Francis Bertrand, who signed with only his first name, was an artist from the "Marcinelle school", who drew most of his oeuvre for the Belgian magazine Spirou. Born in Uccle, he created his first comic for La Cité in 1957 ('Many Vail'). He then took on 'Junior' and 'Toutsy', both scripted by Greg, in La Dernière Heure and La Libre Belgique. Francis put his personal production on hold, and assisted Peyo and later Greg on their comic series. He began a longtime collaboration with Spirou in 1962. His first work for this magazine were several stories for the center-folded "mini-books" section, but he eventually gained fame for the slapstick series 'Marc Lebut et son Voisin'. This series, about the exploits of two neighbors and a Ford T, was originally scripted by Maurice Tillieux and ran from 1966 until 1983.
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Throughout the years, Francis also produced other series for the magazine, such as the series about television host 'Clap' (1969), 'Captain Lahuche' (1974) and 'Les Soldats de Plomb' (1979), an absurd military gag strip drawn in a minimalistic style. In addition to his work for Spirou, Francis was also present in other magazines, such as Le Journal des Pieds Nickelés ('Petitbois', 1962), Record ('Mr Bulle', 1963), Tintin ('Lahuri', 1966) and Pilote ('Jett Panther', 1964). Present in J2 Jeunes and J2 Magazine from 1965, he made series like 'Pat Cadwell', 'Mr Bouchu' and 'Katty'. Francis also took over the 'Jacky et Célestin' series in Le Soir Illustré from Will and Walthéry in 1967.
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