Editing Jean Giraud (section)

====Jijé apprenticeship (1961–1962)====
Shortly before he entered military service, Giraud visited his idol at his home for the first time with Mézières and Mallet, followed by a few visits on his own to see the master at work for himself. In 1961, returning from military service and his stint on ''5/5 Forces Françaises'', Giraud, not wanting to return to Fleurus, as he felt that he "had to do something else, if he ever wanted to evolve", became an apprentice of Jijé on his invitation, after he saw that Giraud had made artistic progress during his stay at ''5/5 Forces Françaises''.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 11]]; While Jijé recognized the potential of Giraud, when the young men showed him their work, he was not impressed by that of Mézières, who had suggested the visit in the first place on behalf of his friend. Mézières, however, had already been taken under the wing of another Belgian comic grandmaster, [[André F''ranking'']], who, ironically, had been an earlier apprentice of Jijé's.</ref> Jijé was then one of the leading comic artists in Europe and known for his gracious tendency to voluntarily act as a mentor for young, aspiring comic artists, of whom Giraud was but one, going even as far as opening up his family home in [[Champrosay]] for days on end for these youngsters which, again, included Giraud.<ref name="Jije">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 31-33, 136-137]]</ref> In this, Jijé resembled Belgian comic grandmaster Hergé, but unlike Jijé, Hergé only did so on a purely self-serving commercial basis, never on a voluntarily one. For Jijé, Giraud created several other shorts and illustrations for the short-lived magazine ''Bonux-Boy'' (1960/61), his first comic work after military service, and his penultimate one before embarking on ''Blueberry''.<ref name="sapristi">[[#Sources|Ledoux]], 1993, p. 77; Invariably overlooked by Giraud scholars (even by the otherwise thorough Sadoul &ndash; 2015, p. 23 &ndash; who mistook a comment of the artist as referring to the later published ''{{cite web|title=Total Journal|url=http://www.dlgdl.com/GENPAGES/DSE_CT2J.HTM}}'' magazine), ''{{cite web|title=Bonux-Boy|url=http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-54015-BD-Bonux-Boy-Les-histoires-de.html}}'' was a digest-sized marketing enticer for a French detergent of the same name, conceived by its marketing manager, Jijé's son Benoit Gillain. For Giraud, however, it was nevertheless of seminal importance as his work therein showed a marked progression over the work he had provided previously for Fleurus, indicating he had continued to work on his style during his military service, and which had been the main reason for Jijé to take on Giraud as an apprentice in the first place.</ref> In this period, Jijé used his apprentice for the inks on an outing of his Western series ''[[Jerry Spring]]'' &ndash; after whom Giraud had, unsurprisingly, modeled his Art Howell character previously &ndash; "The Road to Coronado", which Giraud inked.<ref name="Lambiek"/> Actually, Jijé had intended his promising pupil for the entirety of the story art, but the still-inexperienced Giraud, who was used to working under the relaxed conditions at Fleurus, found himself overwhelmed by the strict time schedules that production for a periodical (''Spirou'' in this case) demanded. Conceding that he had been a bit too cocky and ambitious, Giraud stated, "I started the story all by myself, but after a week, I had only finished half a plate, and aside from being soaked with my sweat, it was a complete disaster. So Joseph went on to do the penciling, whereas I did the inks."<ref name = "Moliterni"/> Even though Giraud did lose touch with his mentor eventually, he never forgot what "his master" had provided him with, both "aesthetically and professionally",<ref>[[#Sources|Bosser, 2005, pp. 79-80]]</ref> the fatherless Giraud gratefully stating in later life, "It was as if he had asked me «Do you want me to be your father?», and if by a miracle, I was provided with one, a[n] [comic] artist no less!".<ref name="Jije"/>