I read the news that French comic artist André Juillard died yesterday, July 31st.
In 2007, Juillard and Cosey had a joint exposition at Galerie Daniel Maghen in Paris. Maghen had just published ‘Echo’ and republished ‘Entr’acte’, an art book by Juillard. From that time, I remember a video in which Juillard and Cosey discuss the colouring of their albums: Juillard used inks, Cosey gouache, and Juillard told he first coloured all the blue skies of an album, while Cosey worked page by page. At least, that is how I remember it.
André Juillard wrote the foreword for ‘Echo’, in which he admires how the drawings of Cosey, through the years, have become clearer and more transparent (Juillard uses the intranslatable word ‘limpidité’), drawings without embellishments, drawings that go to the essential.
In 1995, Juillard won the prize for ‘Album of the Year’ at Angoulême for ‘Le Cahier Bleu’. Rumours are that Juillard thought of offering the scenario to Cosey, but that finally he decided to draw it himself.
In an old interview in Swiss newspaper Le Temps, I found this quote by Cosey, about Juillard: “He is someone modest and level-headed, we share a taste for culture, painters, literature… What I especially appreciate is that he really loves comics, like me, and that he completely accepts this status as a craftsman and a comic artist and not a painter.”
