Jean-Michel Charlier

Jean-Michel Charlier was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine [gcd_link_series](65288). In 1945 he got a job as a draughtsman in Brussels with World Press, the syndicate of Georges Troisfontaines. The following year he and artist [gcd_link_creator](16062) created the four-page comic strip L'Agonie du Bismarck. Charlier wrote the script and also drew the ships and airplanes. In 1947, Charlier and Hubinon began the long-running air-adventure comic strip [gcd_link_feature](2928). After a few years, Charlier stopped all work on the drawings and concentrated only on the scenarios. Charlier collaborated with Hubinon to create [gcd_link_feature](31626) for La Libre Junior. He also continued to supply scripts for [gcd_link_series](19939) magazine, collaborating with [gcd_link_creator](19679) on the strip [gcd_link_feature](8511) and, in 1955, with future [gcd_link_feature](1891) artist [gcd_link_creator](5) on the comic strip [gcd_link_feature](45139). Other long-running series he started for Spirou in the early 1950s were [gcd_link_feature](7273) for [gcd_link_creator](23326), and in 1951 [gcd_link_feature](18005) (Uncle Paul's true stories), a weekly comic of four pages telling a true story. Charlier, Hubinon, Uderzo, and comic-strip writer [gcd_link_creator](4) founded the comics agency Edifrance and the magazine Pistolin in 1955, and the influential magazine Pilote in 1959. Charlier was editor-in-chief and also wrote two stories for the first issue: [gcd_link_feature](4370) with Hubinon and [gcd_link_feature](2910) with Uderzo – these latter two characters would later get their own TV series. Of seminal importance turned out to be Charlier's initiative as publishing co-editor to start a line of comic book books for [gcd_link_publisher](1938) (which bought out Pilote in 1960), collecting the stories as serialized in Pilote, becoming in effect Dargaud's first comic book releases. The first title in the series, coined La Collection Pilote, was the first adventure of Asterix from Uderzo and Goscinny, a runaway success right from the bat, followed by 16 comic titles from the magazine, with the first [gcd_link_feature](4378) adventure, Fort Navajo, becoming the last to be released in 1965. In 1972 friction among the staff at Pilote caused Charlier to give up his editorial position and he worked in French television until 1976. He then worked as editor-in-chief for two years at [gcd_link_series](52314) magazine. He continued to write Blueberry and Buck Danny stories.