'Mission Spéciale' (Wrill #62, 1946).
Valentin Dufrasne was a Belgian comic artist, active in Brussels during the 1940s and 1950s under the signatures Val or Valentin. After working for publisher Guy Depière on the Bimbo-Aventures Illustrées title, he joined Wrill magazine of publisher Gordinne, for which he drew the adventure serials 'Mission Spéciale' (1946) and 'Les Conquérants de l'Abîme' (1947). He was also the artist of one of the first Belgian comic stories appearing in book format, 'Bob ou l'Enfant du Rail' (1944).
Life and early work
Not much is known about the life and work of Valentin Dufrasne, an artist born in 1911 in the Brussels region. 1954 correspondence with the French publisher Remparts reveals that he lived and worked in the Saint-Gilles suburb. Dufrasne died during the 1970s. In Spirou magazine's issue #51 of 1940, he illustrated the short text story 'Corps à Corps Avec un Cobra Royal'.
Illustration for 'Corps à Corps avec un Cobra Royal' (Spirou #51, 19 December 1940).
Work with Guy Depière
By the Autumn of 1940, Valentin was the first assistant of Guy Depière, a Brussels entrepreneur and the publisher of the comic magazine Aventures Illustrées, later appearing as Bimbo-Aventures Illustrées. He remained active for the title throughout the World War II years, notably alternating with artist Fred Funcken on the sci-fi feature 'Akkor, le Roi de la Planète' and the 'Bill Rony' comic. Because of its anglophile content, the Nazi oppressor banned Bimbo in September 1942, ending the magazine's first run after 83 issues. To wind up ongoing stories, two more issues and an annual appeared the following year.
'Bob, Ou L'Enfant du Rail'.
Bob ou l'Enfant du Rail
Shortly after the Liberation of Belgium in September 1944, Valentin was the artist of one of the first comic stories appearing directly in book format, 'Bob ou l'Enfant du Rail'. Published with a print run of 5,000 copies in December 1944 by the Vanderlinden book store in Brussels, the story was written by the engineer Fernand Lebbe. The plot revolved about the adventures of the Belgian engineer Pierre Derives, tasked with building a new railway line in Iraq. Plagued by sabotage and intrigue, the hero befriends the young boy Robert Lenoir, the nephew of the main villain. With the boy's mother, a nurse who later becomes Pierre Derives' wife, Valentin created one of the first attractive women in Belgian comic history, as female characters in children's comics were generally young girls or old ladies.
'Les Conquérants de l'Abîme' (Wrill #113, 1947).
Post-war comics and illustrations
Between 5 May and 4 August 1945, Valentin was present in the magazine Franc Jeu as the writer and artist of 'Le Secret du Meurtrier', a text comic serial based on the 19th-century crime novel 'Monsieur Lecocq' by Émile Gaboriau. In 1946 and 1947, Valentin also appeared in the magazine Le Petit Monde with serials like 'Le Disque d'Or', 'Les Aventures de Petit Loup' and 'Tal-Hor, Roman Préhistorique'. His most notable post-war association was with the Liège publishing house Gordinne. In the second half of the 1940s, Valentin created the realistic adventure comic serials 'Mission Spéciale' (1946) and 'Les Conquérants de l'Abîme' (1947), which appeared in both the Dutch and French editions of Gordinne's Wrill magazine. The publisher also released the first story in book format. Around the same period, Val drew back-up stories for the publisher's magazine Cap'taine Sabord. These stories were reprinted as back-up stories in 1955 issues of the French publisher Artima's Audax comic book: 'Le Bracelet de Cuivre' appearing in issue #34 and 'La Vallée Maudite' in issue #35.
Artwork for a 1953 comic strip featuring painter Peter Paul Rubens (title or publication unknown).
In 1953, Valentin's comic feature 'Les Aventures de Cap'tain Roy' appeared in Récréation, the illustrated children's supplement of the newspaper La Dernière Heure. In that same year, he provided original artwork for two books of 'Marc Le Trappeur' of the Namur publisher Le Soleil Levant, based on the American educational biology comic 'Mark Trail' by Ed Dodd. In September 1954, Valentin Dufrasne and writer Max-André Dazergues created the adventure comic story 'Le Maître des Rapides', published in issue #46 of the Junior Aventures series by the Lyon publisher Remparts.
As an illustrator, Dufrasne provided artwork for a collection of Charles Seydel poems by Imprimerie des Sciences in Brussels called 'Bilulutades. Poèmes de Bilulu' (1951). He also illustrated Gilbert Grout's history book 'Histoire de la Belgique et de son peuple' (1959) by the Liège publisher Dessain, as well as the collectable images for the three-volume series 'La Vie de Nos Ancêtres' (1959) by publisher Encyclorama.
'La Vallée Maudite' (Audax #35, September 1955).
Homonym confusion
Artwork signed with the signature "VAL" has also appeared in several publications from France. For instance, between 1928 and 1933, an artist signing with "Val" appeared in the Fayard magazines Les Belles Images and La Jeunesse Illustrée. It is however unlikely that there is a connection between this artist and the Belgian Valentin Dufrasne. The Belgian Val should also not be confused with Frank Val, the artist credited with the late 1940s French comic books 'Chicago-Kid' and 'Malabar, le Roi des Mers du Sud' by the Nice publisher Publi-Vog. In 1948 and 1949, Frank Val - his name is also spelled as Franck Val - also drew 8 issues of 'Rex la Brousse' for Voix Françaises in Nice. Between 5 September and 28 November 1972, an artist called "Valentin" drew a comic strip about 16th-century French queen consort Margaret of Valois, called 'La Reine Margot', for the French regional newspaper 'L'Echo du Centre'.
'Mission Spéciale'.