Mitacq
Encyclopedia
Michel Tacq, or Mitacq, (10 June 1927 – 22 May 1994) is an author of Belgian comics
. He was involved in Scouting
for most of his life.
, Michel Tacq spent his childhood in Farciennes
and Brussels
. He went to study at the Saint-Marie Institute in Schaerbeek and stayed in France for the first years of World War II
. He then returned to Belgium to continue his art studies in Charleroi
. Ever since his early childhood, Tacq was involved in Scouting
, a movement that has been of influence his entire career. At 17, he took on the pseudonym Mitak and developed the comic strip Tam Tam, which appeared in magazines related with Scouting in 1944 and 1945. Tam Tam also appeared in book collections, published by José Henin and De Beiaard. He illustrated for Plein Jeu, Carrefour and L'Hebdomadaire des grands recits.
In 1951, Michel Tacq hired by the World Press agency, a company which provided the Spirou magazine with comics strips. There, he trained and drew under the name Balou some 20 strips for the Oncle Paul
series on the scenarios of Gustave Joly. He also illustrated "Seul maitre à bord", the 3rd novel of the collection "Marabout-Junior", written by Jean-Jacques Schellens, a friend Scout. However, MiTacq hoped for being able to draw a series dedicated to Boy Scout
s. Jean Jacques Schellens wrote a scenario whose characters are Sanglier, Marabout, Gustave and Chat. Georges Troisfontaines
, founder of the World Press, accepted to publish the project, at a time when the Signe de Piste collection was very popular, but he preferred to trust the scenario to Jean-Michel Charlier
and demanded the characters to be reshaped. The first album of La Patrouille des Castors
(The Beaver Patrol), Le mystere de Grosbois, was published in 1954 in the Spirou magazine. In the face of the immediate success of the series, Dupuis
decided to publish albums from 1955. With this series, his career really took off.
A second album was published, Les disparus de Ker Aven. Scout leader at Saint Alène, Mitacq decided after the third album to be more committed in the scenario of the series, to insist on the Scouting themes. In 1956 is published Sur la piste de Mowgli, strongly influenced by Kipling
's novels. In 1957, he made a report for the Spirou magazine at the 9th World Scout Jamboree
at Sutton-Coldfield in England
with Yvan Delporte
. For the creation of Pilote
in 1959, Charlier proposed to Mitacq to illustrate the adventures of Jacques Legall. En 1965, with the separation in France of the Scouts into two branches, Rangers and Pionniers
, MiTacq and Charlier decided to turn the Castors into Pionniers to develop more opportunities of adventures. L'autobus hanté, the first adventures of the patrol with their new uniform, relating the crossing of Europe in an autobus, was very successful and imitated by several Scouts at that time. In the 1960s, Charlier was so busy that Mitacq created the adventures of Stany Derval. In 1979, Charlier et MiTacq decided amically to stop their longtime collaboration in the course of the making of the album Prisonniers du large. Between 1954 and 1980 22 albums were made by Mitacq and Charlier.
This separation did not prevent MiTacq from going on alone or in collaboration with Marc Wasterlain or Jacques Stoquart. On the contrary, this new situation provided him with more autonomy and allowed him to deal with other matters he insisted on. He died on 22 May 1994, leaving unfinished the 31st tome of the Castors series. The integrale of Mitacq's works were published by Dupuis after his death.
He provided for a long time illustrations to the Scouting magazine Plein Jeu from 1950 and for Piste a magazine consisting of 300 pages of «first and second class badges» for the Belgian Catholic Scout Federation. He has also drawn illustrations in the magazines Carnet du Louveteau, En route ! and Carrefour, and at the end of his career in Trefle d'Aventure, the magazine of the Belgian catholic guides.
He was highly influenced and fascinated by Pierre Joubert
and Jijé
, notably by the comics album of Jijé dedicated to Baden-Powell's life, which incited him to create a series relating the adventures of a Scout patrol. The graphic style is highly influenced by that of Pierre Joubert. In 1950, he was advised to meet him to improve his style and lived with him for three months. The youngest Beaver Scout, Mouche, was modelled on Pierre Joubert's son.
Fan of the collection Signe de Piste, MiTacq insisted to illustrate one of the novels of the series. In the course of 1975, he devoted two months to draw the cover and ten illustrations for Jean Destieu's Les Emeraudes de Colombie.
MiTacq also paid tribute to Serge Dalens, the author of the Prince Eric series, by an illustration in 1987, the year when the 50th anniversary of the collection Signe de Piste was celebrated. It is also said that the scenario of the album La couronne cachée (1965), the 13th album of the Beaver Patrol series, was partly inspired by Serge Dalens' Le prince Éric.
Belgian comics
Belgian comics are a distinct subgroup in the comics history, and played a major role in the development of European comics, alongside France with whom they share a long common history...
. He was involved in Scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
for most of his life.
Biography
Born in UccleUccle
Uccle or Ukkel is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.Uccle is known for its well-to-do areas, its green spots and its high rental rates.-History:...
