'L'Apôtre des Montagnes Rocheuses' (Grand Coeur#17, 1946).
Jo Louis was an artist working for the short-lived Belgian comic weekly Grand Coeur, drawing the serial 'L'Apôtre des Montagnes Rocheuses' (1945-1946).
Identity
Nothing is known about the identity of the cartoonist behind the signature Jo Louis. Considering his art style, he might have had a background in painting. In that case, he might have been Joseph Louis (25 January 1924 - 16 May 2011), a painter from Liège and a teacher (and later director) of the city's Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
In the years 1945 and 1946, his signature of "Jo Louis" or "J. Louis" appeared in the pages of Grand Coeur, a short-lived comic magazine created by the cartoonist Charles Gilbert and Étienne Lamarche, publisher of the newspaper La Gazette de Liège. A large part of the material in Grand Coeur was provided by magazine editor Charles Gilbert and students from his graphic arts atelier in Liège. These can be recognized by the signatures that are associated with this studio, such as Chargil, Imagil, At-Gil, CAAG and Mac K.B. Since no further wherabouts of the artist Jo Louis are known, it is well possible that he was also a student or member of Charles Gilbert's Atelier des Arts Graphiques.
L'Apôtre des Montagnes Rocheuses
In the first issue of Grand Coeur of 20 December 1945, Jo Louis's text comic serial 'L'Apôtre des Montagnes Rocheuses' kicked off, continuing until 13 June 1946. The tale starts with a ploy of the "Flathead" Native Americans to massacre their neighbors, the Blackfeet, after feeding them "fire water" (whiskey). In true edifying spirit, the local Catholic priests, the "Black Robes", send the missionary Father De Smet to the Native Americans to introduce the natives to the true belief in the "Great Spirit".
'L'Apôtre des Montagnes Rocheuses' (Grand Coeur#17, 1946).