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Today, 26. September, Raoul Cauvin turns 75. Perhaps most famous as the writer of Les tuniques bleues (The Bluecoats), a comic set during the American Civil War that mixes meticulously researched history and comedy (and is available in English from Cinebook), he also wrote three Spirou albums in the early 80s, illustrated by Nic Broca.
Lambiek calls Cauvin “the leading scenarist in humorous comics for a large audience,” and even though he’s well past the age many others retire, he remains one of the most active writers in French-Belgian comics, scripting a whole host of series that can be found in the Journal de Spirou almost every week (Les Psy, Les femmes en blanc, Cédric, Pierre Tombal, Agent 212, etc.) In recognition of his long career and his contribution, the magazine has devoted this week’s issue to him, even changing its masthead for the occasion (see left).
This being Spirou Reporter, it must be said that Nic & Cauvin’s run on the series is not generally well regarded, neither for the scripts nor the art, and the team was quickly replaced by Tome & Janry. Cauvin has said he only took the job out of loyalty to Charles Dupuis, and because he was asked to help out during a difficult transition. So in recognition of Cauvin, here’s one of Journal de Spirou’s many cartoon greetings from other comic book artists, in this case by Alain Dodier (Jerôme K. Jerôme Bloche):
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I mostly get curious about the fate of poor Vicky…
Yeah, [i]The Bellybuttons[/i] takes some surprisingly dark turns in the upcoming album! You wouldn’t have thought from the first couple of them that this was going to be a comic with murders, suicides and stuff like that.
Five years ago, in Spirou # 3676, published sep 24th 2008, there was a similar tribute to Raoul Cauvin, with half the magazine full of various tributes to the man.