Gérald Forton

Gérald Forton, grandson of Louis Forton, started his professional career in 1950 with some short stories for Caméra 34. He then worked for Zorro Magazine, Bonnes Soirées ('Lucile Desmoulins', 'Passion en Plein Ciel'), and the publishing house Ray-Flo ('Jim Cartouche'). In 1952, he began work for Spirou, where he made many 'Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul'. Soon he started the adventure series 'Kim Devil' with scripts by Jean-Michel Charlier in this magazine. For Risque-Tout, Forton created 'Le Garage Bleu' and 'Alain Cardan'. This last series continued in Spirou after the demise of Risque-Tout. He continued his career in Spirou throughout the 1960s with the series 'Capitaine Morgan', and 'Ciryl Sinclair' with J.J. Marine. Forton is often credited with the artwork of 'Roch Rafale', but this series was in fact drawn by Yolande Canale, his wife at the time.

In addition to his work for Spirou, Forton took over 'Jacques Flash' from Pierre Leguen, 'Teddy Ted' from Hidalgo in Vaillant and 'Tiger Joe' from Hubinon in La Libre Junior. He was also present in Tintin from 1961, with 'Ben Barry', 'Grégory le Marin', 'Calamity Jane', 'Balle Perdue' and 'Des Chevaux et des Hommes'. Forton took over the famous 'Bob Morane' series in 1962, continuing the series in Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, Pilote and Het Laatste Nieuws. From 1972 to 1974, he worked alongside Sirius on the 'Pemberton' series. In the late 1970s, Forton produced 'Les Mystères de l'Ouest' in Pif Gadget, 'Yvain de Kanheric' with scripts by Maric in Trio-Pieds Nickelés Magazine and the collection 'L'Histoire de France en Bandes Dessinées'. In 1977, he joined Télé-Junior, where he continued 'Les Mystères de l'Ouest' and illustrated stories with 'Spider-Man' and 'Thierry la Fronde'.

After a brief stint at Tac (with 'Slim Jacket'), Froton emigrated to the United States in the 1980s. There, he began to work for Marvel and First Comics, doing series such as 'The Fantastic Four', 'Arak', 'Jonah Hex', 'John Sable' and 'Nexus'. He also did the daily and sunday pages of 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe' with scripts by Stan Lee. He also became active in the animation field, and worked as a storyboard artist on 'Prince Vaillant'. In 1994, he took on the 'Bob Morane' series again.

In the States, Forton has been primarily working in storyboards for movies and TV commercials. After a couple of years, he returned to the comics field by doing the detective strips 'Tom Drake' and 'Geronimo' for Loup publishers in Brussels. He also took on 'Bob Morane' once again for this publisher. He started on a new episode of 'Kim Devil' with writer Alain De Kuyssche and on new 'Teddy Ted' stories with Rémy Gallart.