Tanguy, at the controls of his Mirage and taking off from his French base in Dijon, “tearing along at top speed as he goes to confront mysterious invaders in the sky over France” – thus Jean-Michel Charlier in Les Vampires attaquent la nuit (Vampires Attack at Night), from which this page – the 15th – is taken. It was published in Pilote no 547, on 30 April 1970.Tanguy and Laverdure were associated with Journal Pilote from its inception in 1959, at which time Albert Uderzo was responsible for the drawing.In an interview conducted in October 1978, Jijé explained to Henri Filippini how he had come to take over the series: “Uderzo wanted to give up this realistic series, which – given how successful we all know Astérix was – he didn’t feel particularly confident about. Jean-Michel Charlier asked me if I knew a cartoonist capable of taking over the series, and I offered my services. (...) At first, I tried to do it the ‘à la Uderzo’, but that was really laborious, so I very soon reverted to my own style.” And he noted that “Commercially speaking, a Tanguy is worth two Jerry Springs” (published in Les Cahiers de la Bande Dessinée, no 39).