone Europe.

====Royalties conflict (1974–1979)====
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="That was a coincidence all right. It coincided with the break between Jean-Michel and Dargaud, where questionable issues in regard to [[authors' rights]] were in play".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, 1988, when asked if the format change of ''Pilote'' from a weekly to monthly magazine had anything to do with the creators leaving.<ref name="Sadoul, 1991, p. 163">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 163]]</ref>}}
With the growing popularity of ''Blueberry'' came the increasing disenchantment over financial remunerations of the series. Already in 1974, Charlier made his displeasure known in this regard, when he had "Angel Face" pre-published in ''Nouveau Tintin'' of industry competitor Le Lombard, the first time a ''Blueberry'' adventure was not serialized in ''Pilote'' &ndash; nor would it ever be again in hindsight. The magazine was forced to drop the announcement page it had prepared for the story.<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 82]]</ref> Unfazed, Dargaud founder and owner [[:fr:Georges Dargaud|Georges Dargaud]], unwilling to give in, countered by having the book released before ''Nouveau Tintin'' had even had the chance to run the story. Then Giraud left on his own accord. While Charlier had no influence on this whatsoever, it did serve a purpose as far as he was concerned. Giraud had left ''Blueberry'' on a cliff-hanger with "Angel Face", resulting in an insatiable demand for more, putting the pressure on Dargaud. Whenever Georges Dargaud asked Charlier for a next ''Blueberry'' adventure, repeatedly, Charlier was now able to respond that he was "devoid of inspiration".<ref name="fueri">{{cite news |last=Fuéri |first=Jean-Pierre |title=Au nom du père, du fils et de St Blueberry |date=November 1999 |publisher=LZ Publications|location=Paris |work=BoDoï |issue=24 |pages=35–36, 38 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="stripspeciaalzaak.be">{{Cite web |title=Fransen Top 30: Blueberry 13 - Chihuahua Pearl |website= Stripspeciaalzaak.be |url= http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Toppers/FransenTop/30_Blueberry13.htm |access-date=10 September 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080619114720/http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Toppers/FransenTop/30_Blueberry13.htm |archive-date=19 June 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=nl}}</ref>

As a matter of fact, Giraud was dying to leave ''Pilote'' and ''Blueberry'', partly because he was tired of the stifling publication pressure he was under in order to produce the series, partly because of the royalties conflict, but ''mostly'' because he wanted to further explore and develop his artistic "Mœbius" alter ego. For Giraud the conflict was actually a godsend: "At that moment Charlier and I also had a financial conflict with Dargaud which came at the exact right time, because it provided me with an alibi [to leave]".<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 17-19]]</ref> The latter reason for him to leave, took on an urgency after [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]], impressed by his ''Blueberry'' art, had already invited Giraud to come over to [[Los Angeles]] to work as concept designer and storyboard artist on [[Dune (novel)#Early stalled attempts|his ''Dune'' movie project]] earlier that year, constituting the first Jodorowsky/Mœbius collaboration. Very eager to return to Los Angeles as Jodorowsky requested his presence again, Giraud &ndash; who had returned to France for his other work during one of the lulls in the ''Dune'' production &ndash; greatly accelerated his work on "Angel Face", then underway, breaking his "absolute record speed-drawing", as he had coined it, and sheared off weeks from its originally intended completion date.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 24]]</ref> Giraud in overdrive was so fast that he even overtook Charlier's script pages (Charlier habitually fed his artists piecemeal with script pages, usually a couple at the time), forcing him to write ten pages of the story on his own, as Charlier was at that time on documentary assignment in the United States for French television. Upon his return, Charlier took one look at the pages completed in his absence, and continued where Giraud had left off without further much ado.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 157]]</ref> Charlier himself had actually already left Dargaud in 1972, because he additionally felt ill at ease with the editorial modernization of ''Pilote'', which resulted from the 1968 revolt at the editorial offices staged by key artists, chief among them Giraud (see also: "''[[Jean Giraud#Notes|Giraud on his part in the uprising at Pilote]]''").<ref>[[#Sources|Ratier, 2013, pp. 226-227]]</ref> Though Charlier continued to provide his younger colleague with scripts (but not his other artists<ref name=artists>Charlier had no qualms whatsoever about replacing artists for his own (ongoing) creations, or leave them hanging without a source of income whenever it suited his own fancy, as he throughout his entire life considered his artists as mere subservient disenfranchised draftsmen in his own personal employ, fireable and replaceable at will, and most definitely not as bonafide artists with a capital "A" of equal standing. As mentioned in [[#Sources|Ratier's 2013 biography]], Charlier therefore had always been strongly opposed to the 1968 artist's revolt at Dargaud of which Giraud had been an integral part, and which became his second major reason (besides the royalties conflict) to leave the ''bande dessinée'' industry in 1972 to pursue a new career as documentary maker for French television. Charlier did make an exception for his two ''Blueberry'' artists though.</ref>), he started working as documentary maker for French television. It was while he was working on two documentaries on the [[Mexican Revolution]] that he gained inspiration for his below-mentioned ''Les Gringos'' Western comic series, which started its run in 1979 at Koralle.<ref name="hoff">{{cite news  |last1=van der Hoff |first1=Marcel |last2=van Helden |first2=Wim |title=Charlier: De nieuwe bladen? "Veel geweld, veel porno, maar weinig of geen enkele rechtvaardiging voor wat ze brengen". |date=July 1977 |publisher=Thespa |location=Amsterdam |work=Stripschrift |issue=101 |pages=16–19 |language=nl}}</ref>

It was the first time that Giraud wrote for ''Blueberry'' by himself, and was, considering Charlier's easy acceptance of Giraud's writing, also testament to the close, and trusting working relationship both men had cultivated by that time. Incidentally, Giraud intimated that the deteriorating circumstances at ''Pilote'' had already left its mark on him before he left: "The story was started in 1972/73 but remained shelved until 1975 [sic.]. Yet, I think one can not discern its difficult birth; there are good scenes, pages I really poured heart and soul into. It is true that [the art for] "Le hors-la-loi" ("The Outlaw") had been quite weak, but "Angel Face" made up for it".<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 161]]</ref>

