Maurice Tillieux

Maurice Tillieux (7 August 1921 – 2 February 1978) was a Belgian writer and comic artist. He is regarded by many as a major figure of post-war Belgian comics.

Early life

Maurice Tillieux was born in Huy in 1921. At first he studied for the merchant navy, but his career prospects were sunk following the German invasion of Belgium in 1940. He claims that while waiting at Bordeaux for a ship that was to take him and his fellow students to South America, a Stuka dive-bomber attacked another ship, forcing Tillieux's to turn round and Tillieux to go home.''Comment on devient dessinateur'' (''How to Become a Cartoonist''), article written by Maurice Tillieux, published in ''Spirou'' magazine issue 1615 (March 1969) and in an omnibus edition of ''Gil Jourdan''

He turned to writing and his first novel ''Le navire qui tue ses capitaines'' (''The Ship that Kills its Captains'') was published in 1943. Many of his stories would be set at sea or in the docks where his early ambitions may have developed. Two other novels are supposed to have been written at this time, but there seems to be some confusion as to whether or not they were actually published.''Dictionnaire mondial de la Bd'' (''World Dictionary of Comics'') by Patrick Gaumer and Claude Moliterni, ,

Tillieux had already done some work as an artist. He contributed to various weekly and monthly comics as artist and writer, often signing his work with a variety of English pseudonyms.''Entrevue avec Maurice Tillieux,'' interview with Tillieux by Brigitte Hermann in ''Schtroumpf - Les Cahiers de la bande dessinée,'' issue 34, July 1977, page 15.

Career

It was in the weekly comic '' Heroïc-Albums'', which started in 1947, that he developed his style and proved himself a master of detective stories loaded with humour and atmosphere. ''Heroïc-Albumss main appeal was that each issue contained complete stories rather than a number of episodes spread over weekly or monthly instalments.

Tillieux's most notable contribution was '' Félix'', the adventures of a glasses-wearing reporter who travelled the world accompanied by two sidekicks called Allume-Gaz (French for ''gas lighter'') and Inspector Cabarez of the Chilean police. Like most comic strip reporters, Félix spent most of his time fighting crooks and spies rather than simply reporting about them.

''Heroïc-Albums'' ceased publication in 1956, and Tillieux introduced his most famous character, Gil Jourdan, in '' Spirou'' magazine, where he had already worked as an illustrator since 1940. Jourdan was very similar to Félix, though he had clear vision and was an actual PI. Like Félix, he was also flanked by two sidekicks, including a police contact, both of whom provided most of the comic relief which contrasted to the earnest nature of the title character. Some of Félix's stories were the basis for some of Jourdan's adventures.

One major innovation of the Jourdan series was the atmosphere of the places where he would go to. Whereas previous series like ''The Adventures of Tintin'' were based in spotlessly clean homes and locations, Jordan's world was made up of dusty offices, littered streets, wet docks and mud-splattered farms.

In later years Tillieux, like many leading figures in the field, stuck to writing while leaving most of the artwork to others. Gos took over the drawing of ''Gil Jourdan'' and Tillieux also contributed to other series such as ''Tif et Tondu'' and '' Yoko Tsuno''. Another major detective series was ''Jess Long'', the adventures of an FBI agent, which were drawn by Arthur Piroton in a more realistic style.

Tillieux enjoyed action as well as humour and mystery, and many of his strips feature elaborate fights and car chases. On 31 January 1978, while returning from the annual Angoulême International Comics Festival, he was fatally injured in a car crash near Tours, and died two days later on 2 February.

Humour

Humour was an important element of Tillieux's work even in his detective stories. At their best ''Félix'' and ''Gil Jourdan'' could provide good laughs as well as good adventures and mysteries.

Tillieux therefore also wrote non-detective series with the emphasis on humour. One example was '' César'', a domestic comic strip in which the titled protagonist lives next door to a policeman. Many of the strips involve César babysitting his neighbour's little daughter. Mayhem ensues and, as a reward for his trouble, César ends up being fined by the little girl's father.

'' Marc Lebut'', drawn by Francis, are the adventures of the young owner of a Ford T car who is the bane of his long-suffering neighbour. Lebut is always dragging the poor Mister Goular into all sorts of crazy adventures and dismissing all pleas not to get involved in Mister Goular's own problems. Lebut has a way of making Mister Goular responsible when things go wrong and getting the glory for himself when they go right. He could be described as a pesky anti-hero along the lines of Jolyon Wagg from the adventures of Tintin.

There was also '' Hultrasson'' (a pun on the French for ''ultrasound''), which was drawn by Leonardo Vittorio and based in an ''Hägar the Horrible''-like world of Vikings.

Tillieux also contributed a couple of storylines to '' La Ribambelle'', the stories of a multi-racial gang of kids, drawn by Jean Roba and the classic series ''Tif et Tondu''.

Legacy

Maurice Tillieux has been described as a "master of surprise, sarcasm and nonsense".''The World Encyclopedia of Comics'' edited by Maurice Horn, ,

References

External links

Maurice Tillieux
at Lambiek's Comiclopedia

Tillieux rarity books - Elan publisher - Editions de l'Elan (french)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillieux, Maurice
1921 births
1978 deaths
People from Huy
Belgian humorists
Belgian comics artists
Belgian comics writers
Road incident deaths in France
Winners of the Stripschapsprijs
Spirou (magazine) people