The French co-creator of the series and one of the great figures of Franco-Belgian comics, Jean-Claude Mézières, died on the night of Saturday to Sunday, announced his publisher Dargaud to AFP.
Influence of many authors around the world, he had a predilection for science fiction and also worked in illustration, advertising, photography, cinema or television.
“It is with immense sadness that we learn of the death of Jean-Claude Mézières, who disappeared on the night of January 23, 2022 at the age of 83,” Dargaud said in a statement.
“The name of Mézières is first associated with the characters of Valérian and Laureline, of which he was the co-creator and which he drew for more than 50 years alongside his screenwriter and lifelong friend, Pierre Christin”, underlined the publisher. .
“His high standards, his energy, his strong personality, his benevolence, his simplicity, his joie de vivre, his curiosity, made him a precious and deeply endearing being,” he commented.
“Jean-Claude Mézières, recalled in the stars”, headlined the Swiss daily Le Temps on its website.
The director of the Cité de la BD in Angoulême, Pierre Lungheretti, hailed on Twitter an “author with a dazzling imagination […] with global influence. ” One of the largest […] It took me to 1,000 graphic planets,” wrote cartoonist Xavier Gorce.
Born on September 23, 1938 in Paris, and having grown up in Saint-Mandé, Jean-Claude Mézières had known Pierre Christin during a bombardment in 1944, during which the families of the two children had taken refuge in the same cellar. . Is West, by Christin (and Philippe Aymond at the drawing), the croque as a rascal who drew on the sidewalks.
This keen on drawing and Tintin, who tried his hand at comics from the age of 15, studied at the School of Arts Applied to Industry and Commerce (Arts’a), specializing in “fabrics and wallpapers”. His first comic strip appeared in 1955 in the weekly Cœurs vaillants.
After his military service, where he was sent to Algeria, he was hired as a model maker then illustrator at Hachette, then assistant photographer in an advertising studio. He left for the United States, where he practiced as a cowboy, and there met his wife, Linda, a student of Pierre Christin, who taught in Salt Lake City.
About twenty languages
It was in 1967 that Christin and Mézières published in Pilote the first episode of the adventures of the “spatiotemporal agents of Galaxity”. Valerian and Laureline, at a time when science fiction interested few comic book authors.
The success will lead to “25 albums”, translated into “twenty languages”, recalls Dargaud, who sees in it one of the influences of the cinematographic saga. Star Wars.
The series gave rise to the film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets by Luc Besson in 2017, whose commercial failure leads the filmmaker’s production company to the brink of bankruptcy.
Mézières’ other albums are called The Extras of Mézières, Lady Polaris or goodbye american dream.
“Jean-Claude Mézières has also worked for the cinema, designing sets and costumes for A rebellious god, a film by Peter Fleischmann, and for The fifth Element by Luc Besson, to whom he gave the idea of flying taxis,” continued Dargaud.
During Lille 2004, European Capital of Culture, he adorned rue Faidherbe, one of the arteries of the city centre, with a spatial decor.
Its last publication, in October, The Art of Mézières, was a panorama of his graphic creativity, which “made it possible to highlight his work of great richness” according to the publisher.
Jean-Claude Mézières had a daughter and a grandson.