Natacha - 'La Mémoire de Métal' (1974). The villain in the final panel is a caricature of Maurice Tillieux.
The Belgian comic artist François Walthéry was one of the most prominent contributors to Spirou magazine in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He first made his mark as a loyal assistant and pupil of Peyo, for whom he drew episodes of 'Jacky et Célestin' and 'Benoît Brisefer'. He is however best-known as co-creator of the sexy air hostess 'Natacha' (1970- ), one of the first heroines in the popular children's magazine of Éditions Dupuis. His other work either showcase the artist's talent for drawing sensual female characters, or his nostalgic side and roots in the Liège region.
Early life
François Gilles Émile Walthéry was born in 1946 in Argenteau, and raised in Cheratte. His father was a craftsman who worked for the Belgian army. Cauvin's peaceful childhood in the small town has served as an inspiration for Walthéry's later nostalgic comic series 'Le P'tit Bout d'Chique' and 'Le Vieux Bleu'. While growing up in post-war poverty, the young Walthéry developed a keen passion for comics. His ambition to become a comic artist was supported by his parents. Among his influences were the classic Franco-Belgian artists Hergé and André Franquin, whose 'Spirou' episode 'La Corne de Rhinocéros' he largely copied when he was a child. Later influences were Maurice Tillieux and Mad Magazine artists like Wallace Wood and Jack Davis. Walthéry was only 15 years old when he presented his work, a comic strip called 'Les Garnements', to comic artist Jean Mariette, better known as Mittéï, who lived nearby.
'Pipo', by Pop's.
Early comics
Mittéï gave him inking, framing and erasing chores, and also provided him with his first professional assignment. In 1962, Junior, the children's supplement of the weekly magazine Chez Nous, as well as its Dutch-language equivalent Ons Volkske, was in need of a new gag strip when their regular artist Géri turned ill. Mittéï proposed his young assistant, which resulted in the publication of 18 gag pages starring the little boy 'Pipo' (1962). Walthéry signed this early work with "Pop's". In that same year, he enrolled in the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc in Liège, where he took courses for about a year. It was during his studies that he met the future comic artists Pierre Seron, Dany and Hachel, as well as the scriptwriter Michel Dusart.
Jacky et Célestin - 'Casse-tête Chinoise'.
Spirou
In the summer of 1963, the 17-year old art school dropout tried his luck with Spirou magazine. His meeting with editor-in-chief Yvan Delporte, publisher Charles Dupuis and comic artist Peyo has become a legendary anecdote, as the boy arrived in short trousers and was accompanied by his mother. The editors were convinced by his talent, and Walthéry got the opportunity to replace Francis Bertrand in Peyo's house studio in Uccle in September 1963.
Jacky & Célestin
Among Walthéry's early assignments was drawing 'Jacky et Célestin', a humor/adventure series created by Peyo and Will for the newspaper supplement Le Soir Illustré in 1960. After four episodes drawn by Will and Jo-El Azara, Walthéry was handed art duties. His first story, 'Vous êtes trop bon!' (1963-1964, script by Peyo and Vicq) and was followed by 'Casse-tête-chinois' (1964-1965, script by Gos and Derib), 'Sur la piste du scorpion' (1965-1966, script by Peyo and Gos) and 'Le Chinois est rancunier' (1966-1967, script by Peyo, Gos and Walthéry). Walthéry drew most of 'Casse-tête-chinois' and the beginning of 'Sur la piste du scorpion' while fulfilling his military service in Germany. A final 'Jacky et Célestin' story was drawn by Francis and Roger Leloup from a script by Mittéï between 1966 and 1968. Especially notable for being created by some of the top authors of European comics, 'Jacky et Celestin' was a straightforward humor adventure comic. The smart Jacky and the more reckless Célestin find themselves in one dangerous situation after another. It is largely due to Walthéry's stories that the series has not faded into obscurity. His work on 'Jacky et Célestin' has been collected in four albums in the Dupuis collection 'Péchés de Jeunesse' between 1980 and 1985.
Benoît Brisefer - 'Tonton Placide'.
