'Michel Vaillant'.
Jean Graton was one of the staples of the classic comic magazine Tintin, and the creator of the successful Formula 1 comic hero 'Michel Vaillant' (1957- ). As one of Tintin's most popular series, 'Michel Vaillant' has become a classic in its own right. Graton was a master in capturing the thrills of automobile racing. His swift and elegant action scenes, with their unforgettable use of extravagant onomatopoeias, made the series beloved with every fan of the sport. By offering a realistic and well-documented portrayal of the Formula 1 industry, 'Michel Vaillant' earned respect from many legendary racing champions and organizers, who were often given guest appearances in the stories. The series has been translated into several languages and was adapted into films, TV series, video games, board games and toy cars. Apart from his hit series, Graton also drew the more humorous family comic soap opera 'Les Labourdet' (1966-1972) in the women's weekly Chez Nous, scripted by his wife Francine Vandenbosch, and another comic series about motorcycle sport, 'Julie Wood' (1976-1980). In 1982, he was one of the first Franco-Belgian comic creators to turn to self-publishing, establishing Graton Éditeur, a firm that has continued to operate under supervision of the artist's son, Philippe Graton.
Early life and career
Jean Graton was born in 1923 in Nantes, France. His father was the chairman of the local motorcycle club, which fuelled the boy's own interest in cycling sports. When he turned eight years old, the newspaper Le Soir ran a drawing by Jean Graton of his father repairing his motorcycle. While his early childhood was happy, things changed when Graton was eleven and his mother died. Five years later, World War II broke out, and the Nazis made his father a prisoner of war. Sixteen years old, Graton stayed behind with his grandmother. To supply the family income, he found a job with the local shipyard, but found the work dirty and his superiors dreadful. When Graton fulfilled his military service, he was stationed in Algiers in the French colony of Algeria. There, he had his first artistic assignment, decorating the messroom.
Back in civilian life in 1947, Graton initially returned to Nantes, but soon found out it wasn't the place for his artistic ambitions. Aiming for a job as a commercial artist, he went to live with an aunt in the Belgian capital of Brussels, where he would remain for the rest of his life. In 1948, Graton's professional career took off in Brussels, where he spent two years taking evening classes in advertising art and found employment with the art department of the newspaper Le Journal des Sports. His boss, Pierre Stasse, was a sports car racer who participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. During a period of four years, Graton drew caricatures and advertisements for the paper, but also decided to supplement his income by looking for potential other clients.
'L'Oncle Paul'- 'Le Mystère de la Marie-Céleste' (Dutch-language version from Robbedoes #635, 29 May 1952. The same story ran simultaneously in its French-language edition Spirou in issue #737, 29 May 1952).
L'Oncle Paul
In 1951, Graton offered his services at the World's P. Presse offices of Georges Troisfontaines, an agency that provided the Belgian comic magazine Spirou with editorial sections and realistic comic series. There, Graton met Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Hubinon, creators of the aviation series 'Buck Danny'. Charlier offered Graton to join the artist team for Spirou magazine's historical-educational comic series 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul', but since the young man had never drawn a comic before, he started out inking some of Hubinon's pages first. At World's, Graton gradually learned the tricks of the trade, and could rank his fellow studio artists Eddy Paape, Dino Attanasio and especially Hubinon as his early tutors and inspirations. The influence of Charlier and Hubinon's 'Buck Danny' on 'Michel Vaillant' is undeniable, from the exciting and well-researched way motor-driven vehicles are portrayed to the use of a clean-cut hero and his loyal, comedic sidekick who has more recognizable human vices.
At Spirou, Graton was among the early artists for the four-page 'Oncle Paul' stories, preceded only by Eddy Paape, Dino Attanasio and René Follet. Mostly written by Charlier and later Octave Joly, the series had a formulaic and somewhat corny approach. Uncle Paul was a storyteller who in the early stories always interrupted his nephews during an argument. After overhearing the nature of their argument, he'd tell a story about a historical character who once faced a similar problem or challenge. Afterwards, the boys typically reconciled and Paul delivered a moralistic message to the readers. The series offered Graton the opportunity to create realistic portrayals of different historical periods, but the downside was that the assignments gradually dried out as the artist team expanded and built up enough stock. Between 1951 and 1954, Spirou magazine ran 37 'Oncle Paul' stories by Graton, several of which appeared in the 'Oncle Paul' album series by publisher Dupuis in 1953 and 1954. Between 2004 and 2006, Graton éditeur collected all of Graton's 'Oncle Paul' stories in three comic books, while Dupuis released a single-volume collection in 2013.
