Raymond Macherot (30 March 1924 – 26 September 2008) was a Belgian cartoonist. Although not nearly as famous as fellow Belgian cartoonists such as

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...

André Franquin André Franquin (; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are '' Gaston'' and ''Marsupilami''. He also produced the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' comic strip from 1946 to 1968, a period s ...

, Macherot's work, both as artist and writer, remains highly regarded among critics and collectors.

Biography

The ''Tintin'' years

Raymond Macherot was born in

Verviers Verviers (; wa, Vervî) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also ...

, Belgium in 1924. He wanted to become a journalist or a painter but, for financial reasons, he became an illustrator and comics artist.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Raymond Macherot". In België gestript, pp. 137–138. Tielt: Lannoo. Following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Macherot began his career producing a few cartoons in the style of

Virgil Partch Virgil Franklin Partch (October 17, 1916 – August 10, 1984), who generally signed his work Vip,Virgil F ...

for the satirical weekly ''Pan'', under the pseudonym "Zara". In 1953, he joined the Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''

Tintin Tintin or Tin Tin may refer to: ''The Adventures of Tintin'' * ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé ** Tintin (character), a fictional character in the series ** ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (film), 2011, ...

'', where he wrote a scenario for Fred Funcken's ''Le chevalier blanc'' and made numerous illustrations and magazine covers. In 1954, Macherot created the series ''

Chlorophylle Chlorophylle was a Belgian comics series and Raymond Macherot's best known work, alongside '' Sibylline''. It is a fantasy comic about anthropomorphic forest animals, including the title character Chlorophylle, who is a dormouse. Description C ...

'', featuring anthropomorphic animals. Macherot sets his first adventures in the countryside, where Chlorophylle, a

dormouse A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...

, and his best friend Minimum, try to defeat animal villains often much bigger than themselves, typically led by the megalomaniac rat, Anthracite. With ''Les croquillards'' (1957), Macherot placed his characters to the island of Croquefredouille, a fictitious country populated entirely with "civilized" animals, complete with technology, police, government, and so on. The action surrounds the introduction (by Anthracite, of course) of carnivorous animals to the island (the 'croquillards' of the title). The story is darkly comic, with many characters ending up as gourmet meals for the predators. Strangely, Macherot's publisher,

Le Lombard ''Le Lombard'', known as ''Les Éditions du Lombard'' until 1989, is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when ''Tintin'' magazine was launched. Le Lombard is now part of Média-Participations, alongside publishers Dargaud and Dupui ...

, refused to release the ''Croquefredouille'' stories in book form until 1980. Alternatively, in 1959, Macherot created '' Colonel Clifton'', a series about a retired

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

detective. He did three books worth of material, all the while continuing ''Chlorophylle'', before calling it quits and moving to '' Spirou'' magazine, run by competitor-publisher

Dupuis Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines. Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French ...

retained the rights to Macherot's abandoned series. ''Chlorophylle'' was taken up with mild success by successive teams of authors, notably

Dupa Luc Dupanloup, more famous under his pen name Dupa, was a Belgian comics artist best known as the creator of Cubitus which later was turned into an animated series called ''Wowser''. He was born on 12 February 1945 in Montignies-sur-Sambre and d ...

Greg Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory. Greg (more commonly spelled " Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple people *Greg Abel (born 1961/1962), Canadi ...

, as well as Walli and

Bob de Groot Bob de Groot is a Belgian comics artist and writer, born on 26 October 1941 in Brussels, to Dutch and French parents. Career While still a young art student de Groot got his first comics experience as an assistant to Maurice Tillieux on ''Féli ...

. As for ''Clifton'', Turk & De Groot turned the series into a relative hit.

The ''Spirou'' years

Macherot began his stint at ''Spirou'' with a new series, ''Chaminou'', featuring a cat secret agent to the King, living in the country Zoolande. However, Chaminou's first story, ''Chaminou et le Khrompire'' (1964), was unpopular and Macherot abandoned ''Chaminou''. Closer to ''Chlorophylle'', '' Sibylline'', featured a female mouse and her fiancé Taboum. Many books have been published in this series, which enjoyed some success. From 1972 to 1976,

Paul Deliège Paul Deliège (21 January 1931 – 7 July 2005) was a Belgian artist and writer of comics. He is most famous for his series ''Bobo''. Biography Deliège was born in Olne. He started in the daily ''Le Soir'' with ''Père Bricole et Félicie ...

wrote the scenarios for ''Sibylline''. Macherot ended the series upon his retirement in 1990. Other series created by Macherot for ''Spirou'' include ''Pantoufle'' (with

René Goscinny René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...

), '' Mirliton'' (with

Raoul Cauvin Raoul Cauvin (26 September 1938 – 19 August 2021) was a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field. Biography Raoul Cauvin was born in Antoing, Belgium in 1938.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Raoul Cauvin". In België ges ...

), and as scenarist on ''Mulligan'' with

Yvan Delporte Yvan Delporte (24 June 1928 – 5 March 2007) was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of '' Spirou'' magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics. He is credited with seve ...

and '' Isabelle'', with Delporte and

. In the 1990s, ''Chaminou'' was revived, first by the team of Yann Lepennetier and Denis Bodart, and later by Olivier Saive, who completely redrew and augmented ''Chaminou et le Khrompire'' under Macherot's supervision, splitting it in two volumes. As for ''Sibylline'', the series has been revived in 2006 by André Taymans for new adventures, also under Macherot's supervision. Raymond Macherot died in the night of 25 and 26 September 2008 in his sleep.''Le Figaro''
announces the death of Macherot

Themes

Although superficially gentle and innocent looking, many of Macherot's strips are darker, and certainly more violent and ambiguous than they may seem. The main theme in his work is the struggle for

survival Survival, or the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things (or, hypotheti ...

