Maurice Rosy

Maurice Rosy was the artistic director of Spirou during the magazine's heyday, as well as a talented and original scenario-writer. Born in the Walloon municipality Fontaine-l'Évêque, he joined the publishing house Dupuis in 1954 as a "man of ideas", a job specially designed for him. Two years later he became artistic director of Spirou. Together with chief editor Yvan Delporte, he was responsible for the magazine's success during the 1950s and 1960s.

During their reign, several new new ideas came to light, such as the "mini-books" section. For this section, Rosy wrote the first 'Boule et Bill' story for Jean Roba, and created the prisoner 'Bobo' with Paul Deliège. 'Bobo' appeared in the "normal" pages of Spirou later on, written and drawn entirely by Deliège. Rosy wrote and drew an occasional story with the character in the 1970s.

Rosy wrote some of his best scenarios for 'Tif et Tondu', the classic series illustrated by Will. Rosy made the scripts for this series from 1955 to 1967. He created the character of the masked Monsieur Choc, Tif and Tondu's biggest and most mysterious enemy. In addition to 'Tif et Tondu', Rosy cooperated on the scenarios of some 'Spirou et Fantasio' stories with André Franquin ('Le Dictateur et le Champignon' in 1953, and 'Les Pirates du Silence' in 1955). He furthermore wrote a 'Jerry Spring' story for Jijé and some stories with 'Max l'Explorateur' for Bara. He created 'Attila', the talking dog, in 1967 (illustrated by Derib). In the late 1960s he opened a studio with Maurice Kornblum, who became his writing partner on 'Bobo' and 'Attila'.

Besides his work for Spirou, Rosy was involved the foundation of TVA Dupuis, the publisher's animation studios, and the launch of the Gag de Poche pocket series. Maurice Rosy left the field of comics and moved to Paris in 1974, where he began a career as an illustrator and advertising artist for Bayard, Nathan, Bordas, Hatier and les Presses de la Cité. Rosy and Kornblum's final 'Attila' script was finished by Didgé and published in Spirou in 1987.