Cover illustrations for Tintin magazine issue #6 (9 February 1955) and Kuifje magazine issue #4 (26 January 1955).
Tintin magazine
In 1954, Jean Graton left Spirou and joined the rival magazine Tintin, where at first he continued to make historical short stories, but this time was allowed to write his own scripts. As a result, many of his contributions had sports as a theme, and motor sports in particular. In 1957, a selection of these one-shot stories was collected in the comic album 'Ça C'est du Sport' (Lombard, 1957). An early serial by Graton was 'L'Inconnu du Tour de France' (1955), an adventure story with the reporter Max, set around the Tour de France. Together with other Tour-related comic stories, it was collected in a 2003 compilation book of the same name by Graton Éditeur. After a while, Tintin publisher Raymond Leblanc offered Graton a contract to work exclusively for them, and promised the artist he would drive a Ferrari in five years time. Five years later, he indeed did, but it was only once, when he could take the Ferrari of his boss out for a ride.
Publiart
Like many of his fellow Tintin artists, Graton also worked on many of the advertising strips produced by publisher Lombard's press agency Publiart, headed by Guy Dessicy. For Huret bikes, he drew one of the studio's first advertising comic serials, 'Le Mystérieux Cycliste' (1955), printed in Tintin in 10 weekly strips. This was followed in 1957 by 'Une Poursuite Mouvementée', a serial for Ajax bicycles. With writer Yves Duval, he made a 1962 comic serial for the youth club of petrol company BP, 'Graine de Champion'.
IMIFI projects
In addition to his advertising work for publisher Lombard, Graton also worked on commercial art projects for IMIFI, the printer of Le Journal des Sports. Along with fellow artist Alain Perichon, he provided the illustrations for the 1954 sports-related booklet, 'Vive les Sports!' by Jean Corhumel (not related to his 1957 sports comics compilation book). With writer André-Paul Duchâteau, he made the sci-fi picture story 'Frisco Kid' (1955) for Finial-Frisco ice cream, of which the images were collectable stickers. In 1956, he drew the second issue of Revue du Club Pierrot/Tijdschrift van Pietje's Club, the club magazine of the youth club of Spa-Monopole mineral water. With the first issue illustrated by Kari, the subsequent post-Graton issues (#3-#6) had artwork by Tenas.
'Frisko Kid'. Dutch-language version.
Michel Vaillant
In 1957, after a few years drawing one-shot stories, Graton wanted to create comics about Formula 1 racing with a recurring character. When his chief editor André Fernez greenlighted the project, he began working on a couple of try-out short stories starring race car driver Michel Vaillant, of which the first appeared in the 12 June 1957 issue of Tintin. It proved the right time for sports-related comic heroes in Tintin, as in the same year Raymond Reding debuted the adventures of the tennis player 'Jari' in the magazine.
After four additional short stories, the first 'Michel Vaillant' serial began publication in the first issue of 1958, 'Le Grand Défi'. Uncharacteristic for Franco-Belgian comics of the time, where classic heroes are usually single chaste orphans, the adventures are built around a central family, with racer Michel Vaillant as main hero. Michel's father Henri Vaillant runs the family firm "Vaillante", a transporting company that also engages in Formula 1 racing. Most of the company's race cars are designed by Jean-Philippe, Michel's older brother. Michel is married to journalist Françoise Latour, with whom he later also has a child. He is a noble and talented race car champion, often teaming up with his American co-driver (and former competitor) Steve Warson. While Michel is a clean-cut hero, Warson has more human foibles. He enjoys the pleasures of life and often throws temper tantrums. As such, he is Michel's comic relief sidekick and became highly popular with readers. Other good friends of Michel Vaillant are the young driver Yves Douleac and his girlfriend Gabriele Sprangenberg.
Vaillant however also has his adversaries. His nemesis is a character nicknamed "The Leader". Motivated by greed and money rather than a love for sports, he often tries to win games by using the most advanced technology, reckless drivers and illegal ploys. One of The Leader's henchmen is Bob Cramer, a hot-tempered American driver who is both tactless, reckless and a drunk. Over the decades, the comic's main thematic ingredients remained the fight for justice and sportsmanship, as well as family values and loyalty. Graton credited the success of 'Michel Vaillant' not so much to its appeal to a niche of autosports lovers, but the family aspect. While most albums are race-related, there are a few odd-one-outs which don't take place at a circuit at all, such as 'Les Chevaliers de Königsfeld' (1967) and 'La Nuit de Carnac' (1990).