Assistance to Peyo
Walthéry's most notable work for Studio Peyo are however the four albums he drew with 'Benoît Brisefer' (1966-1972), the little boy with a superhuman strength, who loses his powers when he catches a cold. 'Les Douze travaux de Benoît Brisefer' (1966) is still drawn largely in the Peyo tradition, but the next stories unveil more and more of Walthéry's own dynamic drawing style. 'Tonton Placide' (1968) was created to tie in with the popularity of James Bond, while 'Le Cirque Bodoni' (1969) brought the young and naïve boy to a struggling circus. The character didn't return until three years later in 'Lady d'Olphine' (1972), which marked the return of robot gangster granny Madame Adolphine from a previous episode. The backgrounds of Walthéry's final episode were drawn by Marc Wasterlain. The scripts for the series were written by Peyo in cooperation with either Yvan Delporte or Gos. Walthéry has expressed in interviews that most of the stories were truly a group effort. All befriended artists that visited Peyo's studio joyfully participated in coming up with plot ideas, including Jean Roba, André Franquin and Jidéhem.
Benoît Brisefer - 'Lady d'Olphine' (1972).
Walthéry also participated in the artwork of several 'Smurfs' stories, as well as the 'Johan et Pirlouit' episode 'Le Sortilège de Maltrochu' (1967, 1969). Other assistants who worked for Peyo during Walthéry's time with the studio were Derib, Daniel Kox, Lucien De Gieter, Marc Wasterlain, André Benn and Albert Blesteau. Walthéry and his studio colleague Gos made the illustrations of a promotional manual for conscripts, which appeared as a supplement to the Belgian edition of Spirou magazine in June 1967. In their spare time, the two men also developed some of their own projects. One of these was a short story about 'Roland Labricole' (1968), an obvious caricature of Gos and a zealous handyman.
Natacha - 'Double vol' (1975).
Natacha
Gos and Walthéry's most remarkable creation was however the air hostess 'Natacha', whose first preliminary sketches were made in 1967. Walthéry based her face on a neighbourhood girl he used to know. The concept was an idea of Spirou's editor-in-chief Yvan Delporte, who decided the magazine could use a female heroine in addition to Jidéhem's more youthful 'Sophie' (1965). However, it took three more years before the comic actually saw the light of day. The first episode, 'Natacha hôtesse de l'Air', made its debut in Spirou magazine on 26 February 1970.
The series marked the arrival of female heroes in Spirou magazine, together with Roger Leloup's 'Yoko Tsuno', which began in the same year. More than Leloup's technical engineer, the voluptuous and short-skirted air hostess was quite a break in tradition within the conservative Catholic Spirou magazine. This was not just because she was the first female protagonist since 'Sophie', but also because she was a young, attractive woman rather than a schoolgirl. Censorship sometimes creeped in to make her less erotic. On some of her album covers, Natacha's breasts had to be redrawn to make their roundings underneath her shirt less prominent. Another aspect that made 'Natacha' different from previous comics in Spirou was the far more dynamic drawing style, with swift chase and fight scenes. By 1972 'Natacha' had become so popular that Walthéry left Peyo to fully concentrate on this hit series. The ever loyal Walthéry, along with Wasterlain, continued to assist Peyo on his 'Smurfs' comics when needed in the following years.
Natacha - 'Instantanés pour Caltech' (1981).
Assistants to 'Natacha'
The first two 'Natacha' stories were written by Gos, but since then, Walthéry decided to work with a different scriptwriter for every album. This gives the series a varied tone and theme. The only constant factors are Natacha and the goofing flight attendant Walter, who work for the airline company Bardaf. Walthéry's friend Étienne Borgers introduced technology in the episode 'La Mémoire de Métal' (1973) and science fiction in the diptych 'Les Machines Incertaines' (1980, 1982). Crime/detective stories were written by the genre's specialist Maurice Tillieux in 'Un Trône pour Natacha' (1974) and 'Le Treizième Apôtre' (1976), while Raoul Cauvin provided his trademark slapstick in 'Les Nomades du Ciel' (1995). Walthéry's former tutor Mittéï also wrote several albums for the series, most notably the stories 'L'Hôtesse et Mona Lisa' (1979), 'Le Grand Pari' (1985) and 'Les Culottes de Fer' (1986), which focused on the adventures of Natacha and Walter's grandparents.
Natacha - 'L'Ïle d'Outre-Monde' (1984).