Five years later, Giraud was ready to return to ''Blueberry'', at long last feeling the urge again to do so, but ''not'' into the employ of ''Pilote''/Dargaud, as he had formally terminated his position in 1974 with no intention whatsoever to return, instead plying his ''Blueberry'' trade as a [[freelancer]]: "Publishers were waving with those fat checks, so we started again. But it is no longer the same. I won't be taken in by ''Blueberry'' anymore!", referring to the first half of the 1970s when he felt smothered by his co-creation.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 27]]</ref> Yet, the whole business surrounding ''Blueberry'' residuals itself remained unresolved, and in order to drive home the point the pe-publication of the eagerly awaited "Nez Cassé" ("Broken Nose") story was farmed out to ''Métal Hurlant'' magazine (published by [[Les Humanoïdes Associés]], co-founded by Giraud in 1974, and in the US released as ''[[Heavy Metal (magazine)|Heavy Metal]]'' in the mid-1970s, though the story was not run in the American version), instead of ''Pilote''. That Charlier was able to repeat this ploy after "Angel Face" stemmed from the proviso he had built in when he signed over the publication, and copyrights of his [[Print syndication|syndication]] agency EdiFrance/EdiPresse &ndash; co-established in 1955 with [[Victor Hubinon]], [[Albert Uderzo]], and [[René Goscinny]] for the express purpose to syndicate their own and other artist's comic creations &ndash; to Dargaud in 1960. On that occasion Charlier, owning a law degree,<ref name="Collective 1986, pp. 85-88">[[#Sources|''Collective'', 1986, pp. 85-88]]</ref> stipulated an exemption clause for magazine (pre-)publications of his own (co-)creations.<ref>''Blueberry'', "Intégrale 1", Paris: Dargaud, 2012, p. 5, {{ISBN|9782205071238}}</ref> Though never intended as such, the hitherto dormant exemption clause now served him well in his conflict with Dargaud, without having to fear for any legal ramifications on Dargaud's part. Yet, Georges Dargaud refused to take the bait and the creators subsequently put forward the ''[[#Jim Cutlass|Jim Cutlass]]'' western comic as a last ditch effort to spell out to Dargaud that the creators had other options. Dargaud still would not budge. It was then that it became clear to Charlier, that he was left with no other option than to leave, and this he did taking all his other co-creations with him, to wit ''[[Redbeard (comics)|Redbeard]]'' and ''[[Tanguy et Laverdure]]'', which, while not as popular as ''Blueberry'', were steady money making properties for Dargaud nonetheless.<ref name="pilote"/>

====Blueberry's publishing wanderings (1979–1990)====
Though they were still contractually obligated to leave their most recent ''Blueberry'' title, "Nez Cassé", at Dargaud for book publication, Charlier and Giraud then threw in their lot with German publisher Koralle-Verlag &ndash; incidentally the first German language ''Blueberry'' book publisher back in the early 1970s &ndash; a subsidiary at the time of German media giant [[Axel Springer SE]], for their next publication, "La longue marche" ("The Long March"). The choice for the German publisher was made for their very ambitious international expansion strategy they had in place at that time. Fully subscribing to the publisher's strategy, Charlier not only revitalized his ''Redbeard'' and ''Tanguy et Laverdure'' comic series &ndash; having been equally "devoid of inspiration" for these as well in the 1974-1979 ''Pilote''-era because of the royalties issue &ndash; but created the new Western comic, ''Les Gringos'' (art by [[Victor de la Fuente]]), as well. Yet, for all Charlier's business acumen, he had failed to recognize that Koralle's exuberant expansion drive had essentially been a do-or-die effort on their part. In 1978 Koralle was on the verge of bankruptcy, and a scheme was devised to stave off this fate; international expansion. In the European comics world that was a rather novel idea at the time and Koralle did expand beyond the German border into large parts of Europe with variants of their main publication ''[[:de:Zack (Zeitschrift)|Zack]]'' magazine, with the revived ''Blueberry'' as its flagship, accompanied with comic book releases.<ref>''L'Intégrale Barbe-Rouge'' 8: "L'île des vaisseaux perdus", Paris: Dargaud, 2016, pp. 26-29, {{ISBN|9782205075496}}</ref> It did not pay off however, as the holding company already pulled the plug in 1980, leaving ''Blueberry'' and the others quite unexpectedly without a publishing home.<ref>[[#Sources|Jurgeit, 2003, p. 10]]</ref>

It were not only the ''Blueberry'' creators that were left in a pickle, as Koralle had managed to convince other well known Franco-Belgian comic artists to switch sides. Aside from Giraud's old mentor Jijé (who, having abandoned his own ''Jerry Spring'' Western comic, was now penciling Charlier's revitalized ''Redbeard'' and ''Tanguy et Laverdure''), these predominantly concerned artists from publishing house Le Lombard. The most prominent of the latter was [[Hermann Huppen]] with his new post-apocalyptic Western ''[[Jeremiah (comic)|Jeremiah]]'' for which he had abandoned that other famed 1970s Franco-Belgian Western, ''{{ill|Comanche (bande dessinée)|fr|lt=Comanche}}'' (written by [[Greg (cartoonist)|Greg]]), second only in renown after ''Blueberry'' at the time.<ref name="bigfive">{{cite web| title=Blueberry, Red Dust, Mac Coy en Jonathan Cartland samen op affiche| url=https://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/flashback/blueberry-red-dust-mac-coy-en-jonathan-cartland-samen-op-affiche| work=Stripspeciaalzaak.be| date=25 May 2021| language=nl| access-date=7 December 2021| archive-date=9 December 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209195349/https://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/flashback/blueberry-red-dust-mac-coy-en-jonathan-cartland-samen-op-affiche| url-status=live}} The "big five" Franco-Belgian realistic Western comics of the 1970s constituted in descending order of popularity, ''Blueberry'', ''Comanche'' (Le Lombard), ''[[Buddy Longway]]'' (Le Lombard), ''{{ill|Mac Coy|fr}}'' (Dargaud) and ''{{ill|Jonathan Cartland|fr}}'' (Dargaud); The hitherto most popular Western, ''Jerry Spring'', had by 1970 become irrelevant '''''because''''' of ''Blueberry''{{'}}s success.</ref> Tapping into his substantial social Franco-Belgian comic network, Charlier found Jacques de Kezel &ndash; a highly influential behind-the-scenes figure of the Belgian comics world at those times, and who had actually gathered the stable of artists for Koralle &ndash; willing for Axel Springer to pass the torch to. As a token of goodwill, a relieved Springer, as they now could turn over the current contractual obligations without much further ado, even allowed the French-language version of ''Zack'', ''Super As'', to run for a few issues longer in order to allow as many series as possible to complete their magazine run, which included "La longue marche". De Kezel's new publishing house "Les Nouvelles Editions Internationales S.A." (Novedi) was established in November 1980 with its seat in Brussels, Belgium. Part of their strategy was to forego on a magazine of their own and instead release titles directly in album format, as it was noticed that the serialized comic magazine format had already started to wane in Europe as a format (and actually one of the main reasons for Axel Springer to pull the plug on Koralle), resulting in the advantage of not having to incur the expenses of maintaining magazine editorial offices. Any still existing comic magazine elsewhere, willing to publish serialized comic series after the initial book releases, was merely considered an added bonus.<ref name="novedi">Schifferstein, Mat. "Margreet van Muijlwijk over de behoedzame politiek van uitgeverij Novedi: Kwaliteit en bestendigheid", ''Stripschrift'', issue 198/199, pp. 38-43 & insert page 9, [[Zeist]]: Vonk, August/September 1985 {{in lang|nl}}; Relatively small Belgian publishing house Novedi released their books, including ''Blueberry'', themselves for Belgium and the Netherlands. For the other European countries, including France, Novedi farmed out publication licenses to local publishers in return for approximately 10% gross of their actually ''sold'' print runs. (p. 40) This actually made ''(Young) Blueberry'' a Belgian creation between 1980 and 1991, instead of a French one.</ref>