'Michel Vaillant' - 'Le Pilote sans Visage' (1960). Dutch-language version.
Research
Another strength of the 'Michel Vaillant' comic is its realism, both in graphic style and narratives. Graton did a lot of research to ensure every technical detail of the cars and the circuits was presented correctly. He gathered information about the organization and business side of the sports too, and attended races to make sketches, take photos and notes. He met many drivers, technical personnel and organizers, from whom he gained extra information and anecdotes. Many legendary names in autosports became personal friends, including Lucien Bianchi, François Cevert, Alain Prost and Jacky Ickx. Some of them even inspired new plotlines and received guest appearances. Once Graton had a chat with the Swiss race car driver Clay Regazzoni and suggested to let him and Michel Vaillant have an argument in his next album, but Regazzoni improved on the joke by suggesting that it would be funnier if he argued with Vaillant's sidekick, Steve Warson. When a homage album was released to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary, several iconic drivers autographed the album, including car business magnates Henry Ford Jr. and Enzo Ferrari.
At first, Michel Vaillant drove at fictional racing events, meeting fictional racing champions. But eventually Graton felt it would be more fun to let his hero attend real-life matches, like Le Mans, Monte Carlo, the Indianapolis 500 and Paris-Dakar, and meet celebrity racers. The artwork kept up with the times too. Backgrounds, fashions, car designs and new sports champions were frequently updated. In the 1950s and 1960s, Vaillant competed with Argentine Formule 1-champion Juan Manuel Fangio, while in the 1970s, Gilles Villeneuve and Jacky Ickx were his best friends. Graton also included the names of real-life sponsors of motorsport races. Ford was one of the most prominent, though Graton attributed this to the fact that their company was the first to provide him with necessary documentation. He never wanted to use fictional brands, because "this would look silly, as any reader will know that a brand named Delap is just a surrogate for Dunlop." His attitude was simple: he asked real-life companies whether he could portray them in his comic and if they refused permission, he just let it be.
Jacky Ickx appears in 'Le Fantôme des 24 Heures' (1970). Dutch-language version.
Celebrity cameos
Virtually any famous name in auto racing has had a cameo in 'Michel Vaillant', including Lucien Bianchi ('Le Grand Défi', 1959), Niki Lauda ('Le Prince Blanc', 1977), Alain Prost, Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell ('Rififi en F-1', 1982), Thierry Boutsen ('Le Défi des Remparts', 1988), Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill ('Paddock', 1995) and Michael Schumacher ('La Fièvre de Bercy', 1998). But even celebrities outside of the racing niche have on occasion made their appearance, such as Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace of Monaco ('Le Pilote sans Visage', 1959), Prince Albert (the later Albert II of Belgium) ('Des Filles et des Moteurs', 1974), French politician (and later president) Jacques Chirac ('300 à l'Heure dans Paris', 1983), cyclist Eddy Merckx ('Racing Show', 1985), fashion model Claudia Schiffer, Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone ('Paddock', 1995), U.S. President Bill Clinton ('La Piste de Jade', 1994) and Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene ('Caïro', 2000). Graton gave himself a cameo in 'Le Galérien' (1980).
One of Graton's best friends was the Belgian race car champion Jacky Ickx, whom the comic artist knew from his early years at the sports paper Le Journal des Sports. Ickx' father was a journalist and race car driver, who often visited the editorial office with freshly written articles. Jacky was about eight years old at the time, but despite their age gap, he and Graton struck up a lifelong friendship. When, as an adult, Ickx became a professional race driver in the mid-1960s, he often provided Graton with relevant background information about the sport. Around this time, he coincidentally also became one of the greatest champions, making him eligible for a guest role in the 'Michel Vaillant' story 'Le Fantôme des 24 Heures' (1970). After publication, Ickx' father treated Graton to a dinner at a seaside restaurant in De Haan, because he felt this comic book appearance was beneficial for his son's career. As Ickx won more championships throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he had several extra appearances in 'Michel Vaillant'. So much in fact, that he basically became a secondary cast member. In later stories, Ickx' daughter Varina (a racing champion herself) was also a recurring character.
