Ив Шалан: Французский художник комиксов и стиль "Атомик"

French cartoonist

Yves Chaland (iv ʃalɑ̃; 3 April 1957 – 18 July 1990) was a French cartoonist. During the 1980s, together with Luc Cornillon, Serge Clerc and Floc'h, he launched the Atomic style, a stylish remake of the Marcinelle School in Franco Belgian comics.

Yves Chaland was born in Lyon on 3 April 1957 to Jean Marie Chaland and Marie Thérèse Chapolard. Chaland published his first strips in the fanzine Biblipop when he was 17. During his studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Saint Etienne, he created his own fanzine, L'Unité de Valeur, in 1976, with Luc Cornillon. In 1978, they met writer/editor Jean Pierre Dionnet who hired them for his comics magazines Métal Hurlant and Ah Nana. These pastiches of 50s comics have been collected in the album Captivant. In September 1979 he married designer Isabelle Beaumenay Joannet. He then created the characters of Bob Fish, Adolphus Claar, Freddy Lombard, and Le Jeune Albert, a scamp character living in the Marolles, a working class area of Brussels. Yves Chaland, was approached to draw an adventure of Spirou et Fantasio, appearinging in half page installments of the weekly Spirou magazine. Done in a retro 50s style similar to his influences Jijé and André Franquin, both former artists on the Spirou feature. The unfinished story has been collected in the album Spirou et Fantasio – Hors Série, No. 4 (Dupuis, 2003). He also did many advertising illustration commissions in his crisp, clean, "retro modern" cartoon style. Chaland died on 18 July 1990, following a car wreck, at the age of 33.

As with many Franco Belgian comics, Chaland's works have had limited publication in English. The complete Freddy Lombard series was released in the two volume Chaland Anthology. These were the only two released in English (in both paper and hardback, in 2003), while 4 volumes were released in French, containing his complete comic strip works for Métal Hurlant. (Chaland – L'Intégrale). A Magazine contribute to the knowledge of Chaland's artwork, The Journal of Freddy's friends is also available in English. Le Journal des Amis de Freddy #1, editing by Club des Amis de Freddy in 2008, #2 in 2010, #3 in 2012.