On the poster for the FIBD 2018 in Angoulême, Cosey summarises his life in comics. These are the references I found, in chronological order:
- 1975 – Jonathan 1: Souviens-toi, Jonathan… The earring of Saïcha. The first Jonathan, an obvious choice to include in the poster.
- 1978 – Jonathan 5: L’espace bleu entre les nuages Clouds and blue sky refer to the painting that gives its name to the album. In many interviews, Cosey has said this is one of his favourite Jonathan albums.
- 1980 – Jonathan 7: Kate A break-through album, winning the prize for ‘Best album’ in Angoulême (in 1982).
- 1984 – À la recherche de Peter Pan His first one-shot album with its iconic cover.
- 1988 – Le Voyage en Italie His second one-shot album, starting the famous Aire Libre collection of Dupuis. The album with an ending that hurts.
- 1997 – Jonathan 12: Celui qui mène les fleuves à la mer After a break of eleven years, Cosey continues his Jonathan series.
- 2005 – Le Bouddha d’Azur Cosey’s farewell to Tibet.
- 2016 – Mickey: Une mystérieuse mélodie A childhood dream comes true when Cosey makes a Mickey Mouse album.
- 2017 – Calypso Cosey’s first black-and-white album.
And finally – Jonathan or Cosey, the eternal question. From the very start of the Jonathan series there has been confusion: is Jonathan Cosey? Cosey’s answer: Jonathan is an imporved version of himself, the most notable difference is that Jonathan ages much more slowly than his creator.
Open for investigation: the pattern bottom left, I couldn’t find it in the albums. The mountain at the right (between Mickey and Voyage en Italie): I am not sure if this is a specific mountain from one of the albums. Determining mountains in albums of Cosey is a task that requires many winter evenings…
What do we miss in the poster? First of all I think of ‘Hanoi-Saigon’, winner of the ‘Best scenario’ prize in Angoulême in 1993. Second, the latest Jonathan (Celle qui fut) could have been included because it closes the Jonathan series. And finally, maybe a tiny reference to Derib, who took young Bernard Cosey in as an apprentice in 1969, would have been nice. But maybe it is in the poster, and I simply didn’t notice…