Blueberry: Fort Navajo

Page 5

Prepublished in the magazine PILOTE No 288 (29.04.1965). Published as an album, called "Fort Navajo, une aventure du Lieutenant Blueberry" in late 1965.
I think the story in PILOTE was simply called "Fort Navajo" without mentioning Blueberry at all. In fact Blueberry was one of many main characters in this first arc and it took a while to decide that Blueberry should be the focal point of the story, which lead to the fact that the other main characters were written out of the story by Charlier.

I started my Blueberry experience in the 1980s with this album.
With this page 5 the journey starts. The first time you see Blueberry riding (in a landscape that is inspired by Giraud's and Charlier's most recent US experience). A scene in the stage coach with Lieutenant Craig, that is inspired by John Wayne films.

The style of Giraud is still very near to Jijé's style (and will be like that in the next 3-4 albums). There are some mistakes from Giraud (look at the text bubble in Panel 4 that was to large and therefore covered up by a small piece of paper), but it definitely has its charm and looks beautiful in reality.

When I brought this page to Europe, it was not in a very good state. So thank you Vincent for the recommendation of the right artist who could restore this page and very carefully brought it to the state in which it is now.