'Marsupilami' nr. 20 - 'Viva Palombia!'. Dutch-language version.
The Belgian artist Batem can be considered the official heir of André Franquin. Since 1987, he has drawn the solo adventures of Franquin's famous long-tailed animal creation, the Marsupilami. Batem collaborated with several scriptwriters on the series, until beginning a steady collaboration with Stéphane Colman in 2006. Besides the Marsupilami, Batem has worked on several biker humor comics for Éditions Kraken, La Sirène and Hugo & Cie, most notably the 'Sam Speed' series.
Early life and career
Batem was born as Luc Collin in 1960, in Kamina, a city in the former colony Belgian Congo. During his secondary education, he enrolled at the Comics section of the Châtelet Academy of Fine Arts, which was headed by the famous comic colorist Vittorio Leonardo. He continued his studies at the Saint-Luc Institute in Liège, where one of his teachers was the caricaturist Jean-Yves Stanicel. Collin's first job was at SEPP, a subsidiary company of Éditions Dupuis, engaged with the licensing of comic characters, mostly from Spirou magazine. Batem collaborated on merchandising projects related to Jeff MacNelly's American newspaper comic 'Shoe', the SEPP original series about the underwater creatures 'The Snorks' (created by Nic Broca), as well as André Franquin's 'Marsupilami'.
'Marsupilami' nr. 4 - 'Le Pollen du Monte Urticando'. Dutch-language version.
Marsupilami
Batem's work was noticed by André Franquin, who at the time was searching for new possibilities with his Marsupilami character. The leopard-spotted monkey-like animal with its extremely long tail, short-tempered nature and familiar "Houba! Houba!" call was created by Franquin in the 1951 'Spirou et Fantasio' episode 'Spirou et les Héritiers'. He remained a regular cast member until Franquin left Spirou magazine's title comic and handed it to Jean-Claude Fournier. As one of his most treasured creations, Franquin kept the rights to the Marsupilami to himself. However, from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s, the animal only appeared in sporadic gags, as well as a handful of short stories situated in the animal's natural habitat, the Palombian jungle.
Things changed in 1986, when Franquin sold his characters to Jean-François Moyersoen, an entrepreneur who subsequently founded the publishing house Marsu Productions. Moyersoen's first project was a full-blown comic book series starring the Marsupilami, with Franquin involved as creative consultant and co-scriptwriter. Instead of featuring the Marsupilami in urban adventures like in the 'Spirou et Fantasio' era, the setting of the new adventures became the Palombian jungle. Franquin had already explored this territory in his groundbreaking 1957 'Spirou' episode 'Le Nid des Marsupilamis' ("The Nest of the Marsupilamis"). The new spin-off series focused on the Marsupilami family - a Marsupilami couple with three Marsupilami babies - and also brought back the scruffy hunter Bring M. Backalive and episodic characters from the 'Spirou' universe, such as the evil circus owner Zabaglione and animal trainer Noé.
'Marsupilami', nr. 15 - 'C'est Quoi Ce Cirque?!'.
The 'Marsupilami' series took off in October 1987 with the debut album 'La Queue du Marsupilami' ("The Marsupilami's Tail"), and saw Franquin teaming up again with Michel Greg to write the stories. For the artwork, Franquin trained the young cartoonist Batem to get the feel of his characters. Franquin participated with the artwork of the first two albums, after which Batem continued on his own. From the third album, Yann took over from Greg as scriptwriter, while Franquin remained involved as a creative consultant and co-plotter. The final album with Franquin contributions was the ninth, 'Le Papillon des Cimes' (1994). Since then, the 'Marsupilami' comic book series has continued with Batem at the helm. The duo Xavier Fauche and Éric Adam wrote several albums, after which many writers were involved, including Jérémie Kaminka, Jean-Michel Bourcquardez, Vincent Dugomier and Batem himself. Since 2006, Batem has found a steady writer in Stéphane Colman, with whom he has also worked on other projects.
'Le Guide Gros-Gaz des Motards'.
Further comics
In addition to 'Le Marsupilami', Batem has produced political caricatures for the Charleroi newspaper La Nouvelle Gazette, and has been the artist for biker humor comics for Éditions Kraken and La Sirène. With writer Pierre-Yves Madeline, he developed such projects as 'Jack Sélère' (1995), 'Ça Passe à donf' (2002), 'La Guide des Motards' (2003) and, most notably, 'Sam Speed' (2003). In 2010, Batem and Colman continued the latter at Hugo & Cie, aided for the artwork by Olivier Saive and Éric Maltaite.
With the scriptwriter Nicolas Pothier, he ventured into the Disney universe and created the special album 'Un Travail Pour Fantomiald' (2024) with Donald Duck's superhero persona Fantomiald for the special Disney collection of publisher Glénat. Batem has worked at the Armageddon atelier in Liège, a creative environment he shares with the comic artists Mathieu Barthélémy, Clarke, Marc-Renier, Benoît Ers, Ludo Borecki, Johan Pilet, Corentin Longrée and Marco Venanzi.
'Un Travail Pour Fantomiald' (2024).
Graphic contributions
In 1990, Vittorio Leonardo and Batem paid graphic tribute to François Walthéry in the collective homage book 'Natacha: Special 20 Ans' (Marsu Productions, 1990), which celebrated the 20th anniversary of Walthéry's series 'Natacha'. In the subsequent years, he has participated in group projects like 'Nous Construisons - L'Enfance Handicapée dans la Cité' (Kiwanis International, 1991) and 'Animaux Sous Bulles' (A.LI.EN, 1993). In 1994, Batem was one of the artists of 'Putinkon, le Retour' for P&T Production, a comic based on the Putinkon character by the French comedian Éric Thomas. He was also one of several artists to complete 'L'Arbre des Deux Printemps' (Lombard, 2001), the final graphic novel of the comic artist Will, whose death in 2000 had left it unfinished. He also paid homage to the 'Atalante' comic by Didier Crisse in the collective art book 'Les Amis d'Atalante' (Soleil, 2003), and to Albert Uderzo in the 2007 tribute comic 'Astérix et ses Amis - Hommage à Albert Uderzo' (Albert René, 2007).
Batem (Photo: Henrik Bernd).