'Láky Blou'
Konstantinos Rabatzis (Κωνσταντίνος Ραμπατζής) is a Greek painter, comic artist and publisher. He has spent most of his career in comics and illustration alongside the productive artist and publisher Themos Andreopoulos. He served as an artist of the 'Mikros Serifis' story papers, co-created the western comic 'Láky Blou' ("Lucky Blue", 1971) and was publisher of the magazines Laky, Aristokrates and Super Laky.
Early life and career
Born in 1935, Rabatzis was 14 years old when he attended painting classes of Despina Leoussi. In the summer of 1951, at the age of 16, he joined Themos Andreopoulos in his atelier at Athen's Syntagma Square. He became the master's loyal co-worker in the many publications of their imprints Capricorn and Unicorn, as well as the children's magazines Ellinopoulo, Diáplasis ton Paídon ("Children's psysique", 1956-1960) and I Zoí tou Paidioú ("Child's Life", 1959). In the early 1950s, he also served as a shooting engineer in Andreopoulos's short-lived animated film production company, Alfa Films. Rabatzis also illustrated and designed covers for many children's books by the publishing houses Asteras and Ankara.
Mikros Serifis
From the early 1960s to 1990 he focused on Potis Stratikis' highly successful and longrunning illustrated story papers 'Mikros Serifis' ("Little Sheriff"), 'Mikros Cow-Boy' ("Little Cowboy") and 'Mikros Archigos' ("The Little Leader"), all starring the 18-year old Greek-American sheriff Jim Adams and his faithful sidekicks. In 1961 he also worked with Themos Andreopoulos on the second rendition of his story paper Tam-Tam, and also collaborated on Golden Eagle-Kendall (1968), Lucky Luke (1968), Laky (1972), and Aftotelés ("Independent").
Lucky Blue
His biggest claim to fame is the western comic 'Láky Blou' ("Lucky Blue", 1971), which can be considered a Greek rip-off of Morris' 'Lucky Luke'. It first appeared as a back-up feature in Mikros Serifis, before becoming the mascot of Laky in 1972. The stories of were written by George Marmaridis, while Themos Andreopoulos had designed the characters. Rabatzis himself published a new series of Laky magazine in 1976 (8 issues), followed by a magazine based on Alfredo Castelli and Ferdinando Tacconi's 'Gli Aristocrati' (Aristokrates, 4 issues in 1977) and Super Laky (8 issues, 1980). The second and third rendition contained no Greek material, only translations of Marcel Remacle's 'Le Vieux Nick et Barbe Noire'.
Painting
In later years, Konstantinos Rabatzis has focused on painting. To please his old fans, he has also painted portraits of the four main heroes of the 'Mikros Serifis' series.
From: 'Little Cow-Boy'.