François Robert Velter (;
"Spirou - L'évolution d'une icône de la BD : de Rob-Vel à Jijé, Morris et Franquin"
!--at 3:37--> 9 February 1909 – 27 April 1991), known by his pen-name Rob-Vel (), was a French cartoonist. He is best known for creating the character '' Spirou'' in 1938.
Biography
Like ''Spirou'', Velter began his career as a lift attendant at age 16, in the London Ritz Charlton. He later learned the trade as an assistant to American cartoonist Martin Branner
Martin Michael Branner (December 28, 1888 – May 19, 1970), known to his friends as Mike Branner, was a cartoonist who created the popular comic strip ''Winnie Winkle''.
Early life
Branner was born in Manhattan, New York City on December 2 ...
on the ''Winnie Winkle
''Winnie Winkle'' is an American comic strip published during a 76-year span (1920–1996). Ten film adaptations were also made. Its premise was conceived by Joseph Medill Patterson, but the stories and artwork were by Martin Branner, who wrote ...
'' strip from 1934 to 1936.
In 1938, Velter created the title character for the launch of a new magazine by Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis, '' Le Journal de Spirou''. Signed with the pen-name Rob-Vel, the story was titled ''Groom au Moustic–hôtel'' (''Bellboy at the Hotel Mosquito'', named after another of Dupuis magazines). Later the same year, he created Spirou's inseparable companion, the squirrel Spip
SPIP (''Système de Publication pour l'Internet'') is a free software content management system designed for web site publishing, oriented towards online collaborative editing.
The software is designed for easy setup, use and maintenance, and is ...
, for the story ''L’héritage''.
When Velter was drafted and wounded in 1940, his wife Davine (Blanche Dumoulin) took over the strip for a while.
After the war, Velter published a number of strips, including ''Le Père Pictou'', ''Les Tribulations du Chien Petto'', ''Bibor et Tribar'' and ''M. Subito'', but he was never able to reach the broad popularity of ''Spirou'' again.
References
Rob-Vel publications in ''Le Journal de Spirou''
BDoubliées
External links
on Lambiek Comiclopedia
on non-official Spirou site
1909 births
1991 deaths
Writers from Paris
Comic strip cartoonists
French cartoonists
French comics artists
French comics writers
Spirou et Fantasio
French male writers
20th-century French male writers
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