Still, it took some time for the new publisher to get up and running, and some sort of stop-gap resolution had to be found for the intervening 1979-1980 period in order to secure income for the stable of comic artists. On recommendation of Charlier, who has had previous dealings with the publisher,<ref>[[#Sources|Ratier, 2013, p. 260]]</ref> the catalog was legally, but temporarily, housed at the French publishing house {{ill|Édi-Monde|fr}} of the Hachette group, who for the occasion established the equally temporary EDI-3-BD imprint, though making use of Koralle's infrastructure &ndash; allowed to continue to exist for the time being by Axel Springer &ndash; in regard to printing and distribution. As impromptu publisher, EDI-3-BD published around two dozen album titles, including "La longue marche", before turning the copyrights of these over to Novedi,<ref>{{cite web | title=EDI-3-BD | url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=70&sort=jaar | work=stripINFO.be | language=nl | access-date=2017-04-15 | archive-date=2017-04-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416044930/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=70&sort=jaar | url-status=live }}</ref> which started publishing themselves in 1981. EDI-3-BD published their books for Belgium and the Netherlands themselves, but farmed out licenses for other countries, including France somewhat surprisingly, where Giraud's former alma mater and Hachette competitor Fleurus firstly became the album publisher for "La longue marche". After Novedi had become operational, the business model was adopted by them and it was decided to continue with Giraud's other alma mater Hachette for France with the subsequent titles in the ''Blueberry'' (and other) series in recognition of the help Édi-Monde had provided. Hachette incidentally, later acquired a special, one-time-only license from Dargaud to reissue the entirety of the ''Blueberry'' series in 2013-2014 as the 52 volume ''La Collection Blueberry'' anthology, each volume augmented with a six-page illustrated editorial.<ref>{{cite web | title=''La Collection Blueberry'' | url=https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-39639-BD-Blueberry-La-collection-Hachette__10000.html | work=BDGest'.com | language=fr | access-date=2017-07-07 | archive-date=2017-07-31 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731152652/https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-39639-BD-Blueberry-La-collection-Hachette__10000.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

For a decade ''Blueberry'' resided in calm waters at Novedi. The 1980s saw three additions to the main series (completing the ''Rehabilitation'' story arc) as well as four new titles in the newly created ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' series. Nevertheless, despite the two ''Blueberry'' incarnations and ''Jeremiah'' being the top selling series for the publisher, it appeared that the financial base was too narrow for even a publisher the modest size of Novedi, as the publisher went out of business in 1990, after having published approximately 120 album titles, and despite having taken over the book publications for France themselves as well in the latter half of the decade.<ref>{{cite web | title=Novedi | url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=16&sort=jaar | work=stripINFO.be | language=nl | access-date=2017-04-15 | archive-date=2017-04-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416045111/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=16&sort=jaar | url-status=live }}</ref> It again left ''Blueberry'' and the others without a publishing home.

====Death of a creator (1989)====
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="I have twenty completed pages, the rest consists of annotations and loose ideas...I was not quite on board with the development of the story yet, we still had not decided upon anything. There were some great ideas, which needed to be finalized".|salign=right|source=—Giraud, August 1989, on the script status of "Arizona Love" at the time of Charlier's death.<ref name="arizona">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 164]]</ref>}}
On 10 July 1989, Jean-Michel Charlier passed away from a heart condition after a short illness. By all accounts Charlier had been a [[workaholic]] throughout his career, working simultaneously on as much as a dozen projects at any given time, steadily increasing his workload as he grew older. His heart condition had already troubled him in his later years and his death, while sudden, was not entirely a surprise.<ref>[[#Sources|Ratier, 2013, p. 299]]</ref> Charlier's penchant for hard work increasingly became a concern for Giraud when he visited his longtime co-worker six months before his death: "He was a work bulimic! There were always seven to eight scenarios underway. His life was a true path of self-destruction. You should have seen him working at his desk! Six months before his passing, I advised him to slow down. Very artistically, he replied: ''No, I have chosen this!''"<ref name="bosser68">[[#Sources|Bosser, 2005, p. 68]]</ref>

