Prudence Petitpas - 'Fusils Pour Macao' (1967). Dutch-language version.
Maurice Maréchal was a Belgian comic artist, best-known as the creator of the humorous mystery comic 'Prudence Petitpas' (1957-1969, 1984-1987). Historically, the series is notable for several reasons. For one, 'Prudence Petitpas' was the first Belgian comic series to star a single female character: an elderly lady, an atypical choice for a comic hero at the time. Maréchal's creation was also one of the few comic series to appear in both of the rival magazines Tintin and Spirou, although decades apart. However, the rest of Maréchal's career in comics was modest: 'Prudence Petitpas' was his only comic series and never a huge commercial success. Still, it was translated into Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian and Arabic and even adapted into a 2001 animated TV series. Maurice Maréchal the comic creator should not be confused with Belgian athlete Maurice Maréchal (1906-1968), nor with French cellist Maurice Maréchal (1892-1964).
Early life and career
Maurice Maréchal was born in 1922 in Waremme, in the Walloon province Liège. He inherited his artistic talents from his father, who was an art teacher. At age 17, the boy was already making political cartoons. However, he initially chose a different career path. Between the 1940s and early 1980s, Maréchal was a professor at the Royal Atheneum in Verviers, teaching French and Spanish. One of his students was the future comic artist René Hausman. In his hometown of Polleur, south of Verviers, Maréchal lived next door to the well-known comic artist Raymond Macherot, creator of the funny animal comic 'Chlorophylle' in Tintin magazine. Through this connection, Maréchal was able to introduce himself to the editors of Tintin, presenting the concept of an elderly lady who solves mysteries. It was 'Tintin' creator Hergé himself who urged publisher Raymond Leblanc to give him a chance. And so, in 1957, 35-year old Maréchal was promptly accepted to publish in Tintin's pages.
'Prudence Petitpas et les Voitures Fantômes' (1966). Dutch-language version.
Prudence Petitpas in Tintin
On 8 May 1957, the first gag page of Maréchal's 'Prudence Petitpas' was printed in Tintin magazine. During the first couple of years, the 'Prudence Petitpas' comics were scripted by René Goscinny, while Maréchal's neighbor Raymond Macherot initially helped out with the sketching of the pages. Prudence is an old, friendly, but gullible lady, who owns an orange cat named Stanislas. Her name reflects her personality, since she is prudent and takes careful, small steps ("petit pas") to achieve her goals. Prudence lives in the quiet, fictional village of Moucheron, where her best friend is a young boy, Jojo. Maréchal based Mocheron on the real-life French town Sauveterre-de-Rouergue, where he often spent his summer vacations. Much like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Prudence is a private investigator. Aided by Jojo, she entangles mysterious crimes. Because of her age, criminals underestimate her, while the local police force doesn't take her seriously either. Especially inspector Robur Duroc is skeptical about her deductions, but luckily the younger policeman Cyprien shows more support and appreciation.
Early episodes of 'Prudence Petitpas' were short, gag-based stories of one to three pages long, but in late 1959, René Goscinny left Tintin magazine. By now, Maurice Maréchal was skilled enough to carry the series without external aid, although for later stories, Mittéï and his assistant Pierre Seron regularly collaborated on the scripts and backgrounds. In the 20 April 1960 issue of Tintin magazine (#16), Prudence embarked upon her first long adventure serial, 'Prudence Petitpas Mène l'Enquête'. Despite irregular intervals, the series was a mainstay in Tintin's pages for a full decade, running for six additional serials and a couple of short stories. While Maréchal discontinued the series in 1967, two extra stories ran in 1968 and 1969 in Tintin Sélection, a trimestrial pocket book supplement of the magazine. During the 1960s, four of these serials were collected in book format in Lombard's 'Collection Jeune Europe'. The adventures of 'Prudence Petitpas' were also translated into Dutch ('Tante Zenobie'), German ('Oma Pfiffig, Kater Schlau'), Spanish ('Doña Prudencia'), Italian and Arab.
Cover illustrations for Tintin issue #607 (9 June 1960) and Spirou issue #2513 (10 June 1986).
