'La Banda Balder'.
Emmanuel Ratier was a French essayist, editor and political activist, who mainly wrote for far-right publications. Through his own magazine Faits et Documents, he supported several conspiracy theories. Before his activities in the written press, he published his own national-revolutionary fanzine Balder in the Normandy region, for which he also made far-right propaganda comics and cartoons under the pen name Rémi.
Early life
Emmanuel Jean Michel Ratier was born in 1957 in the French city of Avignon. His father was the architect Jacques Ratier. Emmanuel's entire life was dedicated to militancy and counterculture. While being a History student at the University of Rouen, he soon became a leader of the Front de la Jeunesse of Normandy, a far-right youth organization of the Party of New Forces (Parti des Forces Nouvelles).
Balder
In 1976, Ratier created Balder, a regional periodical of national-revolutionary inspiration. Using the pen name Rémi, he also drew the magazine's comic content. His main feature was 'La Bande à Balder' (1977), about a group of troublesome young Vikings, pagans and idealists, who decide to rob the biblical Three Kings. His other feature dealt with white rats fighting black rat, delving into the same territory as another French far-right cartoonist, Jack Marchal, whose black rats were the mascots of the neo-fascist movement Groupe Union Défense. Rémi's comics also appeared in the Italian far-right magazine La Voce della Fogna (as 'La Banda Balder' and 'Il Ramollito'), as well as the Belgian title Alternative Nationaliste.
Far-right journalist
After his Normandy period, Ratier studied Journalism at the École CFJ in Paris, graduating in 1979. Between 1980 and 1982, he attended the Paris Institute of Political Studies, while being an activist with the Union of Right-Wing Students, creating and editing its magazine Réplique. Starting in the early 1980s, he worked for various magazines and newspapers, including Le Spectacle du Monde, Le Figaro Magazine, National Hebdo, Le Crapouillot, Valeurs Actuelles and Minute.
After the sudden death of far-right journalist Yan Moncomble in 1990, Ratier became head of the publishing house Faits et Documents. In 1996, he founded a magazine of the same name, a monthly newsletter relaying numerous conspiracy theories with far-right anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic viewpoints. He also wrote several books with the same content. Having become a renowned journalist in far-right circles, he favored discretion on a personal level and made sure never to be photographed in public, going so far as to demand to be filmed from behind or in black during the few interviews he has given. In addition, he ran the Facta bookstore in Paris and, from 2008 on, he had his own show on Radio Courtoisie.
Death
Emmanuel Ratier died in 2015 at the age of 57 in Orgnac-l'Aven.