Andreas: Of Philippe Foerster I know that he is, like me, influenced by Wrightson. He loved him even more than I. Antonio Cossu is influenced by a much more diverse company of draftsmen. He learned from both Italian, Argentinian and American draftsmen. Therefore he is a much more all-round draftsman. All three of us do have a liking for the fantastic strip.

Andreas: Not at school. At St.-Luc everything was more focused on 'Moebius' and the Belgian school. At that time I did discover my American influences. In shops and at sales of libraries I encountered their work. Together with Philippe Foerster I bought my first albums of Berni Wrightson and Neal Adams. Later, the two of us - together with Antonio Cossu and Philippe Berthet - had an atelier together here in Brussels. The four of us were working on the same things for a long time.

Andreas: I am going to write a story for Antonio Cossu shortly. I don't know about Philippe Berthet. Maybe so, maybe not.

Andreas: There was a female draftsman, Antoinette Collin, who made things for Robbedoes. I think she has stopped. I think we were the first generation of Saint-Luc. In my year were Duveaux and me, in the next year Antonio Cossu, Philippe Foerster and Philippe Berthet, and the year after that François Schuiten and Goffin and later several others: Séraphine, Chantal de Spiegeleer. Who came after that I don't remember. When Schuiten came to Saint-Luc, we didn't understand what his purpose was. He had already published a short story in Pilote and was technically more advanced than the others.

Andreas: Yet I hold good memories on Saint-Luc, because of the friends and aquaintances it has left me. We shared the same passion, we all wanted to do comics. After Saint-Luc I worked with Antonio Cossu, Philippe Foerster and Philippe Berthet for - I don't remember exactly how long - six to twelve months. We had rented some space and made a workshop out of it. We had much fun. We discussed eachother's work, that was a lot of fun. Talking to comic book artists these days, its always about rights of authorship, contracts and the like. It's no longer about what's really interesting about the trade.

Andreas: Everyone did his own thing. We just started. I drew the first episode of Révélations posthumes in collaboration with François Rivière and made sketches for Eddy Paape. Antonio Cossu made drawings and the layout for a small business magazine. Philippe Berthet and Philippe Foerster worked on a book about hunting in Belgium; Berthet drew the animals and Foerster did the backgrounds and characters. That was the beginning, we became professional slowly but certainly. Then followed the first festivals of Angoulême, where we made our first important contacts...

Andreas: After Révélations posthumes I had prepared a new project for (A Suivre). It was a rather long story of 120 pages. They refused it at (A Suivre). I didn't continue it then. It was a somewhat fantastic story, something better suited for Tintin/Hello BD (fr); Kuifje (nl). So they were quite right for not wanting it. In the meanwhile I had left Tintin/Hello BD (fr); Kuifje (nl) and was suddenly out of work. Luckily my friend Antonio Cossu was in charge of a new series of black-and-white comics at Deligne (Michel). Then I said to him: "I want to do something for you." I knew Deligne, because he had published one of my stories from my time at Saint-Luc, four plates based on a story by Jean Ray. Deligne was interested in my offer and paid me - for that time - extremely well. He paid more than Tintin.
During the making of Cromwell Stone I moved to Brittany. I wrote it in Paris, I drew it in Bretagne.

Andreas: Yes, it was a trilogy. But if it's up to me Cyrrus is independent. In Mil I revert to a character that I use in a different way. I didn't finish the trilogy for the simple reason that I left Humanoïdes Associés. The third story was another complex construction: everytime Cyrrus disappeared in the first album, he would appear in the third. I wanted to make it with draftsmen like Antonio Cossu, Philippe Foerster and Philippe Berthet.