Moebius 8 (Epic) - Mississppi River [CBR]

Jean-Marc Lofficier's introduction:

"GONE WITH THE WIND, REVISITED

In 1979, Moebius and Jean-Michel Charlier found themselves embroiled in a business argument over their popular western series Lt. Blueberry with their French publisher Dargaud. As a result, the two creators decided to temporarily halt their work on Blueberry and create a new series. This is how and why Mississippi River was originally serialized in Metal Hurlant (the comics magazine co-founded by Moebius) in 1979.
Once again, Charlier and Moebius prowed prophetic in their experiment with the then traditional format of the classic high adventure story. Unlike almost any other comparable book of the period, Mississippi River is a totally anti-heroic story. None of the characters exhibits any noble emotions for any length of time and everyone ultimately proves ready and willing to betray anyone else, prowided that it is in his or her own interest.
Cutlass himseif, though resourceful, cuts a far less heroic figure than Blueberry. He has neither the moral sense of the battered cavalry lieutenant, nor his genius in desperate situations. Cutlass’s plans backfire more often than not, and only blind luck or momentum seem to help him to stay alive. He is, and ultimately remains, a loser. Today we would call such a story "grim", and only Moebius’s artful representation of a Louisiana sun-drenched by day, shadow-draped by night, saves the book from being dark in look as well as style.
For ten years, Mississippi River remained a one-shot book in Charlier and Moebius’s biography. However, before his untimely death in ‘89, Charlier wrote one more Jim Cutlass story entitled “The Nights of New Orleans’. That story is now being dravvn by young French artist Christian Rossi, whose previous graphic novel, Lea, The Confessions of Julius Antione (in collaboration with Serge Letendre) was recently published in English.
So maybe there’s still a chance that Cutlass will win after all!
Heh!"