French series - Raoul Cauvin's work
Raoul Cauvin was born on September 26, 1938 in Antoing, Belgium. After 5 years of studying advertising lithography, he discovers that the profession he has learned has not existed for twenty years! A whole series of small trades followed, and in particular a job in a billiard ball factory, which developed a real passion for this game on the green carpet where we hardly put more than a general tour, he entered one day at the Dupuis editions. Initially responsible for the lettering of the Spirou newspaper, he wasted no time in writing his first stories, illustrated by designers such as Eddy Ryssack, Serge Gennaux, Claire Brétécher and Carlos Roque. But it is the year 1968 which marks the real beginning of a flourishing career: Cauvin launches the series 'The Blue Tunics', whose heroes, American soldiers, evolve in the context of the Civil War. The design was taken care of by Louis Salvérius, who unfortunately died after barely four albums. Willy Lambil succeeds him: the series remains Cauvin's biggest success to this day. Still with Lambil, he imagines at the same time 'Pauvre Lampil', a parody series around the disastrous relations between a designer and his screenwriter, protagonists and authors making one. Still responsible for the old Rank machine making copies and enlargement or reduction works for editors and passing authors, Cauvin is now at the center of the web and, thanks to his growing fame, he is solicited by all cartoonists running out of script. In 1969, he launched another series, 'Caline et Calebasse', this time illustrated by Luc Mazel. During the seventies, Raoul Cauvin is more and more active. Next to 'Sammy', gangster stories drawn by Berck, and 'Boulouloum and Guiliguili', the adventures of a mini-Tarzan and his gorilla, again with Mazel, Cauvin launches into the gag with 'L 'Agent 212' (drawings by Kox), 'Le Vieux Bleu' (drawings by Walthéry), 'Mirliton' (drawings by Macherot) and many others. He also wrote, in 1980, the three episodes of 'Spirou and Fantasio' drawn by Nic Broca. In the 1980s, Cauvin's production intensified further. He started two series in which he gave free rein to his penchant for black humor: 'Les Femmes en Blanc' (with Bercovici) and 'Pierre Tombal' (with Hardy). From 1986, several successful series were added to his bibliography: 'Cédric' (with Laudec), 'Les Voraces' (with Glem), 'Cupidon' (with Malik) or 'Les Psys' (with Bédu). If the comics cited so far are all pre-published in Spirou before appearing in albums by Dupuis editions, Cauvin has also worked for other publishers, on the occasion of collaborations with authors such as Jacques Sandron and Louis-Michel Carpentier. As for 'Zotico', the only comic strip illustrated by him, it appeared in Spirou at the beginning of the eighties. Rare are the failures: his imagination, the quality of his dialogues and the profession put in his cuttings which he delivers complete to his authors represent a true gold mine. The general public is sure to always find under his signature a popular and pleasant album to read. It is a gift and it is extraordinary that he can exercise it over so many parallel series, forcing him to provide the material for a good fifteen volumes per year, without ever slowing down! Cauvin loves to chase ideas like other butterflies, and as he says himself, as long as it lasts ...
Text © Dargaud
