''Starter'' is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by

André Franquin André Franquin (; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are ''Gaston (comics), Gaston'' and ''Marsupilami''. He also produced the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' comic strip from 1946 to ...

(drawings) and

Jidéhem Jean De Mesmaeker (21 December 1935 – 30 April 2017), known by the pseudonym Jidéhem (; from the initials "JDM"), was a Belgian comics artist in the Marcinelle school tradition. He was best known for his series featuring a cute, playful and ...

(drawings and scripts) in Spirou.

History

It originated in from a similarly titled periodical column about automobiles, written by Jacques Wauters in Spirou from 1952 on. In 1956

started illustrating these columns and drew a little mechanic named Starter. One year later, his workload for the magazine had become massive, and he left the illustration work to

, who had a notable talent for drawing automobiles. Jidéhem wrote and drew the column until 1978. Starter collected more than 700 episodes, full with beautiful technical drawings and technologically correct information. The column was originally just text, with a few illustrations. Eventually it evolved into an adventure comic around Starter the mechanic. One of the side characters, Sophie, was introduced in 1964 and would eventually receive her own

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

named ''

Sophie Sophie is a feminine given name, another version of Sophia, from the Greek word for "wisdom". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Soph ...

''. Since, several books have been published with info and art from the Starter Columns.

Albums

Original series

#La Révolte des Autos (1959) #Histoire de l'Automobile (1960) #Starter Auto 1963 (1962) #Starter contre les Casseurs (1983)

Collection series

#60 Voitures des Années 60 (1990) #60 Sportives de Starter (1992) #60 Populaires de Starter (2013) #60 Chroniques Insolites (2014) #60 Voitures Historiques (2017)

References

Sources

External links

List of stories in bédéthèque
Belgian comic strips Belgian comics titles 1952 comics debuts Columns (periodical) Comics characters introduced in 1952 Adventure comics Educational comics Belgian comics characters Fictional Belgian people Fictional racing drivers Motorsports comics Dupuis titles Comics set in Belgium Male characters in comics Comics by André Franquin {{FrancoBelgian-comics-stub