Yvan Delporte
Yvan Delporte (born June 24, 1928 in Brussels ; † March 5, 2007 ibid) was a Belgian comic author and from 1955 to 1968 editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine .
Life
Yvan Delporte began his professional career in 1945 at the Belgian publishing house Dupuis , retouching comics and other small jobs for Spirou magazine, but over time he developed into a multi-talent in the comic industry. In 1955 he succeeded Jean Doisy as editor-in-chief of the magazine. In this function (until 1968) he became a key figure for the humorous basic orientation of Spirou with an often unconventional, winking note and surprising actions. One of them was to give away a live cow as the main prize in a competition, which was also the subject of several episodes of André Franquin's gag trip Gaston . Delporte had already acted as a godfather during the development of the strip, and the basic idea of sabotaging the work of a comic editorial team with the chaotic cross-shots of the basically completely unsuitable office messenger Gaston is a pleasurable parody of the two authors of their own work. Both Franquin and Delporte tended to be hardworking and conscientious workers, and Delporte was considered a perfectionist who was constantly fine-tuning his editorial texts right up to the last moment.
An important aspect in his work as Spirou editor-in-chief was the conception of new formats that should bring the magazine additional attention and thus sales. One example of this is the creation of the so-called “mini-récits”, small comic albums in miniature format that you could assemble yourself from an insert in the middle of the booklet. He first developed this concept together with Peyo for his Smurfs and thus helped them create their own comic series, of which Delporte remained the most important co-author until the 1970s. But the mini-récits themselves also became a success story with well over 550 copies by 1975, several of which appeared in German in Fix and Foxi magazines from 1966 onwards. Another idea from Delportes was also adopted there, namely to produce extensive special editions on certain occasions of the year (namely at Easter, the summer holidays and Christmas).
As a result of his position as the first editorial contact, Delporte has repeatedly been the source of ideas and (co-) author for many of the artists in the Spirou magazine. In addition to Franquin and Peyo, this was also the case for Eddy Paape in the series Jean Valhardi , Jean Roba ( Boule and Bill , Die Rasselbande ), Will ( Isabelle , together with Raymond Macherot and Franquin) or René Follet ( Steve Severin ). It is therefore not surprising that his caricatures appear in the comics of several of the cartoonists he oversaw - especially since he was easy to caricature with his characteristic long beard, typical duffle coat and bent gait.
literature
- Bertrand & Christelle Pissavy-Yvernault, Yvan Delporte, Réacteur en chef [sic!], Dupuis, Charleroi 2009, ISBN 978-2-8001-4278-4
Web links
- Biography of Yvan Delportes at Dupuis with photo - French
- Yvan Delporte's biography in the Lambiek Comiclopedia - French
Individual evidence
,
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Delporte, Yvan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian comic book author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 24, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brussels |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 5, 2007 |
| Place of death | Brussels |