'Arabelle'.
Jean Ache was an artist who worked in a semi-realistic style for many of the post-World War II French comic magazines and newspapers. Although perhaps not a household name, his comics were read by millions of readers of France-Soir, Le Pèlerin, France Dimanche, Le Journal de Mickey and many other publications. Among his best-known creations are the caveman 'Archibald' (1948-1974), the mermaid 'Arabelle' (1950-1977), the professor 'Tonton Molécule' (1946-1949), the twins 'Nic et Mino' (1958-1966), the youngster trio 'Achille, Lastuce et Crémolet' (1948-1971), the ghost girl 'Amanda, La Pin-Up Fantôme' (1949-1955) and new adventures with Gervy's 'Pat'Apouf' character.
Early life and (animation) career
The cartoonist was born in 1923 in Le Havre as Jean-Baptiste Raymond Marcel Huet. As a boy, he got interested in comics through the American comic series that were published in magazines like Robinson and Le Journal de Mickey. His first effort as an artist was the Disney-inspired but unpublished comic story 'Les Aventures d'une Grenouille' ("The Adventures of a Frog", 1938). However, Huet was eventually more attracted to animation. During the war years, in 1941, he made his own five-minute amateur cartoon, 'L'Émule de Tartarin', with a second hand camera. According to him, it was the first amateur cartoon production in France. The short has been shown repeatedly in clubs of non-professional filmmakers since. Jean Huet then headed for Paris, where he was hired to work as an assistant animator at Films de Cavaignac. He participated in the production of 'Callisto Le Petite Nymphe', a film on mythology inspired by Art Deco artist André Édouard Marty. Afterwards, he worked with the famous cartoonist Albert Dubout on the animated cartoon 'Anatole Fait du Camping'. This collaboration lasted until 1943, when Huet went semi-underground to avoid deportation for forced labor in Nazi Germany. He earned some money by illustrating booklets in the series 'La Forêt Enchantée', written by fellow Dubout co-worker Freddy de Nussy.
'Biceps'.
Biceps
In 1943, Jean Huet made his debut as a comic artist with six books about the extraterrestrial caveman 'Biceps, le Costaud Sentimental' for Éditions NB and Éditions I.P.C., which he signed "Jean Hache". The character also appeared in the collaborationist magazine Le Téméraire, which also printed work by Ache's contemporaries Érik, Auguste Liquois and Raymond Poïvet. By then, the artist was signing with Jean Ache, the pen name he kept for the rest of his cartooning career. His first post-war material was the comic strip 'Manitou le Magicien', which ran in Cadet-Journal.
Tonton Molécule
Ache had his professional breakthrough in O.K., a magazine edited by René Detire that also featured work by other young artists like Albert Uderzo, Martial, Kline and Pierre Le Guen. From July 1946 until the magazine's disappearance in 1949, O.K. ran his comic 'Tonton Molécule', which dealt with an inventor and his two mischievous nephews. Having developed a uranium-based pill that gave him unusual strength, he carried out his experiments in the company of Professor Alcide Nitrik, inventor of a time machine, and his friend Basile. A similar character called 'Bébé Vitamine' was published in 1948 in O.K.'s children's counterpart Kid, and later also appeared in Le Journal des Pieds Nickelés (1966-1968) and the Super J pocket books (1970). Other Ache creations for O.K. between 1947 and 1949 were 'Jim Colt Contre Porc-Épic', 'Brindzing, Tapsek et Fikdou' and 'La Grande Bagarre'.
Following the cancellation of O.K. magazine, 'Tonton Molécule' reappeared in the SFPI publications Zig et Puce, Zorro-Zig et Puce, and Sans Peur. From 1952 on, Sans Peur published reprints of Jean Ache's material for O.K., as well as new installments by Henri Fox.
Achille, Lastuce et Crémolet
Simultaneously to his work for O.K., Jean Ache appeared in the Lyon-based magazine Mon Journal from its first issue of 8 August 1946 until the last of 22 April 1948. He created the comic 'Achille, Lastuce et Crémolet' about two kids and a dog. Between 1954 and 1957, 'Achille' returned as a solo character in Benjamin magazine, and the trio was reunited again for a third run from 1966 to 1971 in Le Journal de Bibi Fricotin.
During the 1940s and early 1950s, Jean Ache made sporadic appearances in magazines like Vaillant (new pages with his 'Biceps' character), Jeudi-Matin (a 1949 adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's 'The Deerslayer'), Comique-Magazine, Le Journal du Dimanche, Libération, Le Mérinos, L'Époque, Paris Normandie Sports, Radio 48, Oxygène, Biribu and Ici-Paris.
'Archibald'.
France-Dimanche
Between 1948 and 1957, Jean Ache was working for the French Sunday newspaper France-Dimanche. His first creation for this paper was the playboy caveman 'Archibald', a character echoing his previous creation 'Biceps'. From 1965 until 1974', Archibald' reappeared in the comic magazine Pilote. For France Dimanche, he additionally made the comic strips 'Agénor Super Don Juan' in 1949, and, between October 1949 and December 1955, 'Amanda La Pin-up Fantôme', about a Scottish ghost girl who goes to work in a Parisian cabaret. In 1954-1955, 'Amanda' was briefly replaced by the superheroine 'Coraline'.
'Amanda'.