Charlier, having been of a previous generation, conservative in nature and wary of science fiction in general, had never understood what his younger colleague tried to achieve as "Mœbius". Nonetheless, he never tried to hinder Giraud in the least, as he understood that an artist of Giraud's caliber needed a "mental shower" from time to time. Furthermore, Charlier was very appreciative of the graphic innovations Giraud ported over from his work as "Mœbius" into the mainstream ''Blueberry'' series, most specifically "Nez Cassé", making him "one of the all-time greatest artists in the comic medium", as Charlier himself worded it in 1982.<ref name="bree41">[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 23, 41-43]]</ref> Artist {{ill|Michel Rouge|fr}}, who was taken on by Giraud in 1980 for the inks of "La longue marche" ("The Long March") painted a slightly different picture though. Already recognizing that the two men were living in different worlds, he noted that Charlier was not pleased with Giraud taking on an assistant, afraid that it might have been a prelude to him leaving the series in order to pursue his "experimentations" as Mœbius further.<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 69]]</ref> Even Giraud was in later life led to believe that Charlier apparently "detested" his other work, looking upon it as something akin to "treason", though his personal experiences with the author was that he had kept an "open mind" in this regard, at least in his case.<ref name="flip">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, pp. 220-226]]</ref> While Charlier was willing to overlook Giraud's wanderings in his case only, he was otherwise of the firm conviction that artists, especially his own, should totally and wholeheartedly devote themselves to their craft &ndash; as Charlier always had considered the comic medium &ndash; but which was somewhat incongruous on his part as he himself was habitually engaged in several divergent projects at any given time.<ref name="hoff"/> This has caused many of his artists problems on a frequent basis, as he was consistently and notoriously late with his piecemeal provided script pages, including Giraud at the start of his ''Blueberry'' career. However, as he recognized quite early on that ''Blueberry'' occupied a special place in his body of work, he later made sure that (only) his ''Blueberry'' artists were provided with scripts in a timely fashion.<ref name=artists/> Charlier's method of working came at a cost, as his scripts frequently contained continuity errors on the detail level, and which included those of ''Blueberry'', such as in his above cited instance of his hero's first name.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 32]]; [[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 46]]; [[#Sources|Ratier, 2013, p. 225]]</ref> Charlier has cited the ''Blueberry'' titles "La mine de l'allemand perdu" ("The Lost Dutchman's Mine") through "L'homme qui valait 500 000 $" ("The Half-a-Million Dollar Man") as his favorites for their "potency", both story and artwise, the latter making him the co-winner of his 1973 American [[#Awards|comic award]].<ref>[[#Sources|Berner, 2003, p. 25]]</ref>

The script being one-thirds ready at the time of Charlier's passing, the completion of "Arizona Love" was postponed as Giraud needed time to come to terms with that fact. Due to his intimate twenty-five year familiarity with both the series and its writer, it was a foregone conclusion that Giraud would from then on take on the scripting of the main series as well, especially since it was already agreed upon in the "contracts signed with Jean-Michel" that "the survivor would take over the series".<ref name="flip"/> It was this circumstance that has led Philippe Charlier, son of the deceased author and now the heir and steward of his father's ''bande dessinée'' legacy, to make the unsubstantiated claim that Novedi was surreptitiously negotiating with Giraud only for the existing and future ''Blueberry'' series, intent on cutting the Charlier family out, which was incongruous as Novedi was already heading toward receivership, aside from the fact that Giraud has never even hinted at such alleged dealings and that not a single corroborating rumor has ever surfaced elsewhere in the otherwise tight-knit Franco-Belgian comic community, save for the claim Charlier Jr. himself made on that sole occasion in the comic journal ''BoDoï'' (issue 24, 1999). Furthermore, per French law, Charlier's widow Christine remained entitled to 10 percent of the revenues from the existing and subsequent post-Charlier ''Blueberry'' titles, which provided her with a "decent" living standard, according to son Philippe, effectively contradicting his own claim on the very same occasion.<ref name="fueri"/> As for Giraud, having to work without a safety net for the first time, came initially with bouts of self-doubt and second-guessing, as [[Colin Wilson (comics)|Colin Wilson]] (by then the new ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' artist) testified to, after a visit to Giraud in this period: "{{ill|Janet Gale|fr|lt=Janet}} and I visited Jean when he was working on "Arizona Love" &ndash; around May 1989 [sic.] I think. Some of the first pages he showed us then were radically different from the ones ultimately published in the album later on. I did not had the time to read the scripts for those pages he had shown us, but I know that Jean redid several pages entirely anew, before the album was eventually released".<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2013, p. 47]]; {{cite web | title=Hertekende scène in Blueberry: Arizona Love | url=https://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/stripnieuws/hertekende-scene-blueberry-arizona-love | work=Stripspeciallzaak.be | date=16 April 2021 | language=nl | access-date=7 December 2021 | archive-date=7 December 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207091302/https://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/stripnieuws/hertekende-scene-blueberry-arizona-love | url-status=live }}</ref> The by Giraud rejected pages were published as a bonus in the 1995 deluxe limited edition of "Mister Blueberry", a joint publication of Dargaud and Giraud's publishing house Stardom.<ref>{{cite web | title=Mister Blueberry | url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/74295_Blueberry_24_Mister_Blueberry | work=stripINFO.be | language=nl | access-date=2017-07-05 | archive-date=2017-08-03 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803134219/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/74295_Blueberry_24_Mister_Blueberry | url-status=live }}</ref>

Stunned by the sudden death of his longtime co-worker, it took Giraud nearly five years before he could bring himself to embark on ''Blueberry'' again as artist, after completing "Arizona Love". Giraud stated that the series had lost its "father", and that the "mother needed time to mourn".<ref name="bosser68"/>

