Jean Roba

Jean Roba is one of the classic artists of the golden age of Spirou magazine. Having had an education in several different disciplines such as decoration and fashion-design, Jean Roba chose a future in advertising. After working as an illustrator and as the director of a creative studio, his passion for comics led him to magazine Spirou in 1957. He started out illustrating some episodes of the historical 'Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul' series along with Eddy Paape under the collective pseudonym Robeddy. He then had his first comic of this own, the short story 'Tiou, le Petit Sioux'.

At the end of 1959, together with Maurice Rosy, he created a short story about a little boy and his dog: 'Boule et Bill'. In the following years, he developed this comic as a gag strip that appeared weekly in Spirou. 'Boule et Bill' soon became one of the most popular series of the magazine. After years of one pagers, Roba finally made a continuing story with the characters in 1981, 'Globe Trotters'. From 1958 to 1960, he assisted André Franquin on his 'Spirou et Fantasio' production for the Le Parisien Libéré daily. In the second half of the 1960s, Roba illustrated the weekly announcements on Spirou's cover.

Roba began a second series in 1962, about the children's gang 'La Ribambelle'. Jidéhem assisted him on the backgrounds, and the scenarios were written by Yvan Delporte or Vicq. Besides his Spirou comics, Roba took on 'Pomme' in Record magazines. In 1977, he drew 'Le Sixième Your' for Spirou's Trombone Illustré supplement. After Roba's retirement, Laurent Verron took over 'Boule et Bill' in 2003. Jean Roba is an enormous success among his readers, for his great sense of humor, combining tenderness with malicious wit, as well as for his graphic talents.

Roba and other artists of the 'Franco-Belgian school'
from left to right: Rosinski, Will, Roba, Rafael Morales,
Jacques Martin, Paul Roux, Batem.