Achille Talon - 'L'Archipel de Sanzunron' (1985).
Robert Pire was a Belgian comic artist, and one of the first co-workers of Michel Greg during the 1960s, working on series like 'Babiole et Zou' and 'Zig et Puce'. In the 1980s, he resumed working with Greg, this time for the 'Achille Talon' comic.
Early Life
While attending the Athénée Royal in Herstal, Robert "Bob" Pire became best friends with Michel Regnier (1931-1999), the future comic creator known as Greg. Since they were classmates, Pire was most likely also born in the early 1930s, and lived in the town of Herstal, near Liège. When the boys were twelve years old, they created the paper Journal de Nouny (1943), filled with humorous texts and caricatures. Created during the World War II years, the paper already showed Greg's typical sense of humor.
Studio Greg
Trained as a doctor of law, Bob Pire continued to work with his old school friend, helping him with his comic series. In the early 1960s, Greg's workload had increased so much, that he began working with assistants, Robert Pire being one of the first. In 1962 and 1963, Pire participated in the artwork of the 'Babiole et Zou' comic (1962-1963) in Tintin magazine. In 1965, Greg set up his own comic studio in an apartment at the Place du Roi Vainqueur/Koning Overwinnaarsplein in Brussels. Among his early co-workers there were Robert Pire, Jean-Marie Brouyère, Dany, Dupa, Hermann and Vicq.
'Plus de Cloche à Melon' (Tintin France #910, 31 March 1966).
In 1965, Pire assisted on the backgrounds of the 'Zig et Puce' story 'La Pierre qui Vole', also for Tintin magazine. He was probably also the "Bob" credited in the 1965-1966 adventure 'Quentin Gentil et le Roi de l'Évasion' in Vaillant magazine, starring one of the characters of the Greg series 'Les As' (although sources generally assume this is Bob De Groot). During this early period, Robert Pire also assisted on the backgrounds of Greg's 'Achille Talon' comic, but his involvement in that series became more prominent two decades later.
As a solo artist, Bob Pire produced three short stories for the French edition of Tintin magazine: 'La Cigale et la Fourmi' (issue #897, 1965), 'Plus de Cloche à Melon' (#910, 1966) and 'Le Lièvre et la Tortue' (#917, 1966), some of which were written by Greg. Bob Pire's time with the studio was short, as from 1966 on, he lived for many years in Congo, where he worked for a petrol company.
'Achille Talon' strip for Télé Star. Translation: "In these crisis times, there aren't economic fools. And Christmas without a pine tree isn't Christmas. But whatever is the model, pinning down the foot remains a DELICATE undertaking!"
Achille Talon
During the 1980s, Robert Pire rejoined Greg, this time assisting on his signature comic 'Achille Talon'. One of his projects was helping Greg with getting his comic published on the American market. He redrew most of the 1977 album 'Achille Talon et le Trésor de Virgule' for its 1981 American release by Dargaud: 'Walter Melon - Magnesia's Treasure'. This has remained the only translated episode. Greg and Pire also worked on a newspaper gag strip version of 'Achille Talon', which didn't go into international circulation, but was printed in the French TV magazine Télé Star (1980-1981).
For a book publication, he also redrew short 'Achille Talon' stories that had originally appeared in the pocket book-format in Achille Talon Magazine. Several of the gag pages drawn by Pire were collected in the 1984 comic book 'Achille Talon N'a Pas Tout Dit...' (volume #36). He also drew the majority of volume #37, 'L'Archipel de Sanzunron' (1985), originally an advertising album commissioned by Crédit Lyonnais. Pire additionally drew the skyscraper backgrounds of the New York-based 'Achille Talon' episode 'L'Appeau d'Éphèse' (Dargaud, 1991).
Original panels by Michel Greg from 'Achille Talon et le Trésor de Virgule' (Dutch version, 1977)...
...and the redrawn version by Robert Pire for the American release as 'Magnesia's Treasure' (1981).