The Enigma of Franka A3

In this special A-series we show some oddities in drawings. Or mistakes. Or aberrations. Or anything you like. In this issue:

Silkscreen print Citroen

When Citroën celebrated its 75th birthday an exposition was organised titled "Citroën in comics". For this purpose Henk Kuijpers was asked to make a new version of the backcover of Cutthroat Competition for a beautiful silkscreen print of 50x65 cm. He changed for instance all the cars on the Champs Elyssees into Citroëns (except for the show-off cars in front of the fashion gallery).

As you can see on this image of the backcover a large area where the titles of the other albums are printed had to be filled up. Now, what you cannot see on this picture is that in the course of this "filling up" something weird has occurred. Those who have a copy of the silkscreen print or who have another copy of the image (e.g. in the Franka Info Krant of may '94 of Griffioen Grafiek), can take a closer look. All the other readers will have to believe it. Take a good look at the lamppost right behind the open door of the taxi. Look, the driver opens the door for Franka. This lamppost is in front of the tree. If we look up along this lamppost here in the presented image, then it disappears behind the list of titles. As we told you before, Henk perfectly completed the picture for the silkscreen print. Perfectly? Or was he in an Escher-mood? What do we see on the silkscreen print? The shining of the lamp disappears behind the tree! So the bottom of the lamppost is in front of the tree and the top is behind the tree. Is this a mistake or was it done on purpose? Peculiar it is, indeed!