Prudence Petitpas in Spirou
In 1969, Maréchal dropped all of his comic activities to focus on his family and his teaching job. After a hiatus of a decade-and-a-half, in 1984, 'Prudence Petitpas' made a comeback, since Maréchal had now retired from his educational duties. A few weeks before his official retirement, he coincidentally met Charles Dupuis, the publisher of Spirou magazine. Dupuis convinced him to relaunch 'Prudence Petitpas' in Spirou, Tintin's main rival. The first new episode appeared in Spirou issue #2406 of 24 May 1984, after which Prudence Petitpas continued to make irregular appearances up until issue #2570 of 14 July 1987. The reboot added few novelties, except that they were exclusively short stories, scripted by either Maréchal himself, Didgé or Mittéï. This makes 'Prudence Petitpas' one of the rare comic series to have run in both Tintin and Spirou.
First Belgian comic series with a female protagonist
In the 1950s, Prudence Petitpas was a rather odd choice for a protagonist. Female characters in European comics were often supporting acts, never the star of a series. Emile-Joseph Pinchon's French series 'Bécassine' (1905) was the most notable exception. In Belgium, the little girls Zette in Hergé's 'Jo, Zette et Jocko' (1936) and Wiske in Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske' (1945) had starring roles, but still in combination with a leading male character. In that regard, Prudence was the first female protagonist of a Belgian adventure comic appearing in a mainstream children's magazine. In the early to mid-20th century, most Franco-Belgian comic publishers were devout Catholics who disliked the idea of women playing big parts in children's stories. Whenever females appeared, they either had to be old or ugly (Bianca Castafiore in Hergé's Tintin, Aunt Sidonia in Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske', the Madams Nero and Pheip in Marc Sleen's 'Nero'), or prepubescent girls (Zette in 'Jo, Zette et Jocko', Wiske in 'Suske en Wiske', Petatje in 'Nero', Annemieke and Rozemieke in Jef Nys' 'Jommeke' and Grenadine in Jean Roba's 'La Ribambelle'). Pretty women were considered risqué. If they had to appear at all, they had to be desexualized with not too prominent female features, like André Franquin's Seccotine in 'Spirou et Fantasio', Queue-de-Cerise in Maurice Tillieux's 'Gil Jourdan', Susan in Pom's 'Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber' and Pompon in Franquin's 'Modeste et Pompon'.
Because Prudence Petitpas fell into the "old, non-attractive women" category, she was deemed acceptable. Readers agreed too. Given the series' longevity, she proved that Belgian comic fans could accept a single woman in a starring role. With her modest appearance in Tintin magazine, she was a forerunner of other female heroes appearing in Belgian comic magazines during the 1960s and 1970s, like 'Sybilline' (1965) by Raymond Macherot, 'Sophie' (1965) by Jidéhem, 'Isabelle' (1969) by Will, Yvan Delporte and Raymond Macherot, 'Yoko Tsuno' (1970) by Roger Leloup and 'Natacha' (1970) by François Walthéry. In fact, the first major female Belgian comic hero to star in her own series after Prudence was Bob Mau's 'Kari Lente' (1962), who was serialized in the Flemish newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen.
Whenever she had solved a case, Prudence Petitpas sometimes took her time to explain how.
Media adaptations
In 2000, 'Prudence Petitpas' was adapted into an animated TV series, 'Les Enquêtes de Prudence Petitpas' (2001-2004), produced by Odec Kid Cartoons, SEK Studio, Carrere Group D.A. and Les Films de la Perrine. 52 episodes were made, broadcast on the Canadian channel Télé-Québec, the French channel TF1 and German channel SuperRTL.
Death
In 1987, at age 65, Maurice Maréchal fully retired from the comic industry. In 2008, he passed away in his hometwon Polleur, at age 85. Coincidentally, during the week of his death, Éditions Le Lombard released a compendium of Maréchal's work, called 'Prudence Petitpas Mène l'Enquête'. For the 2023 anniversary anthology 'Journal Tintin - Spécial 77 ans', a 'Prudence Petitpas' tribute story was created by Aurélie Guarino and Kid Toussaint.
'Prudence Petitpas'- 'Stanislas à Encore Disparu', in Spirou/Robbedoes issue #2570 (14 July 1987). Dutch-language version.