Welcome behind the scenes of Foulane Adventures. Volume 2 takes place in Indonesia, on the island of Buru. It was also drawn in Indonesia, in Bandung, by Agus Suherman, Lead Artist at the BDouin studio, and the drawing team he leads. The method is the same for volume 1, Les filets fantômes; we show you volume 2 because it takes place where it was drawn. Agus opened his working files for us and answered our questions: here is how a page is born, from the first idea to the last speech bubble.
Foulane Adventures behind the scenes: it all starts with reading
Before drawing, Agus reads Norédine Allam’s script, then does his research. Mount Botak is far from home: Bandung is on Java, Buru lies in the Maluku archipelago, more than two thousand kilometres away.
Did you know this place before drawing it?
It is far from our island, but yes: through encyclopaedias, the news, documentaries. The gold rush, the mercury in the water, I had heard about it on the news.
How did you find the look of the mountain? Photos, videos, memory?
All of the above. And a lot of imagination.
The whole book, in miniature
Before drawing a single page, Agus lays out the whole book in thumbnails: small, quick digital pages that come before the storyboard. The 42 pages of the story fit on three sheets. This is where the page breakdown, the framing and the place of every speech bubble are decided. On these thumbnails the characters are just strokes, and the bubbles are still in English, the studio’s working language.
Eight steps for one page
How is a page of volume 2 born, from the first line to the final colour?
Always in the same order:
1Reading the script and research
2Concept
3Thumbnails
4Clean pencils, once the thumbnail is approved
5Inking
6Flat colours
7Final colour
8Bubbles and lettering
And how long does it take?
Two to three days per page, from clean pencils to final colour. Not counting corrections, changes and approvals.
And it is teamwork: Agus draws, the inking is by Hendranto Pratama Putra, the colour by Muhammad Iqbal Fauzy, Aditya Pranata and Iwan Joko Triyono.
From thumbnail to finished page
The pencils set the shapes; the inks give the characters their black silhouette, the studio’s signature for fifteen years; the colour brings in the light; and the bubbles come last, in French.
The hardest scene
Which scene gave you the most trouble?
The first one: the arrival at Mount Botak, when the story begins. There was a huge amount to set up, the layout of the site, the tents, the crowd of gold diggers. A single panel has to make the reader understand where they are.
Two other images in volume 2 called for something other than mapping. The professor who loses his mind over gold is first read in his bearing, unkempt, aggressive, anxious: the gestures and expressions carry the scene. And the mountain closing in on the miners hides, Agus says, a secret: the greed behind the glitter of gold.
His favourite page
The panel of volume 2 you are proudest of?
Page 38, the climax.
In the studio’s files it is page 38 of the episode; in the printed book, page 42: the big flood page. On the thumbnail, the water is a few blue lines. On the final page, it sweeps everything away.
What he hopes
What do you hope a child, or a parent, takes away from this story?
To understand the environment and become aware of it. To love nature, and to protect it. And to always remain grateful.
And for his French-speaking readers, he wrote one sentence, in French:
« Suivons l’aventure au cœur de l’histoire. »
Let’s follow the adventure into the heart of the story.
Agus Suherman, Lead Artist at the BDouin studio
Foulane Adventures behind the scenes continues with the portrait of Agus Suherman, Lead Artist at the studio.
Interview conducted in writing on 30 September 2026, edited by the BDouin editorial team. The books are published in French.
