Raymond Macherot
Encyclopedia
Raymond Macherot was a Belgian
cartoonist. Although not nearly as famous as fellow Belgian cartoonists such as Hergé
or André Franquin
, Macherot's work, both as artist and writer, remains highly regarded among critics and collectors.
, Belgium
in 1924. He wanted to become a journalist or a painter but, for financial reasons, he became an illustrator and comics artist. Following the end of World War II
, Macherot began his career producing a few cartoons in the style of Virgil Partch for the satirical weekly Pan, under the pseudonym "Zara". In 1953, he joined the comics magazine
Tintin
where he wrote a scenario for Fred Funcken's Le chevalier blanc, and made numerous illustrations and magazine covers.
In 1954, Macherot created the series Chlorophylle, featuring anthropomorphic animals. Macherot sets his first adventures in the countryside, where Chlorophylle, a dormouse
, and his best friend Minimum, try to defeat animal villains often much bigger than themselves, typically led by the megalomaniac rat, Anthracite.
With Les croquillards (1957), Macherot placed his characters to the island of Croquefredouille, a fictitious country populated entirely with "civilized" animals, complete with technology, police, government, and so on. Strangely, Macherot's publisher, Le Lombard
, refused to release the Croquefredouille stories in book form until 1980.
Alternatively, in 1959, Macherot created Colonel Clifton, a series about a retired MI6 detective. He did three books worth of material, all the while continuing Chlorophylle, before calling it quits and moving to Spirou
, run by competitor-publisher Dupuis
.
Le Lombard
retained the rights to Macherot's abandoned series. Chlorophylle was taken up with mild success by successive teams of authors, notably Dupa
& Greg, as well as Walli and Bob de Groot
. As for Clifton, Turk
& De Groot
turned the series into a relative hit.
wrote the scenarios for Sibylline. Macherot ended the series upon his retirement in 1990.
Other series created by Macherot for Spirou include Pantoufle (with René Goscinny
), Mirliton (with Raoul Cauvin
), and as scenarist on Mulligan with Yvan Delporte
and Isabelle
, with Delporte and André Franquin
. In the 1990s, Chaminou was revived, first by the team of Yann Lepennetier and Denis Bodart, and later by Olivier Saive, who completely redrew and augmented Chaminou et le Khrompire under Macherot's supervision, splitting it in two volumes. As for Sibylline, the series has been revived in 2006 by André Taymans for new adventures, also under Macherot's supervision.
Raymond Macherot died in the night of 25 and 26 September 2008 in his sleep.
mandatory to all. As a result, his villains are often natural predators who choose to ignore the law of the land. Additionally, Macherot's intrigues often veer into the political, particularly during the so-called "Croquefredouille cycle" as well as in Chaminou et le Khrompire, and the subject of war
is alluded to in many of his stories.
In addition, Macherot is credited on the following Chaminou books but has not contributed to the story or art:
Later Sibylline stories have not seen publication in book form, though they have been published in Spirou Magazine.
New Sibylline stories are currently being produced by André Taymans. Macherot receives credit on the cover though his actual involvement is unclear.
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
cartoonist. Although not nearly as famous as fellow Belgian cartoonists such as Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
or André Franquin
André Franquin
André Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best known comic strip creations are Gaston and Marsupilami, created while he worked on the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1947 to 1969, during a period seen by many as the series' golden age.-Franquin's beginnings:Franquin was...
, Macherot's work, both as artist and writer, remains highly regarded among critics and collectors.
The Tintin years
Raymond Macherot was born in VerviersVerviers
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
in 1924. He wanted to become a journalist or a painter but, for financial reasons, he became an illustrator and comics artist. Following the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Macherot began his career producing a few cartoons in the style of Virgil Partch for the satirical weekly Pan, under the pseudonym "Zara". In 1953, he joined the comics magazine
Franco-Belgian comics magazines
Belgium and France have a long tradition in comics. They have a common history for comics and magazines.In the early years of its history, magazines had a large place on the comics market and were often the only place where comics were published. Most of them were kids-targeted.In the 1970s,...
Tintin
Tintin (magazine)
Le journal de Tintin or Kuifje , was a weekly Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century...
where he wrote a scenario for Fred Funcken's Le chevalier blanc, and made numerous illustrations and magazine covers.
In 1954, Macherot created the series Chlorophylle, featuring anthropomorphic animals. Macherot sets his first adventures in the countryside, where Chlorophylle, a dormouse
Dormouse
Dormice are rodents of the family Gliridae. Dormice are mostly found in Europe, although some live in Africa and Asia. They are particularly known for their long periods of hibernation...
, and his best friend Minimum, try to defeat animal villains often much bigger than themselves, typically led by the megalomaniac rat, Anthracite.
With Les croquillards (1957), Macherot placed his characters to the island of Croquefredouille, a fictitious country populated entirely with "civilized" animals, complete with technology, police, government, and so on. Strangely, Macherot's publisher, Le Lombard
Le Lombard
Le Lombard or Lombard Editions is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when the Tintin magazine was launched. In 1986 the company was acquired by Média-Participations.-Titles:Lombard's more famous series include:*Clifton...