Further contributors to the series' scripts were Marc Wasterlain, Mythic, Michel Dusart, Guy D'Artet de Neufmoustier and Thierry Martens, while the artist used old scripts by Peyo, Tillieux and Sirius for his later stories. 'L'Épervier Bleu' (2014) was for instance a reworking of an old 1940s story of Sirius' series 'L'Épervier Bleu'. Walthéry also invited friends to participate in the artwork of his series. Throughout the years, Pierre Seron, Jidéhem, Will, Laudec, Mittéï, Georges van Linthout and Bruno di Sano have all contributed background or additional artwork to 'Natacha' albums.
Natacha - 'Le Regard du Passe' (2010).
The artist has always enjoyed drawing caricatures of his friends and colleagues in his pages. Examples of this are Victor Hubinon as an aviator in 'Les Nomades du Ciel' (1988) and Dany in 'La Veuve Noire' (1997). A more over-the-top utilization of this hobby was the episode 'Natacha et les Petits Miquets' (1978), in which the entire art staff of Spirou magazine has a starring role. Walthéry also gave Belgian politicians occasional cameos, such as Elio di Rupo and Louis Michel, who are cast as gangsters in 'La Mer des Rochers' (2004). Another remarkable episode was 'L'ile d'Outre-Monde' (1983, written by Wasterlain), in which Natacha and Walter are stranded on a deserted island. Walthéry could indulge in drawing his sexy heroine in scarcely clothed situations, while Will provided the attractive island settings. Although the 'Natacha' stories continued to appear in Spirou on a regular base until 1997, Walthéry had moved his album collection from Dupuis to Marsu Productions after the thirteenth album, in 1989. 'Natacha' returned to regular serialization in Spirou in 2006.
'Le Vieux Bleu'.
Le Vieux Bleu
Although 'Natacha' is his most important series, Walthéry has created a couple of other comics while working for Spirou. The first one was 'Le Vieux Bleu' ('The Old Blue One', 1974-1979), about a 69-year old pigeon fancier named Jules. The character was inspired and modelled after Walthéry's own father, who died of old age around this time period. The series is set in the real-life village Cheratte, where Walthéry grew up. The short stories, scripted by Raoul Cauvin, appeared on an irregular basis in Spirou. The tales revolve around Jules and his obsessive attempts to win pigeon fancy contests. The "Old Blue One" in the title doesn't refer to Jules, as readers might assume, but to his pigeon, called "Old Blue One". Walthéry's father also had a champion pigeon with that name. The bird was exceptional. According to Walthéry it lived until it was 18 years old, an unusual age for pigeons. Jules has a strong rivalry with another local pigeon fancier, Achille, and the village priest, who all try to sabotage each other in order to win the championship. In 1980 'Le Vieux Bleu' was collected in album format by Dupuis. The series also ran in Dutch as 'Ouwe Blauwe'. A special version in the Liège dialect was also published. One of Walthéry's assistants who worked on the series was Didier Casten.
Le P'tit Bout d'Chique
'Le P'tit Bout d'Chique' was Walthéry's third series and was also largely based on nostalgia and childhood memories. The poetic strip about a little boy that is a little ill-at-ease in the world of adults was published in Spirou between 1975 and 1978. Marsu Productions collected the initial stories in an album in 1989. A new album written by Serdu and drawn by Walthéry followed in 1992. The series was then continued by Mittéï for another four albums between 1994 and 1998.
'Le P'tit Bout d'Chique'.
Rubine and other comics starring attractive young women
As Walthéry is notorious for being a slow worker, he has mostly worked with background artists and other contributing artists on his later-day projects. He was present at Lombard with the series about 'Rubine' (1993-2011), a sexy female cop based in Chicago. The comic was written by Mythic and drawn by Dragan de Lazare and later Boyan under supervision of Walthéry. Walthéry, a master in drawing beautiful women, further showcased his talent in the erotic comic 'Betty Strip' (Noir Dessin, 1992) and in 'Une Femme dans la Peau', an adult comic published by P&T Production in 1994. Scripted by Fritax (Jean-Claude de la Royère) and with backgrounds by Georges van Linthout, the latter tells the story of a man named Antoine, who wakes up in a woman's body. The story was continued in the sequels 'Dans la Peau d'une Femme' (Joker Éditions, 2001), 'Au Malheur des Dames' (Joker, 2002) and 'Johanna - La Dame des Sables' (Joker, 2005), which were all written by Mythic (Jean-Claude Smit le Bénédicte) and drawn in cooperation Bruno di Sano. In 2014, Walthéry was involved in the launch of another aviation series, this time for Paquet's Cockpit collection. Written by Étienne Borgers and drawn in cooperation with Bruno Di Sano, 'L'Aviatrice' (2014-) is about 1930s female air mail pilot Nora Stalle, who is hunted by German counter-espionage in Nazi Germany.