====Continued publishing wanderings (1990–1993)====
Charlier's death coincided by chance with the growing problems at Novedi, and Giraud suggested to Philippe Charlier, the heir and steward of his father's legacy, to move all his fathers co-creations to Les Humanoïdes Associés (with whom Giraud maintained close personal and creative ties after his ''Métal Hurlant'' days &ndash; which had included "Nez Cassé" &ndash; among others by having them publish his acclaimed ''[[The Incal|L'Incal]]'' series), to step up to the plate vacated by Novedi. Yet, Giraud undertook no further action himself, partly because he was still residing in the United States, too preoccupied with his own projects and the wrapping up of his affairs over there before his return to France (and thus too busy to be engaged in secret negotiations with Novedi),<ref name="stripspeciaalzaak.beA">{{Cite web |title=Fransen Top 26: Blueberry 15 - Ballade voor een doodskist |website= Stripspeciaalzaak.be |url=http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Toppers/FransenTop/26_Blueberry15.htm |access-date=10 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804064607/https://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Toppers/FransenTop/26_Blueberry15.htm |archive-date=4 August 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=nl}}</ref> and partly because his marriage to his first wife Claudine was in the early stages of falling apart at the time.<ref>[https://www.whoswho.fr/decede/biographie-m%C5%93bius_42760 "Biographie Mœbius"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510082436/https://www.whoswho.fr/decede/biographie-m%C5%93bius_42760 |date=2017-05-10 }}, Whoswho.fr {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Charlier Jr. approached [[Fabrice Giger]], who had bought the by Giraud co-founded publisher previously in early 1989,<ref>[http://www.liberation.fr/livres/0101234875-special-bande-dessinee-giger-le-genre-humanoide-repreneur-des-humanoides-associes-en-1989-le-jeune-suisse-fabrice-giger-est-a-present-a-la-tete-d-un-groupe-multimedia-sans-egal-dans-le-monde-de-la-bd- "Spécial bande dessinée. Giger, le genre humanoïde".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410232000/http://www.liberation.fr/livres/0101234875-special-bande-dessinee-giger-le-genre-humanoide-repreneur-des-humanoides-associes-en-1989-le-jeune-suisse-fabrice-giger-est-a-present-a-la-tete-d-un-groupe-multimedia-sans-egal-dans-le-monde-de-la-bd- |date=2020-04-10 }}, [[Libération]] 01.22.1998 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> but did not choose for that publishing house eventually, but rather go with Giger's original, founding publishing house, Alpen Publishers, the latter had set up in 1988 in Switzerland<ref name="Giger">{{Cite web|title=Le Blog de Giger, page 1|website=Humano.com|url=http://www.humano.com/blog/blog_de_giger/commentList/a-zapper-vite-fait/1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822141613/https://www.humano.com/blog/blog_de_giger/commentList/a-zapper-vite-fait/1|access-date=16 June 2017|date=May 2008|archive-date=22 August 2022|url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=fr}} and {{Cite web |title=page 2|website=Humano.com|url=http://www.humano.com/blog/blog_de_giger/commentList/a-zapper-vite-fait/2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822142509/https://www.humano.com/blog/blog_de_giger/commentList/a-zapper-vite-fait/2|access-date=16 June 2017|date=May 2008|archive-date=22 August 2022|url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=fr}}; Very little is known, or even disclosed afterwards by Giger, about Alpen's founding circumstances or motivations, most conspicuously its precise date, though Giger had given the year as 1988 which places a preconceived scheme by Giger and Charlier Sr. within the realm of plausibility.</ref> &ndash; even though comic artists themselves, due to the close entanglement of Alpen and Humanoïdes, always referred to Alpen as "Humanos" (''see quote boxes below''). It turned out that Philippe was actually picking up where his father had left off. Around the time he had established Alpen and unbeknownst to Giraud, Giger was already approached by Charlier Sr. in 1988. The veteran Charlier had already sensed the writings on the wall at Novedi and discussed plans with Giger to have ''all'' his comic creations moved over to the new publisher, arguably the very reason for the then 23-year old Giger to set up Alpen in the first place, and had to this end already arranged his old friend {{ill|Guy Vidal|fr}} from his ''Pilote'' days to be hired as editor-in-chief at the new publisher, incidentally in the process doing exactly what his son would later accuse Giraud/Novedi of.<ref>[[#Sources|Ratier, 2013, p. 295]]</ref> Giger disclosed in 2008 that it was on the occasion of his subsequent dealings with Philippe that the "JMC Aventures" foundation was established, intended to safeguard the commercial and artistic legacy of Charlier's body of work. Giger stated: "After the death of Jean-Michel, a project was born between his son, Philippe, his mother, and us, to create a structure dedicated to the continuation of the series co-created by Charlier, JMC Aventures. We were shareholders with the Charlier family", confirming the preliminary dealings with the author in his final year.<ref name="Giger"/>

The relatively short tenure at Alpen saw the release of "Arizona Love", which was actually started under the aegis of Novedi, but for which Charlier had not yet contracted with the publisher because of his hunch, thus leaving the title legally "free" for JMC Aventures to be signed with Alpen, according to Giger, adding that this had the "full and immediate blessing" from Giraud.<ref name="Giger"/> The artist himself though, taken completely unawares and having had little choice in the matter, has later expressed a slightly different opinion, where it was implied that he was not as happy with the behind-the-scenes machinations as Giger made it out to be, especially since his late script partner had kept him out of the loop in 1988. Ironically, it was Philippe Charlier himself who indirectly conceded that particular point when he accused Giraud of wanting "to settle scores" with Charlier Sr. with the later ''OK Corral''-cycle, which Philippe had issues with (see ''[[#Sequel: Blueberry 1900|below]]'').<ref name="flip"/> Additional Alpen releases included the ''La Jeunesse de Blueberry'' title "Trois hommes pour Atlanta", as well as the inception of the spin-off series ''Marshal Blueberry'' with two titles, aside from additions to the ''Les Gringos'' and ''Redbeard'' series, taken over by other artists after both Jijé and Charlier Sr. had passed away. While the initial intention was to have the entire body of work of Charlier published at Alpen, the corporation with the publisher did not pan out for undisclosed reasons &ndash; though Giger had mentioned increasingly difficult copyright negotiations with other copyright holders, predominantly heirs of other artists who had worked with Charlier, the widow of Jijé in particular,<ref name="annie">While Charlier Sr. had continued to provide both Giraud and Wilson with script pages even in times he was otherwise not involved in the ''Bande Dessinée'' world, he had no qualms whatsoever to abandon his other artists whenever it suited his own self-interest, leaving them often on a whim without any source of income. This held especially true for Jijé who as replacement artist for ''Redbeard'' and ''Tanguy et Laverdure'' was not only loyal to a fault to his longtime "friend", but had also seen his livelihood become entirely dependent on Charlier's willingness to provide him with work in the post-''Jerry Spring'' stage of his career, which, as history has shown, was not always the case, especially in the era 1972-1979 when he was "devoid of inspiration". Annie Gillian refusing to let Giger and Charlier Jr. further exploit her late husband's body of work for their own selfish gains should therefore not have come as a surprise in hindsight.</ref> who had successfully taken Giger and Charlier Jr. to court.<ref name="Giger"/> The relationship was ended in 1992, shortly thereafter followed by the demise of Alpen itself in 1994 with Guy Vidal moving over, or rather returning, to Dargaud (having taken on the writing for ''Les Gringos'' after his friend's death, until his own death in 2002),<ref>[https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=580&sort=jaar "Alpen"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416045245/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=580&sort=jaar |date=2017-04-16 }}, stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}</ref> though Giger himself became successful with Humanoïdes, expanding into the United States as "Humanoids Publishing Ltd." in 1999, in the process reissuing much of Giraud's "Mœbius" science fiction work.