, refused to release the Croquefredouille stories in book form until 1980.
Alternatively, in 1959, Macherot created Colonel Clifton, a series about a retired MI6 detective. He did three books worth of material, all the while continuing Chlorophylle, before calling it quits and moving to Spirou
Spirou (magazine)
Spirou magazine is a weekly Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company...
, run by competitor-publisher Dupuis
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...
.
Le Lombard
Le Lombard
Le Lombard or Lombard Editions is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when the Tintin magazine was launched. In 1986 the company was acquired by Média-Participations.-Titles:Lombard's more famous series include:*Clifton...
retained the rights to Macherot's abandoned series. Chlorophylle was taken up with mild success by successive teams of authors, notably Dupa
Dupa
Luc Dupanloup, more famous under his pen name Dupa, was a Belgian comics artist best known as the creator of Cubitus which later was turned into an animated series called Wowser...
& Greg, as well as Walli and Bob de Groot
Bob de Groot
Bob de Groot was born on 26 October 1941 in Brussels, to Dutch and French parents and is a Belgian comics artist and writer.-Biography:While still a young art student de Groot got his first comics experience as an assistant to Maurice Tillieux on Félix. He began creating shorter work for the comics...
. As for Clifton, Turk
Philippe Liégeois
Philippe Liégeois is a Belgian comic book artist, born on 8 July 1947. He is best known by his penname Turk. He is the co-author of numerous comic books, including Colonel Clifton, Léonard and Robin Dubois...
& De Groot
Bob de Groot
Bob de Groot was born on 26 October 1941 in Brussels, to Dutch and French parents and is a Belgian comics artist and writer.-Biography:While still a young art student de Groot got his first comics experience as an assistant to Maurice Tillieux on Félix. He began creating shorter work for the comics...
turned the series into a relative hit.
The Spirou years
Macherot began his stint at Spirou with a new series, Chaminou, featuring a cat secret agent to the King, living in the country Zoolande. However, Chaminou's first story, Chaminou et le Khrompire (1964), was discontinued by the publisher and Macherot abandoned Chaminou. Closer to Chlorophylle, Sibylline, featured a female mouse and her fiancé Taboum. Many books have been published in this series, which enjoyed a certain amount of success. From 1972 to 1976, Paul DeliègePaul Deliège
Paul Deliège was a Belgian artist and writer of comics, and was married with two children.-Biography:Deliège was born in Olne. He started in the daily Le Soir with Père Bricole et Félicien et les Romanis. In 1959, he got into éditions Dupuis where he launched les aventures de Théophile et...
wrote the scenarios for Sibylline. Macherot ended the series upon his retirement in 1990.
Other series created by Macherot for Spirou include Pantoufle (with René Goscinny
René Goscinny
René Goscinny was a French comics editor and writer, who is best known for the comic book Astérix, which he created with illustrator Albert Uderzo, and for his work on the comic series Lucky Luke with Morris and Iznogoud with Jean Tabary.-Early life:Goscinny was born in Paris in 1926, to a family...
), Mirliton (with Raoul Cauvin
Raoul Cauvin
Raoul Cauvin is a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field.-Biography:Raoul Cauvin was born in Antoing, Belgium in 1938. He studied lithography at the Institut Saint-Luc in Tournai, but upon leaving school found that there no jobs available for lithographers...
), and as scenarist on Mulligan with Yvan Delporte
Yvan Delporte
Yvan Delporte was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics...
and Isabelle
Isabelle (comics)
Isabelle is a Belgian comic series drawn by Will and written by Franquin, Delporte and Macherot.The comic first appeared in Spirou in 1970. Created by a top team of already-famous contributors to the magazine, the series gained a small but fanatical following...
, with Delporte and André Franquin
André Franquin
André Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best known comic strip creations are Gaston and Marsupilami, created while he worked on the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1947 to 1969, during a period seen by many as the series' golden age.-Franquin's beginnings:Franquin was...
. In the 1990s, Chaminou was revived, first by the team of Yann Lepennetier and Denis Bodart, and later by Olivier Saive, who completely redrew and augmented Chaminou et le Khrompire under Macherot's supervision, splitting it in two volumes. As for Sibylline, the series has been revived in 2006 by André Taymans for new adventures, also under Macherot's supervision.
Raymond Macherot died in the night of 25 and 26 September 2008 in his sleep.
Themes
Although superficially gentle and innocent looking, many of Macherot's strips are darker, and certainly more violent and ambiguous than they may seem. The main theme in his work is the struggle for survival. In Macherot's world, animals live in a society of their own, and species must learn to coexist together peacefully. Macherot's typical way to achieve this is to make vegetarianismVegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
mandatory to all. As a result, his villains are often natural predators who choose to ignore the law of the land. Additionally, Macherot's intrigues often veer into the political, particularly during the so-called "Croquefredouille cycle" as well as in Chaminou et le Khrompire, and the subject of war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
is alluded to in many of his stories.
