Claude Auclair
- ️Thu Jan 01 1970
'Beltaine'.
Claude Auclair was one of the most notable realistic French comic authors from the 1960s and 1970s, best known for his comics with sciencefiction and post-apocalyptic themes. He was born in La Barre-de-Monts in the Vendée, a province south of Brittany (Bretagne). He settled in Nantes in 1953, where he studied Fine Arts. He worked as a theater decorator until 1967, and then traveled around the Méditerranée. Auclair started out as an illustrator for sciencefiction publications by Éditions OPTA, such as Galaxie-Bis and Fiction. He published his first comic story in Phénix in 1968.
'Esclaves'.
Auclair was pushed by fellow artists Moebius and Philippe Druillet to begin an association with Pilote magazine in 1970. He initially drew several short stories, and eventually started the post-apocalyptic 'Jason Muller' series. When editor-in-chief René Goscinny canceled this series, Auclair moved over to Record, where he created 'Catriona McKilligan', an historical series about the Scottish revolt, with textwriter Jacques Acar.
Simon du Fleuve - 'Maïlis'.
While still working for Pilote, Auclair had his first publications in Tintin, such as the western 'La Saga du Grizzly' and 'Les Naufragés d'Arroyoka' with Greg. For Tintin, he also made his most famous series, 'Simon du Fleuve', in 1973, for which he did both text and artwork. This post-apocalyptic saga ran until 1978 and had a brief reappearance in 1988 and 1989, when Auclair started a second cycle with writer Alain Riondet.
'Bran Ruz'.
Claude Auclair joined the team of (À Suivre) in 1978. For this magazine, he made humanistic stories about Breton history ('Bran Ruz' and 'Tuan Mac Cairill', with Alain Deschamps, 1978-82) and black slavery ('Le Sang Flamboyant', with François Migeat, 1984). While working on the final part of his 'Celui-là' trilogy, Auclair prematurely passed away in 1990, leaving the book to be finished by his friends Jean-Claude Mézières and Jacques Tardi.
Claude Auclair was one of the artists making a graphic contribution for 'Pepperland' (1980), a collective comic book celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Pepperland comic book store.
Claude Auclair.