'Les Naufragés de l'Escalator'.(Spirou #1865, 10 January 1974).
Antoinette Collin was a Belgian comic artist working for Spirou magazine in the 1970s. With scriptwriter Jean-Marie Brouyère, she created the hippie-flavored adventure comic 'Les Naufragés de l'Escalator' (1973-1975), and with Raoul Cauvin the gag strip about the little chick 'Christobald' (1975-1976).
Early life and career
Born in 1948, Antoinette Collin enrolled at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels in 1967. Together with Claude Renard, she was among the first students of Eddy Paape at the school's new comics atelier, which opened in the following year. Graduated in 1970, she was directly employed by the school as a tutor in visual and narrative storytelling.
In the early 1970s, Collin's talent was spotted by the editors of Spirou magazine, where she subsequently became one of the title's first female comic creators. Between 1972 and 1976, she drew seven installments in the educational historical short story feature 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul', written by Octave Joly.
Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul - 'L'Héroïne de Longstone' (Spirou #1815, 25 January 1973).
Les Naufragés de l'Escalator
Collin additionally teamed up with writer Jean-Marie Brouyère to create the psychedelic science fiction comic 'Les Naufragés de l'Escalator' ("The Castaways of the Escalator", 1973-1975). A modern version of 'Alice in Wonderland', the comic was situated in a world of consumption, where escalators lead the main characters to the strangest places. Fired by the "Genius-Center", the model Pastille decides to get her revenge by taking her three friends on a journey through this super-hypermarket, where they enjoy all of its pleasures without spending a penny. However, visitors with no money can end up as raw material for the sausages sold at the center. While Pastille knows all of the commercial traps, some of her friends have difficulties resisting the advertisements, and the team end up on the "shipwreck escalator", from which you never return. From the start, this strange and almost delirious series polarized readers. Some were puzzled by its weirdness, others were fascinated by its experimental nature. Still, after four short stories and a full serial of 44 pages, the feature was discontinued.
'Christobald' gag #8 (Spirou #1969, 8 January 1976). The worm complains about his "lack of a stomach, paws" and his entire sad existence, "crawling under the ground". After yelping about "serving no purpose", because "he's a wurm", Christobald eats him, muttering: "Ho, I had forgotten about that."
Later career
With scriptwriter Raoul Cauvin, Collin subsequently made little over a dozen gags starring the philosophical and observant chick 'Christobald' (Spirou, 1975-1976). In 1977, Collin drew the three-page story 'Authentique: Histoire à Rire et à Pleurer' for issue #34 L'Écho des Savanes (written by Yves Frémion). In 1978-1979, her artwork additionally appeared in the first three issues of Le 9e Rêve, the student magazine of the Saint-Luc comics section.
Antoinette Collin, picture published in Les Cahiers de la BD #58 (1984).
After these promising but modest publications, Antoinette Collin left the field of comics. In a portrait in the magazine Les Cahiers de la BD #58 (1984), it was mentioned that Collin was preparing a comic trilogy for children, of which she had almost finalized the first volume. However, the project never materialized, and the artist's further whereabouts are unknown.
'Authentique: Histoire à Rire et à Pleurer' (L'Écho des Savanes #34, 1 October 1977).