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Comics series about a French racing car driver
the comics series

Michel Vaillant is a French car racing comics series created in 1957 by French cartoonist Jean Graton and published originally by Le Lombard. Later, Graton published the albums by himself when he founded Graton éditeur in 1982. Michel Vaillant is the main character of the eponymous series, a French racing car driver who competes mainly in Formula One. The feature first appeared in Tintin magazine, where Jean Graton had already published a number of short stories about real life sporting heroes. The series appeared in Tintin between 1957 and 1976, in France as well as in Belgium. An estimated 17 million copies of the series' albums have been sold worldwide.

On February 7, 1957, Jean Graton created the character Michel Vaillant, with five short stories published in the Franco Belgian comics magazine Tintin, with publication beginning June 12, 1957. With their positive reception, a full length adventure was written and drawn by Graton, published in Tintin in 1959. The titles were first published in album format by Le Lombard until 1976, then by Dargaud until 1979, by Fleurus in 1979 and 1980, by Novedi in 1981 and 1982, and finally by Graton editeur, created and owned by Philippe and Jean Graton from 1983 on. In 1995, a new series was launched, the Dossiers Michel Vaillant series, with stories and information on important figures in motorsports and the automobile industry. In 2000, the Palmarès Inedit series was created, with early works and stories previously unpublished in books. In 2007, Studio Graton translated three titles into English: "The Great Challenge" (Tome 1), "China Moon" (Tome 68), "24 Hours Under the Influence" (Tome 70). In 2008, a new collection was launched by Le Lombard, named Integrale Michel Vaillant. This series plans to reprint all past adventures in 20 volumes of 200 pages, each volume grouping several stories. All the titles of the original series are to be reprinted, and many comments, dossiers and unpublished strips added. Jean Graton later left the writing to his son Philippe, gradually leaving the artwork to the Studio Graton, which he established. Since Graton stopped drawing the series himself, the graphic style has evolved, with Philippe Graton continuing with the writing and three artists providing the artwork. Philippe Graton admitted that the draftsmanship isn't as rigorous as it once was.

Vaillante is a family run French business which, in the beginning, was a transporting company. They also create their own trucks and cars and so decide to enter Formula One racing competition. In 1939, Henri Vaillant, a young driver, creates this new team. In the next seventy plus adventures, Michel Vaillant and the Vaillante race team compete in numerous races in Formula One and other driving competitions such as IndyCar, rallying or enduro challenges. Michel, Henri's son, is the main driver, his usual team mate being the American, Steve Warson. The team is first managed by Henri Vaillant, then by Michel's older brother Jean Pierre. Henri has remained the chairman of the Vaillante firm, but was replaced by Jean Pierre when he retired. As the Vaillante firm grows, Vaillante's drivers, among them Michel, accumulate victories, but their success is either disrupted by rivals, by internal problems in the Vaillante team or by the "Leader", the greatest of Vaillante's enemies. Most of the adventures deal with motor racing life, but they also deal with the Vaillante team drivers' private lives, with concerns in the Vaillante firm and with various outside problems.

The comic is notable for depicting real life motor racing background, featuring many real life drivers, teams and personalities. Michel Vaillant competes in existing motor races and Grand Prix on real life circuits. In the course of the series, the background in which the characters are featured evolves: the series' environment has always been updated, so that cars, teams and personalities have constantly changed. Graton's graphic style also aims at being realistic, as the illustrations are very technically accurate. Notably, Graton is recognized for the meticulous details he provides on cars illustrations. The numerous depictions of cars and circuits featured in the series are very specific and detailed; Graton used to personally attend races and circuits to take notes. Philippe Graton later continued this practice. Michel Vaillant's name is very similar to that of the birth name of automotive pioneer Karl Benz, which was Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant. Realism is also expressed in the fictional background. Vaillant's factories and property are prominently featured in the series. The Vaillante firm is run as a real company, it has financial problems, must launch advertising campaigns and search for sponsors. It owns factories, which employs several engineers and mechanics that are realistically described and is shown employing several real life drivers. The Vaillants own the familial domain "La Jonquière", located a short drive / cycle ride from the factory, and is home throughout the series to Henri and Elisabeth Vaillant. Michel and Jean Pierre lived there in the early books, before striking out on their own. As the context in which the characters evolved, Michel also is shown getting older. While he looked like a young man of about twenty years at the beginning of his adventures, he is seen progressively reaching middle age. Recently his appearance is younger than previously. Other fictional characters are also shown getting older. In recent years, their general appearance has become steady. In spite of this he is still depicted as quite young for a man who has competed against drivers of multiple generations, including Juan Manuel Fangio, Graham Hill and Ayrton Senna.

