It was following the meeting between Clovis and myself that the idea of “Historickx, le petit Jacky illustré” was born, a serie of funny cartoons retracing the career of Jacky Ickx. In January 2004, while I was having lunch with Jacky Ickx, I showed him the drawings that Clovis had made for this series and he fell under his spell. He immediately telephoned Clovis to encourage him to make others and why not publish them. That’s how the adventure began. Less than ten months later, the book was released and unveiled to the public on 10 December 2004 at the Euro Racing Show in Luxembourg.

A few days earlier, Jacky had agreed to sign 500 copies of the limited and numbered series. The photos from this signing session are here.

This Monday, December 13, 2004, it was in the showroom of Porsche Belgium that took place the official presentation of the book.
When he arrived, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Christine Beckers, a pilot whom I have always admired since his debut and for whom I have always had a lot of sympathy (not to say more). Among the guests were also Pascal Ickx and Larissa Ickx as well as my friends Valérie Simon and Dominique Dreneau who came specially from France for this occasion. The press was also greatly represented..

In the presence of Jacky Ickx, Jean-Luc de Krahe presented the authors, Clovis and Etienne Visart, who then delivered their anecdotes related to Jacky and the book. Jacky Ickx then took the floor to thank the authors and myself. The speeches then left room for a signing session. The rest of the evening was in a good mood full of cordial discussions.

The photos of this evening are available in this gallery. I would like to thank my son Luc and Dominique Dreneau for the quality of their photos.

Written by Julien Garnier
Initially published on 15-10-2004