Jari
Raymond Reding was and French-Belgian comic artist, best-known for the sports comics he made for Tintin. Born in Louviers, France, as the son of a Belgian father and a French mother, he grew up in Belgium. He showed an avid interest in sports, which would later reflect on many of his comic series. He held several jobs, such as paperboy, english teacher, jazz pianist and editor, before turning to writing and drawing. After writing some novels and theatre pieces, he began to work for Bravo magazine in 1944, writing and illustrating short text stories. He created his first comic characters for Récréation, a supplement of the daily La Dernière Heure. For this publication he created 'Monsieur Cro, Détective' and 'Les Aventures de Prunelle'.
Vincent Larcher
After a short period at L'Aiglon (1949), Reding joined the editorial team of Tintin in 1950. He started out with a biography on Saint Vincent de Paul ('Monsieur Vincent l'Ami des Pauvres'), which was followed by 'Le Pacte de Pashutan' and 'Le Chinois au Manteau Rouille'. But his first claim to fame came with the creation of Jari Lorrain and Jimmy Torrent, the main characters of 'Jari', Reding's series about the adventures of a tennis pro and his young ward. The series started in 1957, and the first album came out in 1960. In addition to his work for Tintin, Reding produced short stories for magazines like Spirou (1953) and Line (1956-58).
Section R
In 1963, Reding's first soccer hero appeared: 'Vincent Larcher', a center forward playing at AC Milan, who experienced all sorts of adventures together with his friend, Olympio. In 1971, Reding created 'Section R', about two former top athletes operating as research journalists and crime solvers. In 1977 Reding created 'Fondation King' for Dargaud. In 1979, Reding left Tintin and took 'Section R' and its female hero Sophie Ravenne to the football magazine Footy.
Eric Castel
In the same year, Reding and his colleague Françoise Hugues created 'Eric Castel', a character that had been introduced as 'Max Falk' back in 1974. The series first appeared in the German magazine Zack at Koralle Verlag under the name 'Kai Falke'. Eric Castel, one of the best-known drawn soccer heroes, played at Barcelona (with a short step aside to Paris Saint Germain) and was accompanied by a young kid, Pablito, and his friends the Pablitos. The adventures of 'Eric Castel' appeared in fifteen albums published by Hachette, Novedi and Dupuis. Raymond Reding passed away on 26 April, 1999.
