MIRALLES Lot n° 32

ANA MIRALLES DJINN The Tattoo (T.3), Dargaud 2003 Original plate n° 36 with its eight preparatory steps in graphite on tracing paper. Signed. Watercolor and India ink on paper 32 × 41 cm (12.6 × 16.14 in.) A lie is sealed on the couch of old Sultan Murati. Youssouf Sarki, head of the corps of his eunuchs, has just betrayed the sovereign. The latter had charged him to bring back Jade, his favorite, and to eliminate the Nelson couple, but Youssouf succumbed to the heady poison of the djinn. The two Englishmen, whose bones are said to turn white in the desert, are in fact safe. Two generations later, Ebu Sarki, master of the citadel of Morta Sala - and himself a grandson of Youssouf - recounts this episode to Kim, Jade's granddaughter. The latter will commit suicide a few pages later, desperate not to be able to love Jade in a concrete way. Here, the tempo and the staging are worthy of this golden age of American comics, where Ana Miralles draws her strongest roots. And as a bonus, from the browned complexion of the eunuch to the fuchsia of the hangings, a brilliant play of colors.