'Les Pèlerins' (Le Drapeau Rouge, 26 October 1988).
Alain Jost is a Belgian novelist, comic writer, screenwriter and cartoonist. In the late 1980s, he drew the comic strip 'Les Pèlerins' for the communist magazine Le Drapeau Rouge. Since the 1990s he is a regular scriptwriter for the 'Smurfs' comics by Studio Peyo.
Early life and career
Alain Jost was born in 1955 in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, but he has been living in Belgium for most of his life. Early in his career, he made gag cartoons for various weeklies and magazines, including the fanzine Buck (1971-1974). In 1979 he wrote and drew the funny animal comic book 'Le Mystère de la Jarretière Rose' ("The Mystery of the Pink Garter", Éditions Michel Deligne, 1979). With Pascal Dabère, he made the short story 'Yam-Yam', published in Tintin magazine #18 on 4 May 1982. In 1986 he wrote the script for the one-shot album 'Szereszewski - Wonderful Copenhagen' (Creation, 1986), drawn by José Grandmont.
Les Pèlerins
In the 1980s, Jost drew the humorous comics strip 'Les Pèlerins' for the Communist weekly Le Drapeau Rouge. Set in the Middle Ages, the stories revolve around a group of pilgrims and poke fun at the Church. Despite the historical setting, Jost added a lot of commentary about the modern age.
Studio Peyo
Jost is also a regular scriptwriter for Studio Peyo. During the 1990s he already wrote several children's booklets with 'The Smurfs'. He has also written game pages and stories with the famous blue dwarves for Schtroumpf magazine. Since the 26th Smurfs album in 2008, he is the regular writer of the album series, together with Thierry Culliford. Artists are Pascal Garray, Jeroen De Coninck and Miguel Díaz Vizoso. In the 37th album, 'Les Schtroumpfs et la Machine à Rêver' (2019), Jost and Culliford notably reintroduced Fafnir, the dragon from the 'Johan et Pirlouit' album 'Le Pays Maudit' (1964).
Children's books
Alain Jost is also a productive children's book author and translator for publishers like Hemma and Hachette. Jost wrote various titles based on the life of Austrian Empress Sissi, such as 'La Route de Vienne' (Hemma, 1997), 'La Visite Impériale' (Hemma, 1997), 'Sissi dans la Tourmente' (Hemma, 1997), 'Seule à Schönbrunn' (Hemma, 1998), as well as a few about Lassie the dog: 'Lassie: Pauvre Rufus' (Hemma, 1994) and 'Lassie, La Vie Sauvage' (Hemma, 1994). Among his other titles are: 'Un Espirit Farceur' (Hemma, 1995), 'Les Yeux de Mara' (Hemma, 1996), 'La Chasse au Trésor' (Hemma, 1996), 'Si Tu Voyais Ta Tête!' (Hemma, 2002) and 'Le Manège Enchanté' (Hemma, 2005). In 1996 Jost wrote a book about medieval serial killer Gilles de Rais, which happened to come out around the same time the scandal about child kidnapper Marc Dutroux broke out.
Film scripts
Jost wrote the scripts of several short films, 'Don't Touch' (1993), 'Book Lovers' (1993), 'Un Ange Passe' (1998) and 'Bang Bang!', directed by Marc Levie, 'Night Angels' (1995) by Tania Botéva-Malo and 'Fly Lady Fly' (1995) by Claude François.
