André Cheret

André Chéret was born in Paris in 1937. After working for a printing company for a short time, he began his professional career as an illustrator in a company specializing in movie posters. At the same time, he started publishing illustrations in several newspapers. During his military service, his drawing talent earned him a position with La Revue des Forces Françaises. It was during this period that he created his first comic strip, Nicéphore Dupont, the story of one of Napoleon’s grenadiers. Upon returning to civilian life in 1961, he continued working as an illustrator for publications such as Radar, Paris Jour, and Mireille. However, he increasingly turned his attention to comic books, producing realistic biographies for Cœurs Vaillants, humorous stories for Fripounet, and adaptations of Conan Doyle novels for Mondial Presse, an agency that distributed comic strips to regional newspapers. In 1962, he joined the magazine Vaillant, where he took over the artwork for the series Bob Mallard. Seven years later, when the weekly magazine was relaunched under the title Pif Gadget, André Chéret was present from the very first issue with a series that would change his life forever: Rahan. He would never stop illustrating the adventures of the “Son of the Wild Ages,” first from scripts by Roger Lécureux and later by Jean-François Lécureux, who continued the series after his father's death. Alongside Rahan, Chéret illustrated several other comic-book series, including Domino (written by Greg and later Jean Van Hamme), Michel Brazier (with Jean-Michel Charlier), Protéo (with Jean-Gérard Imbar), Ly-Noock (with Michel Rodrigue), and The Last of the Mohicans (with Pierre-François Mourier). He also adapted Jacques Malaterre’s documentary The Coronation of Man into comic-book form. André Chéret passed away on March 5, 2020, at the age of 82.