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
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...
. 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 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 t ...
'' strip from 1934 to 1936.
In 1938, Velter created the title character for the launch of a new magazine by Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines.
Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. Initially a French language publisher, it now publishes numerous ...
, '' 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. The last ...
, 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 the newspaper comic ''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
French comic strip cartoonists
French comics artists
French comics writers
French humorists
Spirou et Fantasio
French male writers
20th-century French male writers
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