As Belgian publisher Dupuis had already shown interest, when they serialized "La dernière carte" in their ''Spirou'' magazine in 1983, Charlier Jr. now decided to try his luck at that publishing house in 1992, as Hermann had already done previously with his ''Jeremiah'' for that matter. While ''Jeremiah'' has remained with Dupuis ever since, for again unknown reasons the cooperation with ''Blueberry'' did not seem to pan out either. Even though Dupuis did reissue all the ''(Young) Blueberry'' titles of the EDI-3-BD/Novedi era (but none from Alpen Publishers, or indeed any of the other Charlier creations) under its own imprint in their "Repérages" collection,<ref>[http://www.bedetheque.com/search/albums?RechCollection=Rep%C3%A9rages&RechEO=1 Bedetheque.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416044918/http://www.bedetheque.com/search/albums?RechCollection=Rep%C3%A9rages&RechEO=1 |date=2017-04-16 }} {{in lang|fr}}; The "Repérages (French)/Spotlight (Dutch)" collection was conceived by Dupuis with the express intent to differentiate between comics with more adult contents and those with more juvenile, comic contents, for which the publisher was hitherto most well-known. The early acquisition of ''Jeremiah'' was actually a major consideration to proceed in this manner.</ref> no new titles were released during the equally short 1992-1993 tenure of ''Blueberry'' at that publisher.

====Return to the parent publisher (1993–present)====
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="Everything was bought back by Dargaud, halfway through [''Marshal Blueberry'']. It was not that bad; At Dargaud, they are more active on the editorial level. During the entire time I was at Humanos, I had not received a single call to start a new project. I profited from it... life profited from it for that matter... If ''Blueberry'' had remained with Humanos, there still would not have been a new album! At Dargaud, the late Guy Vidal became a true series editor-in-chief, active, pugnacious, committed to continuous series. When I did ask to start, along came ''Mister Blueberry'', followed suit by ''Tombstone'' and ''Geronimo''... I do the best I can. I'm not saying it's all entirely successful. I do recognize that there are some surprising issues at the script or drawing level, but it has the merit of not being routine!"|salign=right|source=—Giraud, 2010, on the return to Dargaud, being the sole artist on ''Blueberry'', and somewhat contradicting his [[#Intermezzo: Marshal Blueberry|prior 1993 statement]]<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, pp. 221-222]]</ref>}}
Tiring of Giraud's inaction, Philippe Charlier ultimately took matters into his own hand, and had all his father's co-creations return to parent publisher Dargaud at the end of 1993 without apparent objections from Giraud (though he had stipulated an exemption for non-comic ''Blueberry'' art, produced either on personal title and/or for his own publishing houses [[:fr:Aedena|Gentiane/Aedena]], Starwatcher Graphics, and Stardom &ndash; ''see [[#English translations|below]]''), and it is there where ''Blueberry'' has remained ever since. The for Dargaud joyous occasion of now having acquired the copyrights of ''all'' ''Blueberry'' comic incarnations, was reason enough to ask Giraud &ndash; now serving as the sole main series artist &ndash; to embark on a new story-arc, which eventually resulted in the ''OK Corral'' cycle, the last one of the main series as it turned out to be. How thrilled Dargaud was to have reacquired ''Blueberry'' was amply demonstrated &ndash; aside from their decision to revitalize the serialized pre-publication format for ''Blueberry'' as already mentioned &ndash; in the 2000 documentary ''Mister Gir & Mike S. Blueberry'' made on the occasion of the release of "Geronimo l'Apache", in which instances were shown of the considerable marketing efforts the publisher undertook in order to promote the new album &ndash; the documentary therefore itself one such instance &ndash; among others by having many Parisian metro stations plastered with huge ''Blueberry'' posters. Aside from this, Dargaud made use of the opportunity to clean up the by then muddied release chronology, by formalizing the establishment of the three series and restarting the album numbering for each in reprint runs. Concurrently, all international licenses were renegotiated.