According to Graton, the only driver who ever refused a cameo was Nigel Mansell, though the artist heard this from Mansell's manager, not the man himself. Graton didn't know Mansell's exact reasons, but at the time the sports hero received a lot of criticism in the French press. Graton suspected that he might have been afraid that he would be cast in the role of antagonist.
Jean Graton is known for his graphically clever use of onomatopoeia (Dutch-language version of Série Noire, 1973).
Onomatopoeia
One of the hallmarks of 'Michel Vaillant' is its use of extravagant onomatopoeia to indicate the loud noises made by the speeding vehicles. The sounds often almost leap from the panels, which Graton felt was necessary to suggest movement and velocity. He was inspired by a World War II movie in which a Japanese sharpshooter hid in a tree. While the viewer only saw the lifeless tree, the sound effects implied that he was there, firing his gun. In a following scene the U.S. soldiers fired at him, whereupon the same shot of the tree was shown, with sounds indicating that he dropped his rifle, after which his corpse fell down and viewers finally saw him. Graton was impressed that while the visual image of the tree remained stationary, everything was implied by sounds. He applied this technique to his artwork too.
Success
Right from the start, 'Michel Vaillant' was a huge success and became one of Tintin magazine's most popular series. In readers' polls, it often ended at the number one spot, only rivalled by Tibet's 'Ric Hochet'. As can be expected, 'Michel Vaillant' is particularly beloved with automobile fans, who have praised it for its accurate portrayal of the sport and capturing the excitement of seeing beautiful cars chase one another. On the other hand, comic fanzines neglected to pay attention to it, and comic reviewers initially dismissed it for its high morality, one-dimensional characters and semi-documentary style. Still, the series has been translated into Dutch, English, German, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese.
'La Révolte des Rois' (1978). Dutch-language version.
Media adaptations
In 1967, the franchise was adapted into a live-action TV series, 'Les Aventures de Michel Vaillant', which combined a dramatization of the stories with documentary footage of that year's actual car races. In 1990, an animated 'Michel Vaillant' TV series was made, broadcast on the French terrestrial network La Cinq and the public channel France 2. In the USA, where 'Michel Vaillant' was unknown at the time, the series was dubbed and released as 'Heroes on Hot Wheels', tying in with Mattel's 'Hot Wheels' toy car line. In 2003, Louis-Pascal Cuvelaire directed a live-action movie, 'Michel Vaillant' (2003), starring Sagamore Stévenin in the title role. The screenplay was written by Gilles Malençon and famous director Luc Besson (known for the 1990s movies 'Léon', 'The Fifth Element' and 'Taxi'), but the picture received poor reviews and flopped. The comic strip also inspired a board game, a video game and toy cars.
'Les Labourdet'. Dutch-language version.
Les Labourdet
At the height of Michel Vaillant's popularity, Jean Graton created a second comic series for the women's weekly Chez Nous, a humorous family comic called 'Les Labourdet' (1966-1972). The stories were written by Graton's wife Francine, who had also helped out with the plotting and coloring of 'Michel Vaillant' stories. Aiding with the artwork was Graton's assistant Christian Denayer. In Graton's oeuvre, the series is quite an odd one out, since it doesn't center around cars or sports, but is basically a family sitcom. Made at the instigation of Chez Nous' chief editor, 'Les Labourdet' revolved around a disciplinarian but loving father, a multi-tasking housewife and their three children. Their daughter Françoise wants to become a stewardess. The middle son Pierrot is a whiz in mechanics but forced to study business administration and the youngest son Marcel is a playful kid. Another family member is the kids' feisty grandfather Pépé, who claims to have fought during the Battle of Verdun in World War I. While nine stories were created, only three were initially published in book format by Lombard. It wasn't until the 2000s until the full series was released by Graton Éditeur. The comic was also translated into Dutch as 'De Labourdets'.
Julie Wood - 'Un Ours, un Singe... et un Side-car' (1979). Dutch-language version.
Julie Wood
In 1976, Graton created another motorsports comic, 'Julie Wood' (1976-1980). In his 'Michel Vaillant' comics, Graton always wanted to add more female heroes, since most of his readers were young boys with a knack for fast cars. But at the time, Tintin refused the novelty of a female protagonist in its pages, which was a major reason why Graton wanted to leave his publisher Lombard after the expiration of his contract in 1972. So instead, he created Julie Wood for another publisher, and her adventures were published directly in book format by Dargaud. Intentions of Dargaud to launch a monthly magazine dedicated to Julie were canceled, and between 1979 and 1980, the final two stories were serialized in the magazine Super As and then published in book format by IDE-3/Fleurus. The character was physically modeled after Dominique Biarent, a friend of Graton's oldest son, who studied medicine at the time, but was also active at the racing circuit of Zolder, aiding racer Giacomo Agostini.
Sixteen years old at the start of the series, but gradually aging as the stories progressed, Julie Wood was an orphan girl raised by her Californian uncle Chris. Her ambition was to become a motorcycle champion, and not only fight rival racers, but also prejudices against women participating in motorsports. Julie's brother Indy (named after the Indianapolis 500) also wants to become a motor racer. While Graton wrote and drew most of the 'Julie Wood' stories on his own, he also received assistance from Christian Lippens and particularly from the American artist Scott Wood, who specialized in drawing motorcycles. When Wood returned to the United States in 1980, Graton was forced to discontinue his 'Julie Wood' comic. Two years later, the character of Julie Wood was incorporated into the 'Michel Vaillant' series, where she became the fiancee of Steve Warson.
Studio Graton
For the production of his several comics, Graton has relied heavily on the help of assistants. During the first twelve years of 'Michel Vaillant', he had worked mostly alone. His wife Francine Graton-Vandenbosch (10 March 1932 - 28 May 2011) helped him with coloring, photographic documentation and scriptwork. Especially their series 'Les Labourdet' (1966-1972) in Chez Nous was a true husband-wife collaboration. In 1962, Graton hired his first assistant, Christian Denayer, who left him eight years later to help out Tibet. During the 1970s, Graton organized a little studio with artists who helped him with the drawing of cars, motorcycles and backgrounds.
Among the other artists who have worked for Studio Graton throughout the years are Christian Denayer (1963-1969), Glem (1967), Christian Lippens (1970s-1990s), Daniel Bouchez (1970s-1990s), Juan Castilla (colorist, 1970s), Marc Michetz (mid-1970s), Clovis (1974-1981), Scott Wood (1970s), Vincent Deporter (1978), Jean-Luc Delvaux (1990s), Guillaume Lopez (1983-?), Frédéric Pauwels (1999-?), Christian Papazoglakis (1998-2007), Robert Paquet (2003-2007), Ivan Paduart (colorist, 1999-2000) and Nedzad Kamenica (2005-2007).
Cover illustration for Tintin issue #19 (13 May 1971) and Wham issue #40 (13 November 1979).
Switching publishers
While 'Michel Vaillant' was a genuine bestseller, and Graton was happy with his Tintin editors, he felt that his publisher Le Lombard didn't make enough effort to promote the series. When his contract ended in the mid-1970s, he wanted to quit, but Lombard publisher Raymond Leblanc wasn't keen on letting his golden goose leave, and Graton was forced to take the matter to court. As the trial went on for years, Leblanc put the Tintin serializations of 'Michel Vaillant' on hold. In 1976, Graton joined the publishing house Dargaud, which not only released new 'Michel Vaillant' albums, but also the new series 'Julie Wood' (1976-1980). During the conflict, the absence in Tintin of 'Michel Vaillant' was filled by another series about racing, 'Alain Chevallier' (1973-1986), written by series by André-Paul Duchâteau and drawn by Christian Denayer. As Graton had expressed the desire to continue the 'Michel Vaillant' serialization in Tintin while the books were published elsewhere, he felt it as a huge personal blow that the editors had picked his former assistant to create a substitute for his comic.
In the late 1970s, Graton won his legal battle with his previous publisher, Le Lombard, receiving legal ownership over his creations. He began negotiations with Dargaud again, only to discover that they now offered him a less lucrative contract than promised earlier, under the knowledge that he had no other major publishing company to go back to. On top of this, Dargaud also dropped the plans for a Julie Wood magazine. Graton surprised them by simply refusing their offer and joining a smaller publishing company instead: Koralle, part of the German concern Springer Verlag. In Germany, 'Michel Vaillant' was serialized in their magazine Zack, while it also ran in its international editions Super-As (in French) and Wham! (in Dutch). In France, both the 'Michel Vaillant' and 'Julie Wood' albums were by now published by Fleurus. In the early 1980s however, the Koralle magazines were cancelled and the publisher's assets were transferred to a new publishing imprint, Novedi.
Graton Éditeur
When Graton overheard that Belgian comic publisher Dupuis was planning to take over Novedi, he feared losing his independence again. Instead, he took a bold move and in 1982 founded his own publishing company Graton Éditeur, while for the production of his series Studio Graton was established. At the time, no other Franco-Belgian comic artist had ever attempted to distribute his own comics. Over the course of the 1980s, as many of the major publishing companies were involved in corporate take-overs, more artists took this example and turned to self-publishing.
An important business partner at Graton Éditeur was the artist's son Philippe Graton (b. 12 May 1961). In 1982, Philippe had helped his father set up his company, but then pursued a career as a photojournalist. During the 1990s, he rejoined the company as a scriptwriter, bringing his experiences in journalism with him to add more social themes to the stories. From the 57th album on, 'Le Piste de Jade' (1994), Philippe was credited as co-author. Jean Graton praised his son for being more up to date with motorsports as time went on. Since he was fluent in English, unlike Jean Graton himself, he was also able to approach people who would otherwise be unavailable. Though Philippe Graton felt that all praise should go to the brand power of 'Michel Vaillant', a series that so many people in the European racing industry have read during their infancy, that they instantly felt enthusiastic about working with Studio Graton.
In 1995, Graton Éditeur launched the 'Dossiers Michel Vaillant' collection, a book series with comics and articles about famous people from the car and motor racing scene. It included biopics about racing car champions, such as Jacky Ickx, Ayrton Senna, Juan Manuel Fangio, Henri Pescarolo, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher and Gilles Villeneuve, as well as automobile businessmen such as Sunichiro Honda, Enzo Ferrari and Louis Chevrolet. Even actors with a love for racing were featured, such as James Dean, Coluche and Steve McQueen. In 2004, Jean Graton retired and Philippe took over the reign of the publishing company and the comic series. During the 2000s, Graton Éditeur released several comic book collections with Jean Graton's older comics work, such as his short stories for Spirou and Tintin, and his 'Les Labourdet' comic.
In 2007, the regular 'Michel Vaillant' series came to an end after 70 volumes, and the comic was put on hold for five years. In 2012, the comic was rebooted by Graton Éditeur in a joint partnership with Éditions Dupuis under the title 'Michel Vaillant - Nouvelle Saison'. Philippe Graton and Denis Lapière have served as scriptwriters, and Marc Bourgne and Benjamin Benéteau as artists. In 2025, the publisher also rebooted 'Julie Wood' in 'Julie Wood- Saison 2', written by Philippe Pélaez and drawn by Claudio Stassi.
'Dossier Steve McQueen', featuring Hollywood actor Steve McQueen, who was a known race enthusiast in real life. Dutch-language version.
Recognition
In 2004, Jean Graton was honored as a Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. A year later, he was knighted "Chevalier de l'Ordre de Léopold" by Belgian King Albert II. In 2005, the Belgian national postal service honored 'Michel Vaillant' with his own stamp.
Graphic contributions
In 1995, Graton made a contribution to 'Flash Back' (Comic! Events, 1995), a collective comic book in which authors of famous Belgian comics made a special short story depicting their familiar characters as children. Graton was also one of many comic artists who drew a homage to Albert Uderzo in the album 'Astérix et Ses Amis' (Éditions Albert-René, 2007). In the story 'Éternel Obélix' ("Eternal Obelix"), Asterix and Obelix join Michel Vaillant in a car race.
Legacy and influence
In early 2021, Jean Graton died in Brussels, at the respectable age of 97. One of the last surviving artists of the Golden Age of Tintin magazine, he remains a respected figure within the race car driving world. His series have inspired many youngsters to become Formula 1 drivers or journalists themselves, including champion Alain Prost. Automobile designer Luc Donckerwolke claimed that several of his designs were inspired by Graton's art. In 2006, he presented a model of the SEAT Ibiza car, which he nicknamed the "SEAT Ibiza Vaillante". In 2012, the Swiss race car driver Alain Menu competed in the World Championship Race of Portugal under the name "M. Vaillant". His Chevrolet sported the protagonist's name all over the vehicle and he even shaved his facial hairs to look more like the character. The circuit of Zolder in Belgium named their biggest building the Michel Vaillant Club, in honor of Graton's work. Special Michel Vaillant albums have been released by companies like Renault, Ford, Elf and Chevron.
In terms of comic art, Graton has been named an influence by Ever Meulen, Yves Rodier and Berck. Roger Brunel made a sex parody of 'Michel Vaillant' in 'Pastiches 1' (1980).
Jean and his wife Francine Graton, working on 'Les Labourdet'.