'Cédric'.
Laudec is a Belgian comic artist with Italian origins, who is a longtime contributor to Spirou magazine. He was born as Antonio "Tony" de Luca in Spezzano, Italy, but he has lived in Belgium since he was four years old. He grew up in Liège, while his father worked as a miner in the surrounding villages. He studied electromechanics and worked as an industrial draughtsman with a factory in Charleroi from the age of 22, while attempting to build a career as a comic artist. He published his first stories, such as 'Les Cornichons', in local fanzines like À Propos, Bhof and Outfi! in 1976 and 1977.
'L'An 40'.
His work was noted by Mittéï who proposed him to work on a comics project. This resulted in the series 'Les Contes de Curé-la-Fl'ûte', that was published in Spirou magazine from 1979. Initially a series of short stories about everyday life in a small town, the main characters eventually starred in two longer stories, both set in the second World War ('L'an 40' in 1983 and 'Marché Noir et Bottes à Clous' in 1985). By 1985, Laudec was also helping Walthéry with the backgrounds in a couple of 'Natacha' and 'Tchantchès' stories.
In 1987, he teamed up with Raoul Cauvin to create 'Cédric', a humorous comic about a little boy and his family and classmates. The popularity of the comic led to an animated televion series in the 1990s. In addition 'Cédric', Laudec and Cauvin also made 'Taxi-Girl', a series of gags about a female cab driver, published in Spirou from 1992 to 1998. For this comic, Laudec assumed a more semi-realistic drawing style, for which he was assisted by Michel Chantraine. In 2008 a statue of Cédric, designed by Josyanne Vanhoutte, was erected at the Comics Route in Middelkerke.
In 1987-1988 the publishing company Brain Factory International released a four-volume comic book series where Franco-Belgian comic authors visualized several songs by singer Jacques Brel in comic strip form. The second volume, 'Les Prénoms' (1987) featured a contribution by Laudec. Laudec also contributed to 'Les Enquêtes de leurs Amis' (Soleil, 1989), a collective tribute album to Maurice Tillieux' hero detective 'Gil Jourdan'. In 1990 he paid graphic tribute to François Walthéry in the collective homage book 'Natacha. Special 20 Ans' (Marsu Productions, 1990), which celebrated the 20th anniversary of Walthéry's series 'Natacha'.
'Taxi Girl'.