''Chick Bill'' is a Belgian humorous

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

series created by

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. It was first published in 1953 in the magazine ''Chez Nous Junior'', and its Dutch language counterpart '' Ons Volkske'', and began serial publication on October 19, 1955, in ''

Tintin Tintin usually refers to: * ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé ** Tintin (character), the protagonist and titular character of the series Tintin or Tin Tin may also refer to: Material related to ''The A ...

'' magazine under the title ''Les aventures de Chick Bill le cow-boy''. 70 books of the series were published, and it lasted until Tibet's death in 2010. Tibet wrote many of the scripts as well as drawing all the episodes, but various stories were written by

André-Paul Duchâteau André-Paul Duchâteau (8 May 1925 – 26 August 2020) was a Belgian comics writer and mystery novelist. Biography He worked with Tibet on the detective comics series ''Ric Hochet'' and the more humoristic western comic ''Chick Bill''. He also w ...

and Greg and one episode was scripted by

René Goscinny René Goscinny (; ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Asterix, Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Born in France to a Jewish family from Poland, he spent his chil ...

. Frank Brichau was credited as co-illustrator for the last two books. The series follows the adventures of Chick Bill, a young

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

who lives in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, helping people in need and righting wrongs. His companions include an Indian child called ''Little Poodle'' ("Petit Caniche" in the French version), a gruff sheriff called Dog Bull and the latter's bumbling and dim-witted deputy, Kid Ordinn. Chick Bill and Little Poodle act as the series' heroes while Dog Bull and Kid Ordinn are the

comic relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

characters. Kid Ordinn is also the series'

antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero or two words anti hero) or anti-heroine is a character in a narrative (in literature, film, TV, etc.) who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism and morality. Al ...

and the real protagonist of many episodes.

Evolution

In the very first ''Chick Bill'' adventures, the characters were portrayed as

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

animals, rendered in a manner similar to the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

style and directed at a younger audience, before the series gradually evolved to feature human characters. This change was made when the series began publication in ''Tintin'', at the request of

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé ( ; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian comic strip artist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of T ...

who was then the magazine's artistic supervisor.Didier Pasamonik
Chick Bill contre l’Invisible par Tibet - Le Lombard
''actuabd.com'', 17 May 2006

Sources

an

BDoubliées

Bedetheque ;Footnotes

External links

Chick Bill Complete Story Index With Cover Gallery in India Belgian comic strips Belgian comics characters Lombard Editions titles Comics characters introduced in 1955 Humor comics Bandes dessinées 1955 comics debuts 2010 comics endings Western (genre) comics characters Western (genre) comics Comics set in Arizona Male characters in comics Fictional cowboys and cowgirls Slapstick comedy {{FrancoBelgian-comics-stub