'La Patrouille des Castors'.
Born in Uccle, Michel Tacq spent his childhood in Farciennes and Brussels. He went to study at the Saint-Marie Institute in Schaerbeek and stayed in France during the first years of World War II. He then returned to Belgium to continue his art studies in Charleroi.
'La Patrouille des Castors'.
Ever since his early childhood, Tacq was involved in scouting, a movement that has been of influence his entire career. He assumed the pseudonym Mitak and developed the comic strip 'Tam Tam', which appeared in the movement's magazines in 1944 and 1945. 'Tam Tam' also appeared in book collections, published by José Henin and De Beiaard.
'La Patrouille des Castors'.
Tacq then moved on to do illustration work for Spirou, Des Grands Recits and the scouting publications Plein-Jeu and Carrefour. By now, he began using the pseudonym MiTacq. In 1951, he joined the World Press agency of Georges Troisfontaines and his comics career really took off. He illustrated several episodes of 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul', scripted by Octave Joly in Spirou.
'Une Vision d'Avenir', a short story scripted by Jacques Devos (Spirou #1646, 1969).
Mitacq's long and fruitful collaboration with Jean-Michel Charlier took off in 1954 with the publication of the first episode of 'La Patrouille des Castors', in the magazine Spirou. 'La Patrouille des Castors', an adventure series about a group of scouts, became Tacq's trademark series. Starting in 1960, MiTacq sporadically illustrated 'La Patrouille des Zoms', a parody of the Castors, written by Yvan Delporte.
'Jacques Le Gall'.
From 1959, he was present in Pilote with the adventurous 'Jacques Le Gall', also written by Charlier. The series only ran for six long episodes, and was cancelled due to editorial reasons.
'Jacques Le Gall'.
When Charlier got too involved with his other comics, MiTacq launched a series of his own to overlap the interludes between Castor stories. From 1968 until 1979, he drew the adventures of 'Stany Derval', cooperating with several writers, such as André-Paul Duchateau, Jacques Stoquart, or André Beckers.
'Stany Derval'.
He was sometimes assisted by René Follet for the artwork of 'Jacques le Gall' and 'Stany Derval', and by his brother Adolphe Tacq for 'La Patrouille des Castors'. Michel Tacq began writing 'La Patrouille des Castors' himself in 1980, and continued the series until his death in 1994.
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 MiTacq.
In April 2003 a mural depicting 'La Patrouille des Castors' was inaugurated in the Rue Pieremans/ Pieremansstraat, in Brussels, as part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route.
Stany Derval - 'Angoisse Dans La Vallée de Koa' (1969).