Albers, Henk - 1 Original colour drawing - Lucky Luke - (jaren 1960)

Henk Albers (Amsterdam, 26 August 1927 – 20 September 1987) was a Dutch comic artist and illustrator.

Career
During the Second World War, Albers trained at the Toonder Studios, where he worked in the animation department. After the war, he became a contributor to the magazine Stripfilm, and later to Wim Meuldijk’s Ketelbinkiekrant. During this period, he drew several newspaper comics, including De kat and Stuffy McLion (a parody of Nazi Germany), as well as several controversial stories for which he sometimes had to answer questions at the police station.

From 1956, Albers worked as a freelancer; among other things, he was the regular illustrator for AVRO’s Radiobode and drew record covers and advertising posters. In 1957, he moved to De Geïllustreerde Pers’s weekly magazine Donald Duck, for which he created the Ditjes en datjes column and the Duckstadkrant. After eight years, he began working for the magazine Pep, drawing parodies of Lucky Luke. In 1974, he left for the Paris-based Dargaud, where he drew more Lucky Luke stories in collaboration with Yvan Delporte.

From 1960 until his death in 1987, Albers also drew the series Silly Symphonies for Donald Duck. The characters that appeared most often in Albers’ “Peppers” column in the Dutch comics magazine Pep came from Morris and René Goscinny’s Western series Lucky Luke. The series itself also ran in Pep. The editors noticed the similarities between Morris’s and Albers’s styles and asked their colleague to develop the idea further. Between 1969 and 1972, he and editor Jan van Gelderen created countless “variations” on classic world literature, featuring characters from the Lucky Luke comics. Later came the column De Wereld van Lucky Luke (1973), with information about the Wild West. One of the pages featured the sheet music for the classic song that ended every Lucky Luke story, “The Lonesome Cowboy.”

Lucky Luke artist Morris personally gave Albers permission to draw his characters. This was a unique gesture, as Morris had previously overseen everything himself. When Éditions Dargaud launched a monthly magazine about the heroic cowboy, Morris suggested that Albers draw the short stories. A total of twelve issues of Lucky Luke Mensuel appeared between March 1974 and February 1975. Albers contributed four short stories in collaboration with scriptwriter Yvan Delporte, as well as full-colour illustrations.

This lot contains an original painting by Henk Albers of De Rechtbank, from Lucky Luke and published in PEP. The painting is in exceptionally fine condition. Before being offered for sale, it had been kept in a private collection for more than 45 years.

See also the photographs, which form part of the description and give a good impression of the item on offer.

This showpiece will be carefully packed and sent by registered parcel post.