Pierre Nicolas is one of the most notable French Disney artists. Born in Paris, Nicolas started out in illustration, contributing to Le Rire and Le Hérisson from 1945. In 1948, he went to work for Réalité magazine, and joined the Gémeaux agency of Paul Grimault, where he worked on the animated film 'La Bergère et le Ramoneur'. Nicolas joined the Parisian Disney agency in 1951 and participated in the launch of Le Journal de Mickey, of which he became chief of the art studio.
Besides numerous cover illustrations, Nicolas' most notable work for the magazine was the 'Mickey à travers les Siècles' series (1952-1978). In 176 episodes, Nicolas, in cooperation with several writers, created adventures of Mickey Mouse in all periods of human history. In 1978 he formed a new French Disney group to produce new Disney stories. Artists that joined the team were Gen-Clo and Claude Marin. Pierre Nicolas retired in the mid-1980s.
