User:StellarDrift/Les Aventures de Jean Valhardi

Les Aventures de Jean Valhardi is a French-Belgian comic. Written by Jijé, the comic series premiered in edition 40/41 (40th edition of the magazine in 1941) of Spirou magazine. The series continued on intermittently over the years, concluding in 1984.

Synopsis
Jean Valhardi is an insurance investigator from Belgium. He embarks on numerous adventures around the world. He later gives up his profession in favor of a purely fun and adventuring life.

Publication History
In 1941, Jijé (pseudonym of well-known artist Joseph Gillain) and Jean Doisy, then the editor of Spirou, debuted Les Aventures de Jean Valhardi debuted in number 40/41 of Spirou magazine. It is the 40th edition of 1941 publication year thus 40/41. t was originally meant to be titled Valhardi the Detective. Due to the ongoing war, publication ended in 1943 in 35/43 (the 35th of 1943 publications). Those comics comprised the first album. During this two-year period, the series was for the first time covered by the newspaper in issue number 13/44. In 1946, the publications became less complicated, the story to follow The Rubens, drawn by Eddy Paape who succeeds Jijé, is published from issue number 429 to issue number 488, the same year is published a complete story entitled On the rail in the ' Almanac 47. After the war concluded, Jijé left for the United States and entrusted the series and its future to the people he had trained.

The following year saw the publication of the story that Valhardi and Jacquot detectives in edition 489 and 574. These were created by the artistic hands of Eddy Paape. After a brief pause, the series returns in 1949 with two stories published during the year; the first being issue number 575 entitled Le roc du diable up to issue number 600 is entitled A la poursuite de Max Clair. Yvan Delported scripted both albums, and created issue 601 to issue 612.

The story to follow Jean Valhardi: the monster of Malicorne, written by Jean-Michel Charlier, is published in 1951 from issue number 704. During this time, the comics exhibited interests in petroleum leading to crime, typical of comics such as Buck Danny with Les Trafiquants de la mer rouge et Les Pirates du désert. The following year, is published from issue number 752 to issue number 797, the story to be titled The super-gamma ray. Three times, the series makes the "cover" (in fact, the quarter of the first page bearing the header "Spirou") of the newspaper. In 1953, issue number 798 to issue number 840 saw a compilation of an album called La machine à conquérir le monde.

Jean Valhardi is then taken over by designer Eddy Paape. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Yvan Delporte and Jean-Michel Charlier succeeded Jean Doisy and Eddy paape. In 1956, Jije resumes drawing for the series, but with help of the writers. In the 1960s, he was assisted by Guy Mouminoux for graphics.

The following year, the drawing and the screenplay was taken up by Jijé. Two compilation albums were published: the first Le gang du diamant of issue number 989 to issue number 1012 and the second L’affaire Barnes published in issue issue number 1015 to issue number 1035. Jijé's assistant of his brother Philip the following year for the story to be followed entitled Le mauvais œil, which was published from issue number 1043 to issue number 1063, it also makes the cover of issue number 1053. Jijé will ensure alone the scenario and the drawing of the series from the story to follow Le secret de Neptune (The Secret of Neptune) published in 1959 from Issue number 1116 to issue number 1137. Two years later, Spirou published the succession album called Rendez–vous sur le Yukon of issue number 1212 to issue number 1251 and made the cover of issue number 1241. The year 1963 saw the publication continuation of the story entitled Le retour de Jean Valhardi, which was published from issue number 1312 to issue number 1333. Gégène is replaced by a younger Arsène. Same author's team for the story to follow released the following year from issue number 1344 to issue number 1365 and entitled Le grand rush. She also made the cover of the newspaper at numbers 1344 and 1360. The series will disappear from the newspaper for a while before reappearing in 1981, with René Follet at the drawing and André-Paul Duchâteau, with the publication of the story titled Dossier X in numbers 2249, which it also covers, and 2250. It returns in the following year with a story to follow titled Les naufrageurs aux yeux vides published in issue number 2324, which she also covers, at issue number 2335. The ultimate appearance of Les Aventures de Jean Valhardi appeared in Spirou in 1984 with the story entitled Un gosse à abattre.

Characters

 * Jean Valhardi. He is the main character and works as an insurance investigator. He is typical of the comic book heroes; He does not know fear, and is very charming, strong and upright.


 * Arsene; a man who works for Jean Valahardi. He appears during the years of Jean Michel Charlier and is corpulent, little muscled and boastful: the very opposite of his companion hero.


 * Gegene, an extravagant teenager who evolves from a lonely kid to a main character of the series.

Main Series
Valhardi, still in Jijé, comes out in 1951 and contains three stories.
 * 'Jean Valhardi detective': Jijé, the first album in the series, was released in 1943 by Dupuis.

The following three albums were designed by Eddy Paape and scripted by Jean-Michel Charlier:
 *  The cursed castle  comes out in 1953
 *  The super-gamma ray  comes out in 1954
 *  The machine to conquer the world  comes out in 1956.

Jijé takes again the drawing and the scenario from the sixth album:
 *  Valhardi against the black sun  released in 1958
 *  The gang of the diamond  in 1958, scenario of Jean-Michel Charlier except the last plates.
 *  The Barnes case 1959  comes out in 1959

Jijé is helped by his son Philip for the following three:
 *  The Evil Eye  published in 1960 in a comic book published in series in Spirou in 1958;
 *  The secret of Neptune  released in 1961
 *  Rendez-vous on the Yukon  in 1963.

In 1965, two albums of Jijé come out:
 *  The Return of Valhardi 
 *  The Great Rush .

After a long interruption the series is republished in cardboard format in the 1980s.
 * For the occasion comes out the fourteenth album  Le naufrageur aux yeux vides in 1984 and by André-Paul Duchâteau
 * The fifteenth titled "The duel of idols" in 1986, which is a reprise of a story by Jijé and Guy Mouminoux published in Spirou in 1965. The sixteenth entitled  Un gosse à abattre by René Follet and André-Paul Duchâteau, was released the same year. and the seventeenth and last album entitled Jean Valhardi and the beings of the forest released the following year, is a 1950s story of 'Eddy Paape and Yvan Delport.

Reissue
In 1975, Spirou republished two black and white albums featuring the stories of Eddy Paape published in 1946 and 1951. They are entitled Rétrospective Jean Valhardi T.1 et Rétrospective Jean Valhardi T.2. Between the end of 1943 and the beginning of 1944, a small album called L'étrange Noël was produced by Jean Valhardi on Jijé's drawing and Jean Doisy's screenplay. In the 1990s, a collection was published in a special edition by renowed publishing house Dupuis. Dupios took control over the entire comic strip of Jijé entitled Tout Jijé and republished in volumes 5 to 12 and 156. Finally, within its collection Patrimoine, Dupuis undertook to re-edit the series in chronological order. A first volume was released in February 2015. It contains the first adventures of two volumes of the series in their original format in a previously unpublished album.

Pirate
In 1980, the Super-Gamma releases a pirate album Le duel des idoles, an hitherto unpublished album.