Le Crime Ne Paie Pas
Between 1950 and 1962, Ache also worked for France-Soir, the daily newspaper of the same publishing group. He initially illustrated installments of 'Le Crime Ne Paie Pas', the vertical comic strip series by Paul Gordeaux which depicted true criminal cases. Ache drew the episodes 'L'Affaire des Poisons', 'Le Courrier de Lyon', 'L'Inavouable Secret d'Émile de la Roncière' and 'Le Grand Acteur Booth, Assassin du Président Lincoln'.
'Arabelle' (France-Soir, 1950).
Arabelle, la Dernière Sirène
Also in France-Soir, Ache came up with his most popular creation: 'Arabelle, la Dernière Sirène', about a mermaid who is turned into a human. The comic started in 1950 as a text strip, and in 1954 was turned into a balloon comic. France-Soir printed about 3,500 strips about 'Arabelle' until 1962. The character made a brief reappearance in L'Illustré du Dimanche in 1967, and then appeared between 1972 and 1977 in two long stories in Tintin and a short one in Tintin Sélection. His time with France-Soir and France-Dimanche makes Ache one of the few French creators of his time who worked on adult-themed comics, since most of the comic magazines at the time met with strict censorship.
'Arabella', Dutch-language version from Tintin/Kuifje, 1972.
Later work
In 1956, Jean Ache made an adaptation in 72 strips of the Alain-René Lesage novel 'Gil Blas de Santillane' for Libération Champagne. He later also made adaptations of novels by Alfred de Vigny, Alfred de Musset, Prosper Mérimée, Pierre De Beaumarchais, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Alphonse De Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Pierre Loti, Alphonse Daudet and Leon Tolstoy. Ache had a brief stint in advertising in the mid-1950s, when he made 'Les Phénos du Bon Accueil' for the advertising magazine NRJ, the sticker album 'Jacqueline et les Bandits de Kerkedec' for Meunier chocolat (1954) and promotional strips in Lisette ('Bon Voyage Viviane', 1955), Benjamin ('Benjamin Arrive Avec Le Train Blanc', 1956), Ima, l'Ami des Jeunes ('Hervé et Dina', 1956) and the BP magazine La Piste ('Les Courses Automobiles', 1957).
'Nic et Mino'.
From 1958 to 1966, Ache was present in Le Journal de Mickey with 'Nic et Mino', a weekly series in a Clear Line style about two twin brothers who live through weird and fantastic adventures with their wealthy uncle. The comic was written by Claude Dupré (pen name for Agnès Guilloteau), and additionally ran in a couple of regional newspapers, including La République du Centre. Set up by demand of publisher Paul Winkler as a direct competitor to Hergé's 'Tintin', the comic was also collected in four books by Éditions Hardy.
In Pilote, Jean Ache revived 'Archibald' and he illustrated pages about current affairs written by Gébé, Fred or Pierre Christin, as well as pastiches of famous painters, like Modigliani, Picasso, Chagall, Van Gogh and Buffet. His knowledge of fine arts was also showcased in his 1973 set of 'Little Red Riding Hood' retellings, which consisted of seven versions in the style of different painters, varying from representational to abstract.
Animation
In the late 1960s, Jean Ache returned to animation, when he and Jean Nohain created 15 episodes of 'S.O.S. Les Zlops Attaquent' for television. Later animation projects were 'Loto-Tirelire' and 'Flonflon', made with Gilbert Richard. Éditions Jeunesse et Vacances also assigned Ache to develop a magazine based on the latter character, resulting in Flonflon Télé-Jeunes (1970). For this short-lived magazine, Ache made comic stories starring 'Flonflon', as well as game pages and a comic based on the clown trio Les Bario.
'Pat'Apouf'.
Final years and death
All in all, Jean Ache was a very prominent creator in the French press. Later in his career, he resumed his cartooning activities for a great many other comic magazines of the time. His comic strip 'La Famille Brocatel' (1967-1970) appeared in the S.P.E. magazines Le Journal des Pieds Nickelés and Le Journal de Bibi Fricotin. Among his other creations are the title hero of the comic magazine Pastec by Jean Chapelle's Société Française de Presse Illustrée (1968-1970), and contributions to Record (an adaptation of the Rabelais novel 'Gargantua', 1972-1974), Pomme d'Api (1974), La Croix (1975-1979), Le Journal du Dimanche ('O.V.N.I. Soit Qui Mal y Pense', 1976), Les Visiteurs du Mercredi (animal stories, 1978), the ecological weekly Pistil ('Ortax le Robot', 1978-1979), the soccer monthly Footy ('Supershoot', 1979-1982) and the military magazine TAM (comic biographies, 1980-1985). In 1973, he was asked to succeed Gervy as the artist of 'Pat'Apouf' in Le Pélérin. He continued to draw the adventures of the emblematic detective in this Catholic weekly until his death in 1985. Jean-Baptiste Huet, AKA Jean Ache, died in Joinville-le-Pont, a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, at age 62.
Despite his impressive oeuvre and wide readership during his career, most of Jean Ache's work is nowadays forgotten. His publications were largely limited to magazines and newspapers, and only a few book collections of his work have appeared.
'Little Red Riding Hood' in Joan Miró style.
'Little Red Riding Hood' in Giorgio de Chirico style.
'Little Red Riding Hood' in Bernard Buffet style.