'Rubine' #1, artwork in cooperation with Dragan De Lazare.
Illustration work for classic comics
In addition to his own productions, François Walthéry has been a dedicated contributor of additional art for re-editions of European heritage comics. He produced cover art for re-editions of 'Félix' (1981, 2011) by Maurice Tillieux, 'Jehan Pistolet' (1990-1991) and 'Luc Junior' (1990, 2011) by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, and 'Pemberton' (2012) by Sirius. In 2018 Walthéry oversaw production of the completement of Tillieux's second, unfinished 'Marc Jaguar' story, 'Les Camions du Diable'. The script was completed by Etienne Borgers, while Jean-Luc Delvaux took care of the artwork.
Illustration work in commission
The artist has produced several pieces of art in commission, including scouting calendars, comic festival flyers and advertisements. An interesting creation is the character of 'Citronella' (1979) for Citroën, which appeared in advertising campaigns, magazine spreads and on scented paper towels. He participated in satirical books about Jacques Chirac and football for Pictoris Studio (1997-1998), and in a book with adaptations of Renaud songs (1986). For Le Lombard, he provided artwork for a benefit book for people with neuromuscular disorders ('Telethon', 1990) and for a book about the Convention on the Rights of the Child (with Didier Casten, 1993). During the municipal elections of 1994, Walthéry made a propaganda comic to support PSC politician René Schyns.
Walthéry illustrated the first book of Bruno Senny's detective stories with the character 'Baudruche' (Apach, 2003). The next installments featured illustrations by Derib, René Follet and Dany. He worked with comic artist/illustrator Jaap de Boer on two fairy tale books for Éditions Deirdre ('Contes de Fees', 2009). He was also one of the illustrators of erotic fairy tale comics for BD Fly. These included Bruno Di Sano's 'Sortilège' (BD Fly, 2011), two collections starring an erotic rendition of Little Red Riding Hood, and 'Alianah' (2015), an original tale about witches by Guy D'Artet. GPRod even launched an imprint called BarDaf, named after Natacha's airline company, which consists of books with sexy ladies in the Walthéry tradition, such as 'Sexyscope' (2016). Besides work by Walthéry himself, the books also contain work by Bruno Di Sano, Bruno Gilson, Jean-Marc Stalner and Péral.
Since the 1990s, Walthéry has cooperated on books, both collective and solo, aimed at a Walloon audience. He for instance illustrated a comics album about 'Tchantchès' (Khani Éditions, 1988), a folkloric character from the Liège region. Contributing scriptwriters were Jean Jour and Michel Dusart, while Francis and Laudec provided background art. A second album with storyboards by Walthéry, a script by Dusart and artwork by Didier Casten, followed at Noir Dessin in 1995. Also for Noir Dessin, he has made original illustrations for a great many books with fairy tales, local legends, folk tales and fables, and also ones about local cuisine, which appeared in the Walloon language. With Jean-François De Marchin, Walthéry made a comics adaption of the book 'Les Ceux de Chez Nous', which contain the childhood memories of Marcel Remy (1865-1906), a music critic of Liège origin. Two books were published by Noir Dessin in 2002 and 2005. For Editions Dricot he was one of the artists of a book with comics based on Wallloon folklore ('Folklore Wallon en Bulles', 2010). Walthéry also illustrated Lambert Houben's 'Chante Pour Vous. Tchantchès Titine' (1989) musical record.
