Jean Roba

Jean Roba was one of the classic artists of the golden age of Spirou magazine. Having had an education in several artistic disciplines such as decoration and fashion design, Jean Roba chose a future in advertising. After working as an illustrator and as the director for a creative studio, his passion for comics led him to magazine Spirou in 1957. He started out illustrating some stories for the historical series 'Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul', together 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' 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 daily Le Parisien Libéré. 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 either 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 work 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.