Werner Goelen
Werner Goelen alias Griffo (born May 21, 1949 in Wilrijk , Belgium ) is a Belgian comic artist .
In 1971 he finished his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp , which he had started at the age of 15. Initially, he took on casual work as an illustrator for women's magazines and television magazines.
When he presented himself to Lombard-Verlag in 1975, he was made an attractive offer. The publisher was desperately looking for a successor for Mittéï , who had defected to the competition at "Spirou" . Griffo inherited the series Modeste et Pompon (German: Mausi and Paul ) founded in 1955 by André Franquin . In addition to the weekly delivery of a one-sided gag strip for Tintin magazine , Griffo also enriched the quarterly “Tintin Sélection” with humorous mini-stories.
Despite this promising start to his professional career as a comic artist, he was also active in advertising for years and also designed erotic pages for the Biofot publishing house.
It was not until 1982 that he realized a classic album-length comic book adventure with Marcus (Danny de Laet), "L'Ordre du Dragon Noir" , which was also released in Germany in 1987 (Bob Wilson: In den Paws des Tigerdrachen / Ehapa) .
In 1984, together with Jean Van Hamme, he created the futuristic series “SOS Bonheur” (Eng .: The forbidden happiness) for Spirou. In 1987 the detective series "Munro" was created based on scenarios by Jean-François Di Giorgio . After three album-long adventures, however, Griffo gave the series to the draftsman André Taymans .
In 1986, Griffo finally established a long-term collaboration with comic writer Jean Dufaux . Their first joint work was the series "Béatifica Blues" (German at Ehapa ). In 1987, the historical series "Giacomo C" , also available in German translation ( Comicplus + ) , whose plot is set in the Venice of the Rococo , followed. As further joint projects, the series “Samba Bugatti” and “Monsieur Noir” (German translations of both series by Splitter-Verlag) as well as the One Shot “Sade” (German: Der Adler, Mademoiselle…) emerged in the nineties .
In 1996 he made the acquaintance of Patrick Cothias at the Angoulême Festival , with whom he later wrote the historical saga “Cinjis Quan” (German: Genghis Khan) and “La Pension du Dr. Eon ” realized. Since 2000 Griffo has also been drawing the "Vlad" series, also available in German translation (Verlag Schreiber & Reader ), based on models by Yves Swolfs, and in 2003/2004, together with Valérie Mangin, the two-part Petit Miracle was created , which was translated into German (Verlag Finix Comics ) was published under the title Little Wonder .
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Goelen, Werner |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Griffo (stage name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian comic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 21, 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wilrijk , Belgium |