Apart from foreign language publishers and constituting a break in tradition, Dargaud also started to occasionally farm out special, one-time only, series licenses to other Francophone publishers, which besides the aforementioned 2013/14 with editorial pages enhanced all-series "La Collection Blueberry" from Hachette, already included the French book club ''{{ill|France Loisirs|fr}}'' for its 2003 main series releases.<ref>{{Cite web|title=''Blueberry France Loisir''|website=Bedetheque.com|url=https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-30641-BD-Blueberry-France-Loisirs.html|language=fr|access-date=2017-07-07|archive-date=2017-06-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616232732/http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-30641-BD-Blueberry-France-Loisirs.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Another Francophone publisher who was granted a special license for the main series only was the French-Belgian newspaper ''[[Le Soir]]'' who released its "Blueberry Intégrale" in two editions, the fifteen-volume edition of 2009, and the sixteen-volume edition of 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Blueberry Intégrale Le Soir'' (1) |url=https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-22318-BD-Blueberry-Integrale-Le-Soir-1__10000.html |access-date=2017-07-07 |archive-date=2019-10-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031171157/https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-22318-BD-Blueberry-Integrale-Le-Soir-1__10000.html |url-status=live }} and {{Cite web|title=''Blueberry Intégrale Le Soir'' (2)|website=Bedetheque.com|url=https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-46881-BD-Blueberry-Integrale-Le-Soir-2__10000.html|language=fr|access-date=2017-07-07|archive-date=2017-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016010648/https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-46881-BD-Blueberry-Integrale-Le-Soir-2__10000.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Like the ''France Loisirs'' release, each volume, save three in the end, collected two of the original albums and was only offered to newspaper readers and subscribers. The three single album volumes (No's 8, 15 and 16) were augmented with new ''Blueberry'' art, featured in a separate section and separately negotiated for with Giraud's own publisher, Mœbius Production. Nor were the one-time only special licenses limited to Francophone publishers alone; twice Italian ''[[La Gazzetta dello Sport]]'' newspaper acquired one as well for their 2014/16 overall genre 90-volume softcover "Collana Western" (encompassing 51 titles of the three ''Blueberry'' series),<ref name="westernIT">{{cite web|url=https://www.comicsbox.it/serie/COLWESTGAZ|title=Collana Western (RCS Quotidiani)|work=Comicsbox.it|language=it|access-date=2023-04-18|archive-date=2023-04-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418091950/https://www.comicsbox.it/serie/COLWESTGAZ|url-status=live}}</ref> and their 2022/23 ''Blueberry''-specific 54-volume hardcover followup "Collana Blueberry" releases<ref name="blueberryIT">{{cite web|url=https://www.comicsbox.it/serie/BLUEBER|title=Blueberry (RCS Quotidiani)|work=Comicsbox.it|language=it|access-date=2023-04-18|archive-date=2023-04-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418091952/https://www.comicsbox.it/serie/BLUEBER|url-status=live}}; {{cite web|title=Blueberry|url=https://store.gazzetta.it/fumetti-e-manga/blueberry/1f8KEgLVYxIAAAGDWHFfnsHz/ct|website=GazzettaStore.it|language=it|access-date=2023-11-29}}</ref> &ndash; though in both cases lacking the editorials. A similar license has followed suit when one was extended to Spanish publisher [[Planeta DeAgostini]], in conjuncture with [[partwork]] specialist {{ill|Ediciones Altaya|es}}, for their 2017/19 54-volume "Blueberry Edición Coleccionista",<ref>{{Cite web|title=''Blueberry Edición Coleccionista''|website=stripINFO.be|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?collectie=7093&sort=jaar|language=nl|access-date=2019-10-03|archive-date=2023-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405105723/https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?collectie=7093&sort=jaar|url-status=live}}</ref> very similar in concept to the earlier Hachette collection, but with the editorials written by Spanish comics author/historian Jorge Garcia.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cómics del teniente Blueberry|website=PlanetaDeAgostini.es|url=https://www.planetadeagostini.es/libros-comics/coleccion-western-comics-blueberry|language=es|access-date=2019-10-03|archive-date=2019-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003101937/https://www.planetadeagostini.es/libros-comics/coleccion-western-comics-blueberry|url-status=live}}</ref> In a very rare case of cross-fertilization, Altaya started in 2021 to release an into French translated version of the "Edición Coleccionista" on the French home market as the "Edition Collector",<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Blueberry - (Collection Altaya)'' |url=https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-75947-BD-Blueberry-Collection-Altaya.html |language=fr |access-date=2022-07-25 |archive-date=2022-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002040854/https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-75947-BD-Blueberry-Collection-Altaya.html |url-status=live }}</ref> at a time when reprint runs of individual titles were all but terminated on the home market for reasons explained [[#The commemorative series omnibus collection (2012–2019)|below]].

Jean-Michel Charlier has never witnessed the return of his creations to the parent publisher, nor has he ever mended fences with George Dargaud &ndash; for whose publishing house Charlier had made signature contributions after all &ndash; and who followed Charlier in death almost to the day one year later on July 18, 1990. To a large extent the publication wanderings of ''Blueberry'' has been mirrored in other European countries as well, particularly in Germany (where the era was referred to as "Der 'heimatlose' Blueberry" &ndash; "The 'homeless' Blueberry"<ref>[[#Jürgeit|Jürgeit, 2003, p. 10]]</ref>) and the Scandinavian countries (the Danes referring to the era as "Blueberrys Lange March" &ndash; "Blueberry's Long March"<ref>[[#Sources|Hjorth-Jørgensen, 1984, title page]]</ref>), where every publisher change was followed suit by similar changes among local publishers in those territories as well.<ref>Notable exceptions in the era 1979-1992 were Portugal, Spain and Italy, where respective publishers {{ill|Meribérica|pt}}, {{ill|Editorial Grijalbo|es}} and  Edizioni Nuova Frontiera, held ''Blueberry'' licenses from both Dargaud and Novedi, and in the former two cases from Alpen as well. Grijalbo and Nuova Frontiera eventually lost out to local competitors, when Dargaud renegotiated the ''Blueberry'' licenses in 1993/94, whereas Meribérica lost its one decade later.</ref> How confusing this era had been, was exemplified by the aforementioned "La longue marche" title, which has been released in French by no less than six publishers in the time period 1980–2003,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Blueberry 19: La longue marche|website=Bedetheque.com|url=http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Blueberry-Tome-19-La-longue-marche-24173.html|language=fr|access-date=2017-04-15|archive-date=2017-04-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416044531/http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Blueberry-Tome-19-La-longue-marche-24173.html|url-status=live}}</ref> or even seven, if one is to include the ''Super As'' serialized magazine publication as well.