In 1967, French TV broadcast a live action adaptation of the series, Les Aventures de Michel Vaillant. It ran for 13 episodes and featured stories written and filmed around a real life world sportscar championship, documenting Henri Grandsire driving an Alpine A110, interspersed with dramatic interludes acted by Grandsire himself. Episodes offer rare close up contemporary footage of races and cars that year at the Rallye Du Nord, Magny Cours, Nürburgring, Monza, Targa Florio, Le Mans, Monaco, Rouen Les Essarts, Sebring and Reims. The series was also adapted into a Michel Vaillant animated series. 65 episodes of 26 minutes were produced in 1990 in France by la Cinq. It was released in the U. S. in 1991 1992 as Heroes on Hot Wheels, produced by Jetlag Productions and the former Family Channel, sponsored by Mattel's Hot Wheels franchise (hence the title) and distributed by France 3 Video and Pacific Media Ventures. Michel's name was anglicized to "Michael Valiant". It was broadcast again in France in 1993 and 1998 by France 2, and sold in more than 30 countries. A Michel Vaillant film was made in 2003, and the soundtrack to the movie composed by the band Archive was released at the same time.

The series has been influential in the world of auto racing. Some famous Formula One drivers have admitted that their passion for automobile racing originated from reading the Michel Vaillant comics series, among them four time Formula One champion Alain Prost. In 1969, Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari personally wished Michel Vaillant a happy 20th birthday. The circuit Zolder, in Belgium, in which several well known motorsport races take place, have paid tribute to the series, naming the biggest building of the circuit "Michel Vaillant club". Many real cars were adapted from automobile designs from the series. Cars bearing the logo Vaillante ran in Le Mans in 1997 and 2003: A Courage in 1997, while in 2003, Vaillante cars have been designed to be used in the Luc Besson's movie. Some fans have built a real Vaillante Grand Defi, a model which appeared several times in the comics series. The car has participated in real races, under the brand Vaillante. A model was marketed in Belgium, the Honda Civic Vaillante, of which 50 models have been produced. Automobile designer Luc Donckerwolke (current designer of Lamborghini, previously of SEAT) has drawn his inspiration from cars drawn by Jean Graton to design some real car models. He also designed the SEAT Ibiza Vaillante, exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show in 2006. It was also Luc Donckerwolke who transformed a Lola B98/10–Judd into a Vaillante and a Panoz LMP 1 Roadster S into a Leader car in 2003 for the Besson movie. Donckerwolke also collaborated with Studio Graton on the latest titles of the series, drawing some cars featured in the albums. Many commercial products have been derived from the series, among them figurines, collected by automobile fans as well as comics fans. There's also a video game featuring Michel Vaillant which has ranked first in the auto racing video games in Benelux, and has been the top download on commercial websites. In June 2012, Swiss racing driver Alain Menu competed in the World Touring Car Championship Race of Portugal with a Vaillante themed livery. Menu won the second feature race of the event (round 14) under the name M. Vaillant, even dying his hair and shaving his beard to resemble the look of the character. In 2017 Rebellion Racing entered the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans as "Vaillant Rebellion" using Vaillant colours on cars #13 and #31.

The series is very popular among fans of automobiles, because it features real life cars, including renowned and prestigious models. The series have fans throughout several countries, though it has not translated into other languages except for English, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian (with Michel Vaillant renamed Mark Breton in the two latter), Portuguese, Serbian, Croatian, Finnish and Italian. It has above all fans in France and Belgium, including Dutch speaking Belgium, given that Michel Vaillant albums have been translated into Dutch. The series has received various tributes as a masterpiece of the bande dessinée genre. A stamp representing Michel Vaillant was published in Belgium, a rare privilege granted only to the greatest comics series'. It was made available from January 1, 2007 with a face value of 0.50 euros, in all Belgian post offices. Celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the series took place in 2007, among them Strip Turnhout, at the bi annual official Flanders comics festival, organizing a retrospective exhibition. The series also ranks high on the collector's market, with original editions ranking among the most valuable. Graton's original art pages have fetched high prices at auctions. In January 2006, a page from "Le 13 est au départ" was sold for 4,800 euros at an auction in Paris. In April 2006, in Paris again, an original page from "L'Honneur du Samourai" was auctioned for 12,384 euros (whereas its original value was 3,500 euros), breaking the record of the time. In 2008, an original page from "De l'huile sur la piste" was sold for 11,520 euros at auction in 2008 at Brussels among other works previously published by Tintin magazine, establishing the record sale of that day.