'Feux Croisés' (Hardi les Gars!, 1948).
J. Van Straelen was a comic artist who drew for French magazines and comic books during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Presumably a Belgian artist living in Paris, he is mostly known for drawing aviation comics for the Parisian publisher Marcel Daubin. He was most notably the author of a great many locally produced adventures of the villainous aviator 'Will Sparrow', originally an Italian comic by Kurt Caesar. Although still highly obscure, he was later identified as one of the ghost artists of the 'Spirou' comic when the original creator Robert Velter was mobilized in 1940.
Picture story published in L'Épatant of 26 April 1934.
Career in the late 1920s and early 1930s
Virtually nothing is known about the person behind the name "J. Van Straelen", not even his first name. Since he mainly worked for Parisian publishers, he most likely lived in Paris, but considering his name, he might be of Belgian descent.
In 1926, the name Van Straelen first appeared in Le Dimanche Illustré, the supplement of the newspaper Excelsior. The artist subsequently contributed artwork to magazines like La Presse (1927), Ric et Rac (1930-1934), Marius (1930), L'Almanach National (1933) and L'Almanach Vermot (1938-1942). After Louis Forton's death in 1934, he got the Forton spot in the Offenstadt magazine L'Épatant, contributing the humorous comic 'Gédéon, Bec-de-Puce' (1934-1935). For Offenstadt's Fillette magazine, he created magical picture story serials for girls, like 'La Bobine de Papier Collant' (1933).
'Gédéon, Bec-de-Puce'.
Spirou
In the complete edition of Rob-Vel's 'Spirou' stories (Dupuis, 2013), historians Christelle and Bertrand Pissavy-Yvernault revealed that Van Straelen was one of the ghost artists of the famous bellboy. The title character of the Belgian comic magazine Spirou was created in 1937-1938 by the Frenchman Robert Velter by commission of publisher Dupuis. His Belgian wife Blanche Dumoulin (who used the pen name Davine) assisted her husband on the scripts. When Rob-Vel was mobilized in the advent of World War II, Dumoulin was forced to finish her husband's pages, or create new ones by herself, and send them from Paris to the publisher's offices in Marcinelle, Belgium. About this period, she has declared she was aided by several ghost artists, of which only J. Van Straelen can be identified by name. In these pages, several objects were copied from previous 'Spirou' or 'Toto' pages by Rob-Vel, but also from comics by Kurt Caesar and Hergé. Van Straelen's participation presumably started in late 1939, and continued over the course of 1940. A specialist in aeronautics and military vehicles, Van Straelen's work can clearly be spotted in the 'Spirou' pages published in late January 1940. By October 1940, the borders were closed, and Dupuis asked local artist Jijé to improvise the rest of the running 'Spirou' story.
'Spirou', drawn by Van Straelen (the lay-out and style was "borrowed" from a 1938 comic page of 'Il Legionario' by Kurt Caesar).
Aéroport Z/Will Sparrow
Throughout most of the 1940s, Van Straelen worked frequently for the Parisian publisher Marcel Daubin (S.E.P.I.A.). For several of the publisher's collections, he made new 16-page stories of the Italian aviation series and 'Aéroport Z' and especially 'Will Sparrow' ('Les Pirates du Ciel'). These series were originally drawn by the Italian artist Kurt Caesar and published in Italy in magazines like Audace, Topolino and Paperino during the 1930s. In French translation, they additionally ran in French-language magazines like Robinson, L'As and Spirou. While in Italy these series were later continued by artists like Aurelio Galleppini and Giovanni Benvenutti, the French publisher assigned local artists like Van Straelen to produce new stories. The most likely reason shall be that the World War II circumstances kept the publisher from acquiring the original material. In Daubin's collection Les Cahiers d'Ulysse, much of the original Kurt Caesar material was published, while Van Straelen is credited for the 'Aeroport Z' stories 'Terreur sur l'Île' (issue #20, 1942), 'Poursuite Sans Escale' (issue #23, 1942) and 'Jungle en Flammes' (Sélections Prouesses, 1943), as well as the 'Will Sparrow' story 'Le Fléau des Mers du Sud' (issue #30, 1942). Further French 'Aéroport Z' stories were drawn by Roger Melliès, as Van Straelen's main occupation became the 'Will Sparrow' adventures.
'Terreur Sur l'Île'.
For its time, 'Will Sparrow' was a remarkable comic, as it had a villain in the starring role. Between 1944 and 1946, Van Straelen drew more stories with this air pirate and his accomplice Mark Park for Daubin's further publications. 'Le Fléau des Mers du Sud' (issue #10, 1944 - reissue from 1942), 'Le Train 725 a Disparu' (issue #18, 1945), 'Les Perles de la Mer d'Oman' (issue #20, 1945), 'Le Vase Sacré des Dasyous' (issue #26, 1946) and 'Les Évadés du Tibet' (issue #29, 1946) appeared in the Collection Odyssées, while the serials 'Le Cité Engloutie' (1946-1947), 'Le Roi des Ténèbres' (1947), 'Will Sparrow Contre Mark Park' (1947) and 'L'Empereur du Silence' (1947) ran in Jeudi Magazine and its successor Zorro-Hebdo. The series was continued in the collections Les Sélections Hardi les Gars! and Héroïca Présente with the episodes 'Gilda l'Atomique' (1947), 'La Course au Trésor' (1948), 'Feux Croisés' (1948), 'Tempête sur l'Antarctique' (1948), 'Havre Sans Marins' (1948) and 'Les Loup se Mangent Entre Eux' (1949).
In some cases, Van Straelen's stories were reworkings of original Italian episodes. For instance, a French-language version of the Italian original 'Le Perle del Mare di Oman' by Galleppini had already appeared in 1939-1940 in Spirou as 'Les Perles de la Mer d'Oman', but a new story with that title by Van Straelen was published in 1945 in the Collection Odyssées. Several of Van Straelen's 'Will Sparrow' stories were subsequently published in Italy in the collection Albi d'Oro (1947-1948) by Mondadori.
Other 1940s comics
In addition to continuing Italian comics, Van Straelen was also one of the main artists of the World War II aviation collection 'À L'Assaut Du Ciel' (1946-1947), also published by S.E.P.I.A. Van Straelen notably contributed such features as 'Les Aventures du Capitaine Raider'. The collection also contained stories drawn by the Frenchman Christian Mathelot. Two of Van Straelen's stories for 'À L'Assaut Du Ciel' were later published in the album 'Les Aventures du Capitaine Raider' (1948), under the imprint Éditions Marcel Daubin.
For Daubin's Collection Odyssées, Van Straelen also made the historical comic 'Le Philtre Magique' (issue #27, 1946). In addition, he made a comic strip called 'Cap'taine Stouf' (1947) for in the aviation magazine En Plein Ciel. In Le Petit Canard, he published stories like 'Bedjabad la Merveilleuse' (1949), a story about a young French engineer at the court of a Maharaja. His serial 'Les Aventures de Rojanette' was published in 1950 in the women's magazines Eve and Atout-Coeur. After that, no further work by the mysterious J. Van Straelen is known.
'Capitaine Raider'.