Claude Laverdure (19 April 1947 – 17 August 2020) was a Belgian comic book author.

Biography

Laverdure had lived in

Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...

since his childhood. From 1960 to 1964, he studied screen printing and advertising. He began working as a designer in an enamel shop in 1965, then worked as a graphic designer and page maker at Éditions Wesmael-Charlier from 1967 to 1973. He was noticed by comic book author Édouard Aidans, writer of ''Tounga'' and ''Les Panthères'', among others. Starting in 1979, Laverdure produced sets, inking and lettering the first four albums of the French version of ''Tony Stark''. In doing so, he met Christian Lamquet, with whom he produced a series celebrating the 150th anniversary of

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

's independence, titled ''150 Ans d'avatars de la Province de Namur''. The work won an international prize in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. It was reissued in 1997 with additional panels. In 1982, Laverdure designed ''Aventures du baron Prosit'' in the magazine '' Spirou'', which did not appear until several years later. In 1987,

Dargaud Société Dargaud (), doing business as Les Éditions Dargaud, is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1936 by Georges Dargaud, publishing its first comics in 1943. ...

began publishing his series ''Chroniques de l'impossible'', scripted by Christian Piscaglia. In 1988, he published ''

Fantômas Fantômas () is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914). One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared ...

'' for Luc Dellisse and scripted Claude Lefrancq. From 1993, he published ''

Journey to the Center of the Earth ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (), also translated with the variant titles ''A Journey to the Centre of the Earth'' and ''A Journey into the Interior of the Earth'', is a classic science fiction novel written by French novelist Jules Ve ...

'', written by

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

. In 2002, he illustrated a memoir of

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator. Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...

written by Philippe Domard and published by

Le Lombard Le Lombard (), known as Les Éditions du Lombard () until 1989, is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when '' Tintin'' magazine was launched. Le Lombard became part of Média-Participations since 1986, alongside publishers Darg ...

. This would be his final comic book published. In 2005, he began working on the recolorization of ''Voyage au Center de la Terre''. It was published the following year with cover art by

René Follet René Follet (10 April 1931 – 13 March 2020), sometimes known by the pen name Ref, was a Belgian illustrator, comics writer and artist. Biography René Follet was born in Brussels in 1931.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "René Follet". In België ges ...

. In February 2020, a retrospective exhibition was displayed at Galerie Aarnor in

Spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

. Claude Laverdure died on 17 August 2020 at the age of 73.

Works

*''Tony Stark : Le prisonnier du ciel'' (1980) *''Tony Stark : Le lion d'un million'' (1980) *''Tony Stark : Les voleurs de nuages'' (1981) *''150 ans d'avatars de la province de Namur'' (1981) *''Le syndrome des sorciers : La mémoire albinos'' (1986) *''Chroniques de l'impossible : La maison Bruges'' (1987) *''Chroniques de l'impossible : Les tempêtes de Saint-Malo'' (1988) *''Chroniques de l'impossible : La longue nuit de Strasbourg'' (1990) *''Fantômas : L'affaire Beltham'' (1990) *''Fantômas : Juve contre Fantômas'' (1991) *''Fantômas : Le mort qui tue'' (1995) *''Voyage au centre de la Terre'' (1993–1997) *''Saint-Exupéry'' (2003) *''Voyage au centre de la terre'' (2006)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laverdure, Claude Belgian comics artists Belgian graphic designers 1947 births 2020 deaths