Death of comic book writer Raoul Cauvin, father of the
Les Tuniques Bleues
Archyde
By Archyde
August 20, 2021
BD screenwriter Raoul Cauvin died
Thursday August 19. VINCENT HOPER / DUPUIS EDITIONS
He was the author of Les Tuniques Bleues,
of Funerary stone, from Women in white or even Cédric. Belgian
comic book writer Raoul Cauvin died Thursday August 19, three months after
revealing to be suffering from incurable cancer, announced Dupuis, his
publishing house.
“It is with immense
emotion that we inform you of the death of Raoul Cauvin, one of the greatest
men in the world of comics. We are in thought with (…) the millions of readers who
adored his humor and his situational comedy through the publication of his
series”, the editor said early Friday in a press release.
Raoul Cauvin was born
on September 26, 1938 in Antoing, near the French border, the same year the
magazine was created. Spirou, where he would later publish his
plates. He studied advertising lithography at the Institut Saint-Luc in
Tournai, one of the most renowned art schools in Belgium. “When entering
working life, [il avait découvert] that this profession no longer
existed! writes his editor. He then experimented with a whole series of
small trades, in particular a job in a billiard ball factory. “
In 1960, he joined
Éditions Dupuis, as letterer and then as cameraman in the “cartoons”
department, where he remained for seven years. “It was during this period
that he discovered his passion for screenplay, which Charles Dupuis himself
offered to try out”, tell the editions of the same name.
The screenwriter has
collaborated with many writers throughout his career, but it is especially with
Willy Lambil that he knows success by making Les Tuniques Bleues
one of Dupuis’ absolute bestsellers, with over fifteen million copies sold in
French.
This successful
series tells with humor the adventures of two American soldiers, a convinced
militarist and another committed in spite of himself, who fight the “Southerners”
during the American Civil War (1861-1865). He had created the Les Tuniques Bleues in
1968, eight years after his debut at Dupuis, first conceiving his two heroes,
Sergeant Cornelius Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch, with the designer Louis
Salvérius, who died in 1972 and gave way to Willy Lambil.
The latter remains
Cauvin’s inseparable accomplice until volume 64, the last album signed by the
screenwriter, released by Dupuis editions in May. These two veterans were
nicknamed “Comic book grandpas”, with the same graying mustache. “Forty
years after our debut, we are in the third generation of readers. It’s
wonderful to think that the same album can be read by a grandfather, a father
and his children”, Raoul Cauvin was enthusiastic then.
“Popular, irresistibly funny, unexpected”
“Rare are Cauvin’s
failures, because his imagination, the quality of his dialogues and the
profession put into his cuttings speak directly to the general public, to whom
he feels extremely close. (…)
A genius of incredible modesty, Raoul Cauvin has become a veritable statue of a
commander of screenwriters. Popular, irresistibly funny, unexpected, able to
shine in most of the universes he has chosen for himself, he has durably
codified the mechanics of the gag and the canons of the humorous adventure,
seducing several generations of readers and selling more than 50 million albums”,
writes Dupuis.
The popular success
of Les Tuniques Bleues pushed
Raoul Cauvin to become a prolific author for his publisher Dupuis,
collaborating with many other designers: among others Berck (Sammy et Lou),
Thread (Spirou and Fantasio) or Kox (L’Agent 212).
At the beginning, at
the turn of the 1970s, the Belgian screenwriter worked with Claire Bretécher
(1940-2020) on The shipwrecked, whose plates were first published in
Spirou’s journal.
A follower of all
forms of visual gagging, Cauvin evolved in the 1980s towards more incisive
productions, often close to black humor and parody. He thus illustrated himself
in the series Funerary stone (with Hardy), Women in white on the
universe of the hospital (with Bercovici in the drawing), and Cédric
(with Laudec) – which has proven to be a success in children’s comics with 34
albums to date.
Between 1990 and
2009, he signed with the designer William Tai, alias Malik (who died in
December 2020), 21 albums of Cupid, a figure borrowed from Roman mythology,
shooting his arrows of love through and through.
In early May, a few
days after the release of the last Les Tuniques Bleues,
Cauvin had announced on his blog that he was suffering from incurable cancer. “The
oncologist is categorical. A few more months to live before going up there to
join all those who came before me. It had to happen to me one day too”, he
wrote.
The world
CAUVIN, Raoul
Born: 9/26/1938, Antoing, Wallonia, Belgium
Died: 8/19/1921, Nivelles, Wallonia, Belgium
Raoul Caivin’s westerns – cartoonist:
Les Tuniques Bleues – 1958-
