'Le Cours du Chef-Pilote' (Spirou, 30 April 1942).
Charlie Delhauteur was a 20th-century Belgian illustrator and painter, and a longtime affiliate of Georges Troisfontaines and his World's P. Presse agency, with Delhauteur's drawings appearing in the Dupuis magazine Les Bonnes Soirées, Le Moustique, Spirou and Risque-Tout.
Life and career
Not much is known about Charlie Delhauteur's background, except that he was born in 1919. According to records on genealogy websites like MyHeritage.com, his full name was Charles Alphonse Valère Delhauteur, born in Liège on 22 May 1919. Liège was also the homebase of the World's P. Presse agency, of which Delhauteur was an affiliate during the 1940s and 1950s. Later in life, the artist presumably relocated to France, as he died on 28 August 1994 in Chinon, France.
World's P. Presse agency
Through the World's P. Presse agency of Georges Troisfontaines, Delhauteur was involved in several of the magazines published by Éditions Dupuis. Later relocating from Liège to Brussels, the agency provided Dupuis with comics and illustrated features, dedicating itself to mostly realistic artwork. Besides Delhauteur, other artists in Troisfontaines' team were Albert Uderzo, René Goscinny, Eddy Paape, Albert Weinberg, Victor Hubinon and Jean-Michel Charlier. Further early associates were the journalist Pol Valheer and the aviation specialist Jean-Jacques Oblin. According to legend, it was Delhauteur who suggested the use of the word "World" in the name, to give the agency an international aura.
'Le Cours du Chef-Pilote' (Spirou, 3 September 1942).
In Spirou magazine, Delhauteur illustrated the aviation section, as well as an educational strip about the subject called 'Le Cours du Chef-Pilote' (1942-1943). This latter feature ran since late 1941, and was initially credited to Pec (Al Peclers) and Georges Cel (Troisfontaines himself). The signature of "Charlie Del" first appeared in the Spirou issue of 16 April 1942. Later installments of Spirou's "aviation club" were illustrated by Jean-Michel Charlier, who sometimes used the pen name Flettner.
'Gouverneur Malgré Lui' (Dutch-language version from Robbedoes issue #678, 12 April 1951).
Under the pen name "Hope", Delhauteur drew the four-page comic story 'Gouverneur Malgré Lui' (#678, 1951), one of the early installments of the educational comic feature 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul', written by Jean-Michel Charlier. The story was also featured in the twelfth volume of the 'Oncle Paul' book series, 'Chasseur de Tombeaux' (Dupuis, 1955). Early on, most of the 'Oncle Paul' stories were drawn by Eddy Paape, gradually followed by new World's Presse artists like Dino Attanasio, Jean Graton, MiTacq and René Follet. Delhauteur also provided occasional assistance on the 'Buck Danny' aviation comic by Hubinon and Charlier, and was the regular illustrator for the educational section 'Le Coin des Petits Curieux' in 1957-1958.
In the Dupuis women's magazine Bonnes Soirées, Delhauteur replaced Albert Uderzo as the illustrator of the section 'Sa Majesté Mon Mari' in 1953. He was also one of the main illustrators of text stories and activity pages for the short-lived comic tabloid Risque-Tout (1955-1956).
Later life
After 1958, Delhauteur's role in the Dupuis magazines seems to have phased out. In 1960, he drew the annual calendar for Chez Nous weekly, a product generally drawn by Berck. Delhauteur additionally painted the cover of the 1973 reprint of the 'Bob Morane' album 'L'Épée du Paladin' by Gérald Forton and Henri Vernes. In the 1960s and 1970s, he specialized in painting erotic nudes. Later in life, he painted a fresco with the first Belgian locomotive, "Le Belge", on the wall of a building in Vresse that houses that locomotive in life-size.
'Sa Majesté Mon Mari'.