, Michel Tacq spent his childhood in Farciennes
Farciennes
Farciennes is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Farciennes had a total population of 11,099. The total area is 10.39 km² which gives a population density of 1,069 inhabitants per km². It is located on the entre-Sambre-et-Meuse in the periphery of...
and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. He went to study at the Saint-Marie Institute in Schaerbeek and stayed in France for the first years of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He then returned to Belgium to continue his art studies in Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
. Ever since his early childhood, Tacq was involved in Scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
, a movement that has been of influence his entire career. At 17, he took on the pseudonym Mitak and developed the comic strip Tam Tam, which appeared in magazines related with Scouting in 1944 and 1945. Tam Tam also appeared in book collections, published by José Henin and De Beiaard. He illustrated for Plein Jeu, Carrefour and L'Hebdomadaire des grands recits.
In 1951, Michel Tacq hired by the World Press agency, a company which provided the Spirou magazine with comics strips. There, he trained and drew under the name Balou some 20 strips for the Oncle Paul
L'oncle Paul
Les Belles Histoires de l'oncle Paul, and later Les Plus Belles Histoires de l'oncle Paul, is a Belgian comics series of historical stories created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Eddy Paape and published in the comics magazine Le Journal de Spirou from 1951 to 1982.-Theme:The series consists of...
series on the scenarios of Gustave Joly. He also illustrated "Seul maitre à bord", the 3rd novel of the collection "Marabout-Junior", written by Jean-Jacques Schellens, a friend Scout. However, MiTacq hoped for being able to draw a series dedicated to Boy Scout
Boy Scout
A Scout is a boy or a girl, usually 11 to 18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split this age group into a junior and a senior section...
s. Jean Jacques Schellens wrote a scenario whose characters are Sanglier, Marabout, Gustave and Chat. Georges Troisfontaines
Georges Troisfontaines
Georges Troisfontaines was the founder of the World Press agency, and one of the co-authors of the series Buck Danny.After his first work for the comics magazine Spirou before WWII, in which he published strips in relation to aviation, he created in the 1940s the World Press agency...
, founder of the World Press, accepted to publish the project, at a time when the Signe de Piste collection was very popular, but he preferred to trust the scenario to Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier was a Belgian script writer best known as a writer of realistic European comics. He was a co-founder of the famed European comics magazine Pilote.-Biography:...
and demanded the characters to be reshaped. The first album of La Patrouille des Castors
La Patrouille des Castors
La Patrouille des Castors is a Belgian comics series drawn by Mitacq and written by Jean-Michel Charlier. 30 albums were published by Dupuis, all relating the adventures of a Scout patrol.-History:...
(The Beaver Patrol), Le mystere de Grosbois, was published in 1954 in the Spirou magazine. In the face of the immediate success of the series, Dupuis
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...
decided to publish albums from 1955. With this series, his career really took off.
A second album was published, Les disparus de Ker Aven. Scout leader at Saint Alène, Mitacq decided after the third album to be more committed in the scenario of the series, to insist on the Scouting themes. In 1956 is published Sur la piste de Mowgli, strongly influenced by Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's novels. In 1957, he made a report for the Spirou magazine at the 9th World Scout Jamboree
9th World Scout Jamboree
The 9th World Scout Jamboree, also known as the Jubilee Jamboree, was held at Sutton Park, Birmingham, England, for twelve days during August, 1957. The Jamboree marked dual milestones as it was both the 50th anniversary of the Scouting movement since its inception at Brownsea Island and the 100th...
at Sutton-Coldfield in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with Yvan Delporte
Yvan Delporte
Yvan Delporte was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics...
. For the creation of Pilote
Pilote
thumb|Cover of the first Pilote teaser issue, #0.Pilote was a French comics periodical published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as Astérix le Gaulois, Blueberry, Achille Talon, and Valérian et...
in 1959, Charlier proposed to Mitacq to illustrate the adventures of Jacques Legall. En 1965, with the separation in France of the Scouts into two branches, Rangers and Pionniers
Scouting in France
The Scout movement in France consists of about 80 different associations and federations with about 180,000 Scouts and Girl Guides. Next to Germany, France is the country with the most fragmented Scout movement....
, MiTacq and Charlier decided to turn the Castors into Pionniers to develop more opportunities of adventures. L'autobus hanté, the first adventures of the patrol with their new uniform, relating the crossing of Europe in an autobus, was very successful and imitated by several Scouts at that time. In the 1960s, Charlier was so busy that Mitacq created the adventures of Stany Derval. In 1979, Charlier et MiTacq decided amically to stop their longtime collaboration in the course of the making of the album Prisonniers du large. Between 1954 and 1980 22 albums were made by Mitacq and Charlier.
This separation did not prevent MiTacq from going on alone or in collaboration with Marc Wasterlain or Jacques Stoquart. On the contrary, this new situation provided him with more autonomy and allowed him to deal with other matters he insisted on. He died on 22 May 1994, leaving unfinished the 31st tome of the Castors series. The integrale of Mitacq's works were published by Dupuis after his death.