Though the 2007 "Apaches" title became the last in the main ''Blueberry'' series, as creating comics became increasingly difficult for Giraud because his eyesight started to fail him in his last years, he did continue to create single-piece ''Blueberry'' art on larger canvases on either commission basis (such as for the aforementioned ''Le Soir'' editions) or under the aegis of Mœbius Production until his own death in 2012, much of which sold for considerable prices from 2005 onward, alongside older original ''Blueberry'' art Giraud still had in his possession,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://comicarttracker.com/blueberry-original-art-for-sale|title=Blueberry, Looking for Blueberry original art?|website=www.comicarttracker.com|access-date=2024-05-10}}</ref> in specialized comic auctions at such auction houses like [[Artcurial]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Giraud Moebius |website=Artvalue.com| url=http://www.artvalue.com/auction-results--29359-59--23--------1-GIRAUD-Jean-Artcurial-Briest-Poulain-F-Tajan.htm?MAISONS_PAYS%3D11&MAISONS_VILLE%3D457&cp_checked%3D0|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170929010606/http://www.artvalue.com/auction-results--29359-59--23--------1-GIRAUD-Jean-Artcurial-Briest-Poulain-F-Tajan.htm?MAISONS_PAYS=11&MAISONS_VILLE=457&cp_checked=0 |archive-date=29 September 2017 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=fr}}</ref> [[Hôtel Drouot]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Docteur Gir & Mister Moebius |website=Gazette-Drouot.com| url=http://www.gazette-drouot.com/static/magazine_ventes_aux_encheres/coup_de_coeur_enchere/050512_moebius.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522055853/https://www.gazette-drouot.com/static/magazine_ventes_aux_encheres/coup_de_coeur_enchere/050512_moebius.html |archive-date=22 May 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |language=fr}}</ref> and Millon & Associés.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jean Giraud Moebius|website=stripINFO.be|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/68043_Jean_Giraud_Moebius_1_Jean_Giraud_Moebiusl|language=nl|access-date=2019-10-03|archive-date=2019-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003101941/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/68043_Jean_Giraud_Moebius_1_Jean_Giraud_Moebiusl|url-status=live}}; auction catalog.</ref>

====The commemorative omnibus collection series (2012–2019)====
{{quote box|align=right|width=45%|quote="About 2,000 copies of each title are sold every year. It's pretty good, although there has been unfortunately nothing new since "Dust", the 28th volume published seven years ago".|salign=right|source=—Philippe Ostermann, Deputy Managing Director Dargaud, December 2012, on the lack of the economic incentive for releasing a general "intégrale" on the Francophone market before Giraud's death.<ref name="casm54">{{cite news |last=Fuéri |first=Jean-Pierre |date=December 2012 |title=L'intégrale en 'attendant |work=Casemate |issue=54 |pages=48–49  |publisher=Pomme Presse |location=Paris |language=fr}}</ref>}}
Shortly after Jean Giraud had died on 10 March 2012 as well, Dargaud embarked in November that year on the release of the ''Blueberry'' main series 9-volume "Intégrale" anthology/omnibus collection, completed in December 2019.<ref name="integrale"/> Though there had been several (international) "Intégrale" versions released before, this version, each volume collecting either three or four individual volumes of the main series, was intended to become the definitive one and each volume was greatly enhanced with elaborate and richly illustrated editorials, written by France's preeminent comics scholars such as {{ill|José-Louis Bocquet|fr}}, {{ill|Patrick Gaumer|fr}} or Gilles Ratier, among others. It quickly evolved into an international release as it has by 2023 become translated into Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, (Brazilian) Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, and Swedish.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Integrale uitgave 1|website=stripINFO.be|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/280311_Blueberry_INT_A1_Integrale_uitgave_1|language=nl|access-date=2019-10-03|archive-date=2019-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003114153/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/280311_Blueberry_INT_A1_Integrale_uitgave_1|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Launched in 2019, the German and Danish editions were remarkable in this respect in that these countries had already seen their aforementioned and relatively recent 2006-2011/17 Egmont omnibus editions (which had themselves already been quite elaborate as well), constituting an enduring testament to the continuing popularity of Giraud's ''Blueberry'' in those countries, Germany in particular.

It turned out a half year later that such a collection had already been in the works in conjuncture with Giraud himself prior to his death, but not as a general release as eventually realized, but rather as a to 10–12,000 copies one-time-only limited "collector's edition" Francophone market exclusive. As Dargaud deputy manager Philippe Ostermann had explained in the quote box on the right, an economic necessity for a general intégrale release had not yet materialized by the time Giraud died. After Giraud's death though and pursuant securing the blessings of both his and Charlier's heirs, it was decided with the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the series in mind to turn the project into a general release after all,<ref name="casm54"/> which effectively terminated the reprint runs of the individual volumes of the main series in each of the language territories where the collection was released, save for the aforementioned unique special license releases &ndash; in some countries, such as Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, individual volume reprint runs of the main series had already been suspended indefinitely long before the release in those territories of the intégrale edition. The German edition of the collection, carries the subtitle "Collector's Edition", as a reminder of the original intent of the collection, aside from distinguishing it from their Egmont edition. However though, and just as had been the case with the Egmont edition (see ''[[#English translations|below]]''), a glaring omission in the Dargaud collection remained the "Three Black Birds" short story, excepting a single page for illustrative purposes in the editorial of volume 8 only. That Isabelle Giraud had chosen not sign off on the collection publication of that story as a whole had everything to do with the intense, [[#Ramifications|below-explained animosity]] she harbored towards Philippe Charlier.

In 2017, a ''Marshal Blueberry'' intégrale, collecting the three individual volumes of the intermezzo mini-series, was additionally released by Dargaud, likewise seeing several international translations.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Marshal Blueberry: De Integrale|website=stripINFO.be|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/343142_Marshal_Blueberry_INT_1_De_integrale|language=nl|access-date=2021-06-13|archive-date=2021-06-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613082855/https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/343142_Marshal_Blueberry_INT_1_De_integrale|url-status=live}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Though similarly executed, it was not released as part of 2012 intégrale series, but rather as a stand-alone, or Hors Séries (HS &ndash; "outside the series"), release. Furthermore, it also lacked any editorials &ndash; which ironically made the earlier corresponding Egmont release from 2006 the superior one, as that volume did feature editorials.<ref>{{cite web |last=Tomblaine |first=Philippe |title=" Marshal Blueberry : l'Intégrale " par William Vance, Michel Rouge, Jean Giraud et Thierry Smolderen |url=http://bdzoom.com/123671/patrimoine/%c2%ab-marshal-blueberry-l%e2%80%99integrale-%c2%bb-par-william-vance-michel-rouge-jean-giraud-et-thierry-smolderen |work=BDzoom.com |date=21 December 2017 |language=fr |access-date=27 August 2022 |archive-date=27 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827082029/http://bdzoom.com/123671/patrimoine/%C2%AB-marshal-blueberry-l%E2%80%99integrale-%C2%BB-par-william-vance-michel-rouge-jean-giraud-et-thierry-smolderen/ |url-status=live }}</ref>