Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean -Michel Charlier ( born October 30, 1924 in Liege, Belgium, † 10 July 1989 in Paris, France) was a Belgian comic book scriptwriter. He is considered one of the most important European authors of adventure comics and wrote among other things the well-known Western series Lt. Blueberry.
Life
1920s to the 1940s
Jean -Michel Charlier showed at an early age a special interest in storytelling and thought, for example, from knights - comics that he drew in great books. In 1942 he began to study law. In 1944 he published in the Belgian comic magazine Spirou simple comic strips about the profession of aircraft pilots and flying. At this time, Charlier was still working as an author and illustrator in personal union. Its highly detailed aircraft images enjoyed at the youthful readers of the Journal de Spirou great popularity. 1946 Charlier learned the young artist Victor Hubinon, and began to design along with him the aviator comic book series Buck Danny. End of the 40s Charlier acquired for research purposes a pilot's license and worked for a time as a courier flyer for Sabena. Hubinon and Charlier told in Buck Danny the adventurous experiences of three U.S. pilots around the world and produced up to Hubinons death in 1979, 34 albums. Since 1983, the number of the subscriber Francis Bergèse will continue.
1950s and 1960s
The success of Buck Danny prompted Charlier to hang the legal profession on the nail and then on to work as a comic book writer. From the late 1940s he produced a variety of cartoon scenarios for the magazine Spirou and proved to be highly productive, albeit moderately paid author. He wrote, among other things, the pirate comic Surcouf, the Knights series Belloy ( illustrator Albert Uderzo ) and told the adventures of the big game hunter Tiger Joe. These early stories were spread with great naivete and helped themselves unconcerned many clichés of content ( Colonial romance etc.). 1954 launched the Charlier durable Pathfinder series La Patrouille des Castors (Eng. The Blue Panther), which was tailored to the needs of adolescent readership of Spirou. Mid-1950s oversaw the tireless copywriter eight comic series simultaneously.
Jean -Michel Charlier was increasingly unhappy with the working conditions and the payment of the Spirou Dupuis. Together with his colleague Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny he made himself independent and established an advertising and a press agency. But he continued to work for Spirou. In the fall of 1959, the trio launched the French comics magazine Pilote, which was from the beginning very successful. While Uderzo and Goscinny Pilote in the humorous series Asterix presented that it was a worldwide success soon, Charlier launched the two realistic adventure series Tanguy et Laverdure (Eng. Mick Tangy ) and Barbe- Rouge (Eng. The Crimson Pirate ). Many Pilote series had a strong France - reference.
1963 created Charlier together with the young artist Jean Giraud his most important series: the Western Lieutenant Blueberry. Charlier equipped Lieutenant Blueberry first with relatively conventional (albeit exciting ) scenarios, although more complex and enigmatic been over the years. The plots of the series almost always spanned several comic books, which is why the corresponding cycles were often completed only after several years. From the 1970s onwards also the sub-cycles were linked together, so that the story took on an epic form.
The Adventures of unconventional lieutenants were thanks to the brilliant lyrics Charlier and Giraud's extraordinary drawings become a classic of European comic culture. Until his death Charlier wrote 28 Blueberry albums. Today, the series continues with various artists and writers.
1970s and 1980s
Until the early 1970s Charlier led its established series continues with high productivity. During this time he was also co-wrote the animated film about Tim and the Haifischsee. In 1972 he resigned as editor of Pilote, because he was no longer agree with the editorial line of the magazine, which had increasingly modernized and radicalized. Charlier worked as an editor and television producer and was briefly editor of the comic magazine Nouveau Tintin. His established lines he continued only sporadically. Around the year 1980 died around with Victor Hubinon Jijé and two of its major artist. Her series Barbe- Rouge and Tanguy et Laverdure he left - continue by other artists - with significant loss of quality. From 1985, he realized with the New Zealand artist Colin Wilson three youth Adventures of Lieutenant Blueberry.
Jean -Michel Charlier, known for his hectic workday and his excessive fondness for good food, was taken in the spring of 1989 in a hospital. There he died on July 10 of the same year at the age of 64 years.
Content and ideology of Charlier's Comics
Jean -Michel Charlier is one of the central figures of the European comic book history. His extraordinary productivity resulted in more than 200 comic books. Charlier's knowledge and ingenuity ensured that he could invent thrilling adventure stories for almost every genre. Charlier moved here generally do not have the limitations of the particular genre also, but saw himself in the tradition of classic narrator as Alexandre Dumas, who wanted to produce only exciting entertainment. As Dumas had Charlier his fictional characters act like in front of a concrete historical background with historical figures to give the event a sham authenticity.
Unlike Goscinny Charlier gave its painters usually not the final scenario for the entire album from. He gave the artists rather gradually the texts for the individual pages, which they often felt they were frustrating. Because of its enormous workload Charlier had to regularly supply difficulties at all time texts. Albert Uderzo told, the scenarist had once dictated to him the conclusion of an album in an improvised manner over the phone.
Many of Charlier's protagonists correspond to the classical type of hero: strong, good-looking men who are morally infallible and make the right decisions. You emphasized funny side characters are like begotten, who provided humorous scenes. Charlier was known as a conservative and told, for example, the adventures of the French fighter pilots Tanguy et Laverdure in a clearly nationalist context. In the 1980s, the pilots fought for Buck Danny preferred against communist conspirators and terrorists links.
The representation of women is marked with Charlier added from the ancient role models: Attractive women spy mostly for the other side, less attractive be used for grotesque gags ( an exception is the self- conscious saloon singer Chihuhaha Pearl, in the Lieutenant Blueberry love ). The ideological / political context of Charlier's scenario can be seen from the temporal distance out with a critical eye. In many cases served and confirmed the author relatively carefree time- based prejudices and stereotypes.
Although almost all major Charlier series were published over the decades in Germany, there he is still very much material that has been there never published.
Works
- L' agony you Bismarck ( 1946)
- Buck Danny (1947-1989)
- Joë la Tornade (1948-1949)
- Tarawa (1948-1949)
- Surcouf (1949-1952)
- Belloy (1950-1958)
- Fanfan et Polo (1950-1952)
- Tiger Joe (1950-1953)
- Uncle Paul (1951-1954)
- Valhardi (1951-1957)
- Kim Devil (1953-1956)
- The Blue Panther (1954-1979)
- Mermoz (1955-1956)
- André Lefort (1956 )
- Marc Dacier (1958-1967)
- Dan Cooper (1959-1962)
- The Crimson Pirate (1959-1989)
- Jacques Le Gall (1959-1967)
- Tanguy and Laverdure (1959-1989)
- Lee Simba (1960-1961)
- Guy Lebleu (1961-1967)
- Ned Tiger ( 1962)
- Lieutenant Blueberry (1963-1989)
- 4 Hommes de l'Air et du Cosmos ( 1963-1964 )
- Marco Polo ( 1964)
- Brice Bolt (1970-1972)
- Jim Cutlass (1976-1989)
- The Gringos (1979-1989)
- Michel Brazier (1979 )
- The youth of Blueberry (1985-1989)
- Le Privé (1985-1986)
- Ron Clarke ( 1989)