Influences and style
Michel Tacq, as an active Scout, was very influenced by the movement's culture. Toucan Bénévole was his totem as Scout in the Troop Saint Aléne at Saint Gilles Bruxelles, then he became Assistant Cub Scout Master from 1951 till 1954, then Pionnier for 5 years. He visited the 1957 World Jamboree. In the first albums of the Beaver Patrol series, the protagonists wear the same yellow and bleu scarf as the Saint Alène troop.He provided for a long time illustrations to the Scouting magazine Plein Jeu from 1950 and for Piste a magazine consisting of 300 pages of «first and second class badges» for the Belgian Catholic Scout Federation. He has also drawn illustrations in the magazines Carnet du Louveteau, En route ! and Carrefour, and at the end of his career in Trefle d'Aventure, the magazine of the Belgian catholic guides.
He was highly influenced and fascinated by Pierre Joubert
Pierre Joubert (illustrator)
Pierre Joubert was a French illustrator. He was closely associated with the creation of Scouting and the popular look of Boy Scouts in France and Belgium, comparable to the American artist Norman Rockwell.-Biography:...
and Jijé
Jijé
Jijé was a Belgian comics artist, best known for being a seminal artist on the Spirou et Fantasio strip and the creator of one of the first major European western strips, Jerry Spring.-Biography:Born Joseph Gillain in Gedinne, Namur, he completed various art studies Jijé (13 January 1914 – 20...
, notably by the comics album of Jijé dedicated to Baden-Powell's life, which incited him to create a series relating the adventures of a Scout patrol. The graphic style is highly influenced by that of Pierre Joubert. In 1950, he was advised to meet him to improve his style and lived with him for three months. The youngest Beaver Scout, Mouche, was modelled on Pierre Joubert's son.
Fan of the collection Signe de Piste, MiTacq insisted to illustrate one of the novels of the series. In the course of 1975, he devoted two months to draw the cover and ten illustrations for Jean Destieu's Les Emeraudes de Colombie.
MiTacq also paid tribute to Serge Dalens, the author of the Prince Eric series, by an illustration in 1987, the year when the 50th anniversary of the collection Signe de Piste was celebrated. It is also said that the scenario of the album La couronne cachée (1965), the 13th album of the Beaver Patrol series, was partly inspired by Serge Dalens' Le prince Éric.
Publications
- La Patrouille des CastorsLa Patrouille des CastorsLa Patrouille des Castors is a Belgian comics series drawn by Mitacq and written by Jean-Michel Charlier. 30 albums were published by Dupuis, all relating the adventures of a Scout patrol.-History:...
(30 issues published between 1957 and 1993 by Dupuis): the Beaver Patrol was formed of five Boy Scouts with guest members. The comic strip was published in the magazine Spirou. The long collaboration with Jean-Michel Charlier took off in 1954. Mitacq died in 1994 and the Beaver Patrol cartoon series ended. A few months after his death, Spirou magazine justly honoured one of its greatest contributors by giving him a grand homage. The Belgian Scouts also published his illustrations on their 1995 calendar. His books remain popular today among fans and are translated into several languages. With the publication of the first episode of 'La Patrouille des Castors', in the magazine Spirou. 'La Patrouille des Castors', an adventure series about a group of scouts, became Tacq's trademark series. Starting in 1960, MiTacq sporadically illustrated 'La Patrouille des Zoms', a parody on the Castors, written by Yvan Delporte.
- Jacques Le Gall (4 issues published in albums between 1980 and 1985 by Dupuis) was illustrated by MiTacq and Follet. In 1959, at the creation of the magazine Pilote, Charlier proposed him to illustrate this new series. The series only ran for six long episodes, and was cancelled due to editorial reasons.Jacques Le Gall faced several contemporary enigmas, including the Templiers' and nazis'tresory and Mediterranean smuggling. The series was latter published in Spirou and in albums by Dupuis.
- Stany Derval (3 issues published in albums between 1981 and 1987 by Dupuis) was drawn and written by MiTacq alone. When Charlier got too involved with his other comics, MiTacq launched a series of his own to overlap the interludes between Castor stories. From 1968 until 1979, he drew the adventures of Stany Derval, an adventurous motorcyclist, cooperating with several writers, such as André-Paul Duchateau, Maurice Tillieux, Jacques Stoquart, or André Beckers. He was sometimes assisted on the artwork by René Follet. After his separation with Chariler, he gave up the series but make Stany Derval appear in some Castors albums.
- Tout Mitacq: the integrale collection Tout MiTacq, published between 1989 and 1997 by Dupuis, consists of 14 volumes grouping La patrouille des Castors, Jacques Le Gall, Stany Derval, plus relevant commentaries about each albums and many illustrations for magazines. Each volume groups 3 or 4 full original albums and consists of 164 pages around.
- Les castors face aux ombres mystérieuses
- Les castors sur des pistes incertaines
- Les castors par monts et par vaux
- Les castors du mas au palais
- Les castors et les signaux invisibles
- Les castors dans la gueule du loup
- Les castors explorateurs des ténèbres
- Les castors sauvés des eaux
- Les castors explorateurs des ténèbres
- Les castors sauvés des eaux
- Stany Derval à la recherche de l'insolite
- Les castors et les pierres qui racontent
- Stany Derval à l'aventure autour du monde
- Les castors sur l'