Chlorophylle
- Chlorophylle contre les rats noirs (Le LombardLe LombardLe Lombard or Lombard Editions is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when the Tintin magazine was launched. In 1986 the company was acquired by Média-Participations.-Titles:Lombard's more famous series include:*Clifton...
, 1956) - Chlorophylle et les conspirateurs (Le Lombard, 1956)
- Pas de salami pour Célimène! (Le Lombard, 1957)
- Le Bosquet hanté(Le Lombard 1957)
- Les Croquillards (GlénatGlénat (publisher)Glénat Editions SA is a French publisher with its head office in Grenoble. The company publishes many things, including comic books and manga in France, Benelux, and Spain; it was founded by Jacques Glénat. The Spanish subsidiary has its head office in Barcelona. The Benelux subsidiary, Glénat...
, 1977). This begins the so-called "Croquefredouille cycle". - Zizanion le terrible (Glénat, 1977)
- Le retour de Chlorophylle (Le Lombard, 1961). This is a break in the cycle.
- La revanche d'Anthracite (Le Lombard, 1964). This ends the "Croquefredouille cycle".
- Le furet gastronome (Le Lombard, 1970)
- Chloro à la rescousse (Le Lombard, 1971)
Clifton
- Les enquêtes du colonel Clifton (Le Lombard, 1959)
- Clifton à New-York (Le Lombard, 1960)
- Clifton et les espions (Le Lombard, 1963)
Chaminou
- Chaminou et le Khrompire (DupuisDupuisÉditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...
, 1965) - La peur du loup (MarsuMarsu ProductionsMarsu Productions, or simply Marsu, is a publishing house and licensing and merchandising company located in Monaco, managing Franco-Belgian comics characters and copyright concerns, chiefly from the comics universe of André Franquin...
, 1992), story by Macherot and Olivier Saive, art - Chaminou bébé joli by Olivier Saive
In addition, Macherot is credited on the following Chaminou books but has not contributed to the story or art:
- L'affaire Carotassis (Marsu, 1991), story by Yann, art by Denis Bodart
- La main verte (Marsu, 1993), by Olivier Saive
- L'opuscule sans scrupule (Marsu, 1995), by Olivier Saive
Sibylline
- Sibylline et la betterave (Dupuis, 1967)
- Sibylline en danger (Dupuis, 1969)
- Sibylline et les abeilles (Dupuis, 1971)
- Sibylline et le petit cirque (Dupuis, 1974)
- Sibylline s'envole (Dupuis, 1975), story by Paul DeliègePaul DeliègePaul Deliège was a Belgian artist and writer of comics, and was married with two children.-Biography:Deliège was born in Olne. He started in the daily Le Soir with Père Bricole et Félicien et les Romanis. In 1959, he got into éditions Dupuis where he launched les aventures de Théophile et...
- Sibylline et les cravates noires (Dupuis, 1977), story by Paul Deliège
- Elixir le magnifique (Dupuis, 1979)
- Burokratz le vampire (Dupuis, 1982)
- Le chapeau magique (Dupuis, 1983)
- Le violon de Zagabor (Dupuis, 1984)
- Sibylline et le Kulgude (Dupuis, 1985)
Later Sibylline stories have not seen publication in book form, though they have been published in Spirou Magazine.
New Sibylline stories are currently being produced by André Taymans. Macherot receives credit on the cover though his actual involvement is unclear.
- Sibylline et la ligue des coupe-jarrets (Flouzemaker, 2006), by André Taymans
Mirliton
- Mirliton (Dupuis, 1980), story by Raoul CauvinRaoul CauvinRaoul Cauvin is a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field.-Biography:Raoul Cauvin was born in Antoing, Belgium in 1938. He studied lithography at the Institut Saint-Luc in Tournai, but upon leaving school found that there no jobs available for lithographers...
. This is #4 in the series Les meilleurs récits du Journal Spirou.
Isabelle
- Le tableau enchanté (Dupuis, 1972), story by Macherot and Yvan DelporteYvan DelporteYvan Delporte was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics...
, art by WillWill (comics)Willy Maltaite known by the pseudonym Will, was a comics creator and comics artist in the Franco-Belgian tradition... - Isabelle et le capitaine (Dupuis, 1983), story by Macherot and Yvan Delporte, art by Will
- Les maléfices de l'oncle Hermès (Dupuis, 1978), story by Macherot, Franquin and Yvan Delporte, art by Will
- L'astragale de Cassiopée (Dupuis, 1979), story by Macherot, Franquin and Yvan Delporte, art by Will
Compilations
- Spécial Clifton (Le Lombard, 1981). Collects the three Clifton stories by Macherot.
- Chlorophylle à Croquefredouille (Le Lombard, 1998). Collects the Chlorophylle stories from the "Croquefredouille cycle". This is #7 in the series Les classiques du rire.
- Clifton (Niffle, 2004). A pocket-sized, black-and-white compilation of the three Clifton stories by Macherot.
Books about Macherot
- Macherot: une monographie (Mosquito, 1998). Features an interview, various critical texts, and many previously unreleased drawings.
- À propos de Macherot (À propos, 2005)
External links
- Raymond Macherot biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia