''Starter'' is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by André Franquin (drawings) and

Jidéhem Jean De Mesmaeker (21 December 1935 – 30 April 2017) known by the pseudonym Jidéhem ("JDM"), was a Belgian comics artist in the Marcinelle school tradition. He was best known for his series featuring a cute, playful and adventurous young girl, ...

(drawings and scripts) in Spirou.

History

It originated in from a similarly titled periodical column about automobiles, written by Jacques Wauters in Spirou from 1952 on. In 1956 André Franquin started illustrating these columns and drew a little mechanic named Starter. One year later, his workload for the magazine had become massive, and he left the illustration work to

, who had a notable talent for drawing automobiles. Jidéhem wrote and drew the column until 1978. Starter collected more than 700 episodes, full with beautiful technical drawings and technologically correct information. The column was originally just text, with a few illustrations. Eventually it evolved into an adventure comic around Starter the mechanic. One of the side characters, Sophie, was introduced in 1964 and would eventually receive her own

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

named ''

Sophie Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...

''. Since, several books have been published with info and art from the Starter Columns.

Notes

Sources

External links

List of stories in bédéthèque
Belgian comic strips Belgian comics titles 1952 comics debuts Columns (periodical) Comics characters introduced in 1952 Adventure comics Educational comics Belgian comics characters Fictional Belgian people Fictional racing drivers Motorsports comics Dupuis titles Comics set in Belgium Male characters in comics {{FrancoBelgian-comics-stub