. In Macherot's world, animals live in a society of their own, and species must learn to coexist together peacefully. Macherot's typical way to achieve this is to make vegetarianism mandatory to all. As a result, his villains are often natural

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

s who choose to ignore the law of the land. Additionally, Macherot's intrigues often veer into the political, particularly during the so-called "Croquefredouille cycle" as well as in ''Chaminou et le Khrompire'', and the subject of

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

is alluded to in many of his stories.

Bibliography

Not all of Macherot's stories have been published in book form. When they have been, they have not necessarily been published in chronological order. This is particularly true with ''Chlorophylle''. This list shows the original magazine publication order. The years indicate the initial publication date for each book. Also note that most of these books have recently been reissued in collected hardback editions, with extensive notes and biographical details.

''Chlorophylle''

# ''Chlorophylle contre les rats noirs'' (

, 1956) # ''Chlorophylle et les conspirateurs'' (Le Lombard, 1956) # ''Pas de salami pour Célimène!'' (Le Lombard, 1957) # ''Le Bosquet hanté'' (Le Lombard 1957) # ''Les Croquillards'' ( Glénat, 1977). This begins the so-called "Croquefredouille cycle". # ''Zizanion le terrible'' (Glénat, 1977) # ''Le retour de Chlorophylle'' (Le Lombard, 1961). This is a break in the cycle. # ''La revanche d'Anthracite'' (Le Lombard, 1964). This ends the "Croquefredouille cycle". # ''Le furet gastronome'' (Le Lombard, 1970) # ''Chloro à la rescousse'' (Le Lombard, 1971)

''Clifton''

# ''Les enquêtes du colonel Clifton'' (Le Lombard, 1959) # ''Clifton à New-York'' (Le Lombard, 1960) # ''Clifton et les espions'' (Le Lombard, 1963)

''Chaminou''

* ''Chaminou et le Khrompire'' (

, 1965) * ''La peur du loup'' ( Marsu, 1992), story by Macherot and Olivier Saive, art by Saive In addition, Macherot is credited on the following Chaminou books but has not contributed to the story or art: * ''L'affaire Carotassis'' (Marsu, 1991), story by Yann, art by Denis Bodart * ''La main verte'' (Marsu, 1993), by Olivier Saive * ''L'opuscule sans scrupule'' (Marsu, 1995), by Olivier Saive

''Sibylline''

# ''Sibylline et la betterave'' (Dupuis, 1967) # ''Sibylline en danger'' (Dupuis, 1969) # ''Sibylline et les abeilles'' (Dupuis, 1971) # ''Sibylline et le petit cirque'' (Dupuis, 1974) # ''Sibylline s'envole'' (Dupuis, 1975), story by

# ''Sibylline et les cravates noires'' (Dupuis, 1977), story by Paul Deliège # ''Elixir le magnifique'' (Dupuis, 1979) # ''Burokratz le vampire'' (Dupuis, 1982) # ''Le chapeau magique'' (Dupuis, 1983) # ''Le violon de Zagabor'' (Dupuis, 1984) # ''Sibylline et le Kulgude'' (Dupuis, 1985) Later Sibylline stories have not seen publication in book form, though they have been published in ''Spirou'' magazine. New Sibylline stories are currently being produced by André Taymans. Macherot receives credit on the cover though his actual involvement is unclear. * ''Sibylline et la ligue des coupe-jarrets'' (Flouzemaker, 2006), by André Taymans

''Mirliton''

* ''Mirliton'' (Dupuis, 1980), story by

. This is #4 in the series ''Les meilleurs récits du Journal Spirou''.

''Isabelle''

* ''Le tableau enchanté'' (Dupuis, 1972), story by Macherot and

, art by Will * ''Isabelle et le capitaine'' (Dupuis, 1983), story by Macherot and Yvan Delporte, art by Will * ''Les maléfices de l'oncle Hermès'' (Dupuis, 1978), story by Macherot, Franquin and Yvan Delporte, art by Will * ''L'astragale de Cassiopée'' (Dupuis, 1979), story by Macherot, Franquin and Yvan Delporte, art by Will

Compilations

* ''Spécial Clifton'' (Le Lombard, 1981). Collects the three Clifton stories by Macherot. * ''Chlorophylle à Croquefredouille'' (Le Lombard, 1998). Collects the Chlorophylle stories from the "Croquefredouille cycle". This is #7 in the series ''Les classiques du rire''. * ''Clifton'' (Niffle, 2004). A pocket-sized, black-and-white compilation of the three Clifton stories by Macherot.

Books about Macherot

* ''Macherot: une monographie'' (Mosquito, 1998). Features an interview, various critical texts, and many previously unreleased drawings. * ''À propos de Macherot'' (À propos, 2005)

References

External links

Raymond Macherot biography
on Lambiek Comiclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Macherot, Raymond 1924 births 2008 deaths People from Verviers Belgian comics artists Belgian comics writers Belgian satirists