Morris (comic artist)

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Morris in May 1971 with the album Jesse James from the Lucky Luke series

Maurice de Bevere (born December 1, 1923 in Kortrijk , † July 16, 2001 in Brussels ) was a Belgian cartoonist . Under his stage name Morris he drew the famous Franco-Belgian comic series Lucky Luke .

Career

youth

Even as a child, Maurice excelled as a draftsman and mainly made caricatures of his teachers in the Jesuit school. After training as an illustrator, Morris worked in an animation film studio from 1943. In 1945 he took up a position at Editions Dupuis , the publisher of the comic magazine Spirou . There he met Jijé , Franquin , Will, Eddy Paape and other well-known artists.

Lucky Luke

Because of his fondness for the American history , he began work on a new Wild West - Comic . His first Lucky Luke story appeared in 1946 in the later very famous Spirou Almanac 1947 . The first actual album was published in 1949. The first time in a German translation was Cowboy published in 1958 in the comic book "Der hehre Fridolin" by Alfons Semrau Verlag.

This was followed by a six-year study visit to the USA together with Franquin and Jijé. From this time on, he created a large archive on the pioneering days for his research. In New York he met the French René Goscinny , who wrote the stories for Lucky Luke from 1955 until his death in 1977 after returning to Europe .

Typical for the comics about Lucky Luke is the appearance of real personalities from the history of the Wild West or from popular culture, e.g. B. Jesse James , Calamity Jane , Abraham Lincoln , Billy the Kid , Allan Pinkerton , Louis de Funes , Jean Gabin , etc.

After Goscinny

When René Goscinny died during an exercise test in 1977, Morris lost his long-time partner and scenarioist. In contrast to the Asterix draftsman Albert Uderzo , Morris soon worked with new authors such as Bob de Groot , Lo Hartog van Banda , Patrick Nordmann and the team of Xavier Fauche and Jean Léturgie .

Morris died in an accident in his Brussels home in July 2001. Until the very end he drew on the adventures of his lonely cowboy. Shortly before his death, he finished the 76th Lucky Luke volume, Eine Wildwest-Legende, with lyricist Patrick Nordmann .

estate

In his will, Morris decreed that after his death the comic series about the cowboy, "who draws faster than his shadow", should be continued by another illustrator. His successor is the French draftsman Hervé Darmenton, who is active under the stage name Achdé .

Works (selection)

Awards

  • 1972: Grand Prix Saint-Michel
  • 1988: The World Health Organization (WHO) awarded Morris a special medal because he finally gave up his chain-smoking cowboy Lucky Luke in 1983 from the volume Fingers (vol. 52). He graphically replaced the obligatory cigarette with a blade of grass. The reason for this campaign was better access to the US market.
  • 1992: In that year he received the first prize of the comic festival in Quebec and the "Grand Prix" of the Belgian national comic association in Brussels. But that's not all: on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Angoulême International Comics Salon, Morris receives the Grand Prix Special .

literature

  • Horst Berner: MORRIS. The man who drew faster than his shadow , obituary in: Lucky Luke: Eine Wildwest-Legende (Volume 76), Egmont Ehapa Verlag, Berlin 2002, p. 47.
  • Horst Berner: The outlaws. Morris stages the first appearance of the Daltons , foreword in: Die Gesetzlosen (Volume 81), Berlin 2007, p. 2. ISBN 978-3-7704-3190-8
  • Yvan Delporte: The Illustrated Morris Book . Ehapa Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-7704-0125-5

Web links

Commons : Morris (comic artist)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Morris , in: The Telegraph, July 26, 2001.
  2. ^ Morris , in: The Telegraph, July 26, 2001.
  3. ↑ Behrens, Volker: Still firmly in the saddle even at the age of 70, In: Hamburger Abendblatt, May 30, 2016, p. 15
  4. ↑ Behrens, Volker: Still firmly in the saddle even at the age of 70, In: Hamburger Abendblatt, May 30, 2016, p. 15
  5. ↑ Horst Berner: MORRIS. The man who drew faster than his shadow .
  6. ^ A Wild West legend takes off its hat , Spiegel Online, July 4, 2002.
  7. ↑ World Health Forum , Vol. 11, 1990, p. 25 .
  8. ^ Morris , author page at Egmont-Ehapa.
personal data
SURNAME Morris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bevére, Maurice de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian comic artist and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Kortrijk
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 2001
Place of death Brussels