Bob Fish
The French Clear-Line master Yves Chaland is the main representative of the so-called "atomic style", a nostalgic 1950s retro style. In his modern style of nostalgia, he created an ironic note to the classic Franco-Belgian comics, in the form of his popular series 'Freddy Lombard'. At age 13 he wrote a letter to the magazine Spirou, which was published in issue #1689 (27 August 1970). Yves Chaland did his first comic pages for the Biblipop fanzine in 1974.
Freddy Lombard
A year later, he came up with the collective work 'Lo Parisenc en Vacanças' in Vida Nostra. With his fellow student Luc Cornillon, he founded the magazine L'Unité de Valeur. Chaland and Cornillon were then noticed by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and brought to the magazine Métal Hurlant in 1978. There, they made pastiches on classic 1950s comics, alone or together.
Freddy Lombard
In 1980, Chaland created his character 'Bob Fish' in Métal Hurlant, and 'John Bravo' in Astrapi. A year later, he created the futuristic character 'Adolphus Claar' in a special issue of Métal Hurlant. This strip was later continued in Astrapi. He also produced 'Freddy Lombard' in Bananas.
Les aventures de Spirou
The 'Bob Fish' side character 'Le Jeune Albert' also obtained his autonomy and appeared as a gag comic in Métal Hurlant from 1982. That same year, Chaland also came up with a special retro story of 'Spirou', in a style reminiscent of Jijé ('Spirou au Bocongo'), for magazine Spirou. In 1984, he created an episode of Moebius's 'Le Major Fatal', published in Rigolo, Métal Hurlant and Métal Aventure.
Adolphus Claar
At the same time, Chaland illustrated numerous advertising and communication campaigns, colored the first 'John Difool' album and cooperated on several collective works. In 1990, he illustrated Jean-Luc Fromental's 'La Main Coupée'. In July of that same year, Yves Chaland died in a tragic car accident. After his death, several books with his illustration work and unfinished stories have appeared, as well as reprints of his entire oeuvre at Les Humanoïdes Associés.
Although Chaland wasn't born in Belgium his character 'Le Jeune Albert' received its own comic book mural in May 2000, located in the Rue des Alexiens / Cellebroersstraat in Brussels, as part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route.
Chaland in Brussels, 1983