Graton brought racing cars to life on paper

The French cartoonist and the American star actor met on the track in 1970, in the biotope of their shared passion. Steve McQueen had just finished runner up in the Sebring 12 Hours, Jean Graton was at the Florida auto race to find inspiration for a new Michel Vaillant adventure, Massacre for a Motor. In a photo of their meeting, Graton is standing with his arms folded, the actor looks into the camera with a smile, holding an open comic book by Michel Vaillant; The Phantom of the 24 Hours. They also sat opposite each other at a dinner and talked about their love for ‘Le Mans’, the famous endurance race held near the French city every year and also the name of the legendary film that McQueen would make there.

Jean Graton was born in Nantes in 1923, more than two months after the first 24 Hours of Le Mans. In many of his seventy comic albums the race, which he saw up close with his father at the age of fourteen, played a role. In 1997, Graton witnessed at Le Mans that a car that came to life from his comic book creation lasted a full 24 hours there. At the pit box he waited for the blue car with the Vaillante logo. Number 13, a nod to Graton’s album Number 13 at the start. An important difference with the comic: Michel Vaillant won Le Mans four times, the real Vaillante came fourth. “It’s amazing”, Michel Vaillant’s ‘father’ exulted – hands deep in his trouser pockets and his big belly straight out.

Graton died on Thursday, aged 97, at home in Brussels. In the presence of, among others, son Philippe, who has run the family business Graton éditeur since Jean retired (as a draftsman) at the age of 80. In 1947 Graton had moved from Brittany to ‘the capital of the comic strip’, where he moved in with an aunt. He was initially an advertising artist, got a job at the comic magazine Robbedoes, switched to the competing comic weekly Tintin and created Michel Vaillant there in 1957.

The Grand Challenge (The Big Match), the debut was called, with Michel Vaillant on the cover and a fellow driver running to their cars at the start at Le Mans. Many of his young readers would later become racing drivers or sports journalists themselves.

Graton’s racing albums were full of onomatopoeias – onomatopoeia like “ROOAR” or “VROOMM”. With this he brought his cars to life on paper. He gave his extremely detailed drawn cars and motorcycles (such as in the series of albums about Julie Wood) by drawing long lines behind and next to them. His knowledge was the result of many working visits to circuits around the world, as well as conversations with drivers. Jacky Ickx, for example, regularly featured in the adventures of Vaillant. The Belgian also received his own Vaillant file, theme issues with ’50 percent journalism and 50 percent comic ‘as they were made in the 1990s by greats such as Enzo Ferrari, James Dean, Ayrton Senna, Soichiro Honda and Steve McQueen.

In 1967 Vaillant had his own series on French TV, with actors and real cars, and in 2003 a film, written and produced by Luc Besson, known for the action comedy Taxi. Ultimately, more than 20 million copies of Michel Vaillant were sold, and thanks to (screenwriter) Philippe Graton and his team of illustrators, the finish for the comic book hero is nowhere near.

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