Editing Blueberry (comics) (section)

====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>