'L'Oncle Pacifique' (Le Petit Journal, 14 July 1935).
Pierre Saint-Loup was a mid-20th century French-Canadian newspaper and magazine illustrator and cartoonist. Under the pseudonym Vic Martin, he created the long-running adventure series 'L'Oncle Pacifique' (1935-1945), which ran in the weekly Le Petit Journal. He may also have been the artist behind a gag comic titled 'Casimir' (1935-1945) in the same paper, and also of the realistically drawn pirate comic 'Captain Morgan' (1949-1950), which ran in La Chronique de la Vallée du Saint-Maurice and The St-Maurice Valley Chronicle.
Early life and career
Pierre Saint-Loup was born in 1894 in France. In 1905, his family emigrated to Québec, Canada, where he became a draftsman artist. Some of his personal artworks included portraits, paintings and sketches done in watercolors. He was active as a restorer of paintings as well. During the First World War, Saint-Loup served in the Canadian army, while his cartoons ran in his regiment's trench journal Les Boyaux du 95e. After the war, Saint-Loup worked as an industrial draftsman at the aerospace company Canadair Ltd (nowadays Bombardier Inc.).
Headers designed by Pierre Saint-Loup for translated British strips published in Le Samedi between 1934 and 1936. They are signed "P.S.L."
During the 1920s, Saint-Loup was an illustrator for a number of newspapers and magazines from the Montreal region, including Le Samedi, Le Revue Populaire, Le Petit Journal and Photo-Journal. He made single-panel cartoons, caricatures and commercial drawings, but also livened up short stories and serials with his illustrations and header designs. Among the titles that carried his headers were 'Le Courageux Aigle D'Or' (1934), 'La Forêt Enchantée' (1935) and 'Le Secret de la Vallée' (1936), all French translations of imported British comics. Pierre Saint-Loup proved to be equally capable using a cartoony as well as a realistic drawing style.
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'L'Oncle Pacifique', 3 April 1938.
L'Oncle Pacifique
On Sunday 26 May 1935, Saint-Loup launched his comic strip 'L'Oncle Pacifique' (1935-1945) in the weekly newspaper Le Petit Journal, signing it with the pseudonym "Vic Martin". It was a humor comic about a wise, old and astute French-Canadian uncle, whose full name was Pacifique Poilfin. The white-haired, mustached and pipe-smoking elderly man reminisces about his incredible past adventures, while recounting amusing anecdotes and situations, leaving his relatives and the youngsters in his presence stunned with his sharp and witty observations. During the first three months of its run, 'L'Oncle Pacifique' was published as one full page. The feature ran uninterrupted for a decade, with the exception of the summer holidays of 1943 and 1944. On 26 August 1945, the final episode saw print.
'Casimir' by Tom Lucas. Is this Pierre Saint-Loup or another artist?
Casimir
On 11 August 1935, 'L'Oncle Pacifique' received a companion comic titled 'Casimir' (1935-1945). This gag comic ran as a six-panel comic strip on the bottom of each page. Casimir was a dumb person who always found himself in wacky situations. The feature was signed "Tom Lucas", a cartoonist whose identity has remained a mystery. Historians believe it may have been Saint-Loup himself under another pseudonym, given that the artist was capable of switching graphic styles. Another possibility is that the comic was drawn by Hector Brault, an assistant of Saint-Loup in the second half of the 1930s. Either way, both comics enjoyed a similar long run. Both debuted in 1935 and were absent from papers during the summers of 1943 and 1944. On 2 January 1944, L'Oncle Pacifique and Casimir appeared together in a crossover episode. After 26 August 1945, both comics were discontinued. It is also possible that Brault only worked on 'Casimir' for a limited period and that Saint-Loup was the artist during the rest of its run.
'Captain Morgan'.
Captain Morgan
From 4 November 1949 until 17 November 1950, Saint-Loup also possibly drew the pirate comic 'Les Aventures du Captain Morgan' ('The Adventures of Captain Morgan'). Loosely based on the legendary real-life pirate Henry Morgan, this realistically drawn nautical series ran simultaneously in French and English. The French-language version appeared in La Chronique de la Vallée du Saint-Maurice and in Le Clairon de Saint-Hyacinthe. The English-language variant ran in The St-Maurice Valley Chronicle.
Death and identity debate
Pierre Saint-Loup passed away in 1963. He died at either the age 68 or 69. For a long while, it was unsure whether Pierre Saint-Loup was actually the artist behind the pen name "Vic Martin". Some believed that both 'L'Oncle Pacifique' and 'Casimir' were created by Hector Brault. The solution was provided by Robert Prévost (1918-2007), senior civil servant, historian and writer, who had worked early in his career for Le Petit Journal and knew Pierre Saint-Loup. Twice in his autobiographical book 'Mon Tour de Jardin' (Septentrion, 2005), he specified Pierre Saint-Loup as the author of the weekly 'Oncle Pacifique' strips. The book also contained a photograph of Pierre Saint-Loup accompanied by the artist Roy Garant, who was personifying L'Oncle Pacifique.
Pierre Saint-Loup in 1939.