Max L'Explorateur
Guy Bara was born in Latvia as the son of Belgian diplomats. His real name was Guy Willems, although several sources erroneously mention Guy Herzog (the correct name was confirmed to us by his daughter). He spent his childhood in several countries and returned to Belgium in 1940. He founded the literary and artistic magazine La Faune in 1945, before working in advertising for several years. His first drawings were published in La Dernière Heure in 1948, and a year later, he became editor-in-chief of the current-affairs magazine Vivre. He settled in Paris in 1950, where he made humorous illustrations for magazines like Marius, Le Hérisson and Ici-Paris.
Lamybidas
In 1954, he created the character his famous explorer Max ('Max, L'Explorateur'), who made his official debut on 31 March 1955 in the newspaper France-Soir. . Bara's pantomime comic strip became an international success, and was published in a variety of European newspapers, such as Le Soir, Het Laatste Nieuws and Cork Oserver. From 1964, 'Max' also starred in longer stories published in the magazine Spirou, sometimes with scripts by Maurice Rosy. For this magazine, Bara also created 'Kéké Le Perroquet' (1963, initially published in Bonux-Boy), 'Lamybidas' (1981-1985) and 'Dugazon' (1982-1983). Between 1971 and 1973, Bara was in charge of the magazine L'Oeuf, a humorous magazine for the medicine branch.
Cro-Magnon
Bara was also present in Tintin from 1968 with series like 'Éphémère et Rabudol' (with Vicq and later Bob de Groot) and even more 'Max' gags. In 1974, he started his stone-age gag series 'Cro-Magnon' in this magazine in 1974. This series was also published in the German magazine Zack, as well as its French and Dutch counterparts Super-As and Wham in 1978-80. For these magazines, Bara also created the historical soldier 'Sigi le Franc'. Bara was additionally present in Fripounet in the mid-1970s with 'Philibert le Perroquet', one of the side characters from 'Kéké'. Guy Bara retired in the mid-1980s, and spent his final years painting in the South of France. He passed away in Marseille on 18 June, 2003.
In 1991 he was knighted by king Boudewijn/ Baudouin as a Knight in the Order of Leopold.
