'Mister President', caricaturing French president Jacques Chirac.
Frédéric Seron, better known as Clarke, Valda or Bluttwurst, is one of the most prominent Franco-Belgian artists of humorous comics, best known for his contributions to Spirou and Fluide Glacial. Born in Liège, he studied studied Fine Arts and began his professional career in the field of fashion illustration. He additionally participated in local collective comic projects like 'Qui a Tué François Walthéry?' and 'B.D. Mode, c'est Belge'. He began a longtime cooperation with the young scriptwriter François Gilson in 1987, starting with the album 'Rebecca - Bon Anniversaire, Papy' for the publishing house Khany.
'Mélusine'.
Clarke began his associciation with Spirou magzine in 1990. His first work was a series of burglar gags under the title 'Les Cambrioleurs', which he made with scriptwriter Crosky, as well as the gag strip 'Africa Jim' with Gilson. Clarke and Gilson create the exploits of the apprentice witch 'Mélusine' since 1992. It has become one of the main gag series that Spirou carries and has been collected in several albums by Dupuis.
'Les Baby-sitters'.
Seron assumed the pseudonym Valda for the creation of 'Les Babysitters', another humorous series made in cooperation with Christian Godard from 1994 to 1999. It was collected in book format in the Dupuis collection Humour Libre. For that same collection, he also participated in the collective series 'Sales Petits Contes'. He also drew 'Les Enquêtes de l'Inspecteur Archibaldo Massicotti', a couple of short stories and gags that Clarke produced under the pseudonym Bluttwurst between 1994 and 1996.
'Durant les Travaux, l'Exposition Continue...' (Histoires à Lunettes).
Between 1998 and 2000 Seron teamed up with 'Kid Paddle' author Midam to create the absurd gag series 'Durant les Travaux, l'Exposition Continue...', in which all the characters wear glasses, as well as 'Le Miracle de la Vie' for the publisher's Expresso collection in 2004.
Besides Spirou, Clarke was a regular contributor of more adult-oriented humour to Fluide Glacial between 1998 and 2003. He wrote and drew short stories in the series 'Château Montrachet' and 'P.38 et Bas Nylon', and was the scriptwriter of 'Les Histoires de France', a collection of historical stories drawn by Olivier Wozniak. His series 'Cosa Nostra' appeared in Fluide Glacial in 2002 and 2003, and has been collected in book format by Audie and Le Lombard.
'Casa Nostra'.
In 2005, Clarke turned to a more realistic fashion for the detective story 'Luna Almaden', written by Denis Lapière and published in Dupuis' Aire Libre collection. Another realistic effort by Clarke and Lapière, 'Urielle', was published by Quadrants in 2008, while Clarke published his solo graphic novel 'Nocturnes' with Le Lombard in 2012. Clarke has been working with Le Lombard since 2004, when he started his satirical series 'Mister President', about then French president Jacques Chirac.
'Nocturnes'.
As a scriptwriter, Clarke has made the humorous series 'Docteur Bonheur' with Turk for Le Lombard since 2007, and he writes the realistic historical series 'Les Amazones' for artist Ludo Borecki and the publishing house Glénat since 2012.Clarke is the nephew of comic artist Pierre Seron.
In 1990 Clarke 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'.
'Mélusine'.