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 comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
. 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'' 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 was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French l ...
, ''Le Journal de Spirou
''Spirou'' (french: Le Journal de Spirou) is a weekly Franco-Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company since April 21, 1938. It's an anthology magazine with new features appearing regularly, containing a mix of short humor strips ...
''. 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, 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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