Graphic contributions
Walthéry was one of the contributing artists to the book 'Il Était Une Fois... Les Belges'/ 'Er Waren Eens... Belgen' (1980), a collection of columns and comic pages published at the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Belgium. He was one of several artists to make a graphic contribution to ‘Pepperland’ (1980), a collective comic book tribute to the store Pepperland, to celebrate its 10th anniversary at the time. He was one of several artists to make a graphic contribution to 'Baston Labaffe no. 5: La Ballade des Baffes’ (Goupil, 1983), an official collective parody comic of André Franquin’s 'Gaston Lagaffe’. He paid tribute to Nikita Mandryka in the collective comic book 'Tronches de Concombre' (Dupuis, 1995). Walthéry also contributed to tribute albums to Derib's 'Buddy Longway' (1983), Albert Uderzo's 'Astérix' (2007) and Will ('L'Arbre des deux printemps', 2000).In 2005 he was one of several Belgian en Dutch comic artists to make a graphic contribution to the crossover comic book 'Bij Fanny op Schoot' (2005), in which Fanny Kiekeboe from Merho's 'De Kiekeboes' interviews various characters from other comic series, drawn by the original artists. Walthéry was the only Walloon who participated. In the book Natacha is interviewed by Fanny, but they run into subtitling troubles. In 2005 Walthéry made a graphic contribution to 'Suske en Wiske 60 Jaar!' (2005), which paid homage to Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske'. In 2012 he was one of many celebrities and artists to make a graphic contribution to 'Marc Sleen 90. Liber Amicorum' (2012), a book which celebrated comics legend Marc Sleen's 90th birthday.
Recognition
On 22 September 2013 Walthéry was honoured with the title Officier du Mérite Wallon. He won the Grand Prix Saint-Michel (2015) and Grand Prix Diagonale du Jury (2016), each for his entire oeuvre.
Legacy and influence
In 1985, Walthéry's 'Natacha' was the subject of a naughty parody. 'Nathalie la petite Hôtesse' (Dessis, 1985) by Jaap De Boer (Bruno Bouteville) and Joop Van Linden (Jean Léturgie) presented the heroic stewardess in ways the regular series never did. Walthéry however didn't shy away from portraying his own character in more compromising positions as well, judging by his contribution to both the interior and cover of the collective erotic parody 'Parodies' (MC Productions, 1987). In 1990, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his comic series 'Natacha', the collective homage book 'Natacha. Special 20 Ans' (Marsu Productions, 1990), was published. It featured contributions by Belgian and French comic artists, but also tributes by U.S. cartoonists like Sergio Aragonés, Román Arámbula, Jim Davis, Mark Evanier, Brad W. Foster, Tim Gula, Todd Kurosawa, Floyd Norman, Bill Riling, William Rostler, Stan Sakai, R.C. Williams and Phil Yeh.
In 1999 both P’tit bout d’Chique and Natacha received a mural painting in the Rue de l’Arsenal as part of the Comic Book Route in Angoulême, France. On 29 May 2003 a monument was erected in Walthéry's birth town Cheratte, depicting statues of 'Le Vieux Bleu' and 'Le P'tit Bout d'Chique'. In October 2009 ‘Natacha’ received her own comic book wall in the Rue Jan Bollen/Jan Bollenstraat 23, as part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route. Since 2012 Natacha also has a statue, sculpted by Monique Mol, erected at the Comics Route in Middelkerke. François Walthéry has been an influence on Robert van der Kroft, Thierry Capezzone, Bruno Di Sano, Bruno Gazzotti, Hanco Kolk, Jimmy Hostens, Stephane Ficher and Dragan de Lazare.
Books about Walthéry
Throughout the years, several books with pin-ups, illustrations, previously unreleased material and original artwork have been released in low print-runs by labels like Noir Dessin, La Vache qui Médite and Khani Éditions. A monography about the artist was written by Jean Jour and published by Libro Sciences in 1981. Dupuis also released a book about Walthéry by Jean-Paul Tibéri, called 'Walthéry, Natacha & Co' (1987). An art book was released by Horizon BD on the occasion of the artist's 60th birthday in 2005. It was followed in 2012 by a limited edition book for the 50th anniversary of Walthéry's career as a comic artist, called 'Walthéries' (GPROD). In 2019 Champaka/Dupuis published a book providing an overview of his best and personal favorite artwork, titled 'Une Vie des Dessins'.
'Une Femme dans la Peau'.