Hubert Lambert, who signs his work Hachel, is a graduate in illustration from the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc in Liège. While still studying, he had his first gag pages published in Spirou, called 'Mésaventures sans Paroles', from 1965 to 1967. In 1967 he became the assistant of Mittéï, working on the artist's creations 'L'Indésirable Désiré' and 'Modeste et Pompon', both for Tintin magazine. He also assisted Edouard Aidans on 'Bob Binn', 'Tounga' and 'Les Franval'. It was in 1969 when he began his own gag series in Tintin, starring the temporary worker 'Benjamin'. The strip, with scripts by Michel Dusart, appeared in Tintin until 1980, and was collected in four black-and-white books. New book collections are published by Arcadiastrips since 2008.
Benjamin (1969)
Besides his work for Tintin, Hachel has been active for the Walloon press. Shortly after his graduation, he made the realistic adventure comic 'Yves Saint-Georges' for La Wallonie, as well as the gag strips 'Puppy' and 'Charlequin'. Hachel's two gag strips were later transfered to Vers l'Avenir, and 'Puppy' was even published in Japan. Hachel also took over 'Dic Dinn' from Eduouard Aidans in Vers l'Avenir.
During the short period Achille Talon Magazine appeared (only 6 issues from 1975 to 1976), Hachel illustrated gags with 'Papa Talon', father of Michel Greg's character 'Achille Talon'. An album with these gags appeared in 1988. Hachel's 1975 comic adaptation of the Belvision film 'Gulliver à Lilliput' was published in Tintin in 1980. Hachel left Tintin in the early 1980s and started Studio Hachel, through which he has illustrated thousands of game and activity pages for the A.L.I. agency in Brussels. For this same agency, he created the comic characters 'Lil & Skip' (1976). Lambert took over most of A.L.I.'s activities in 2004 and founded Hachel International, a firm that represents about 300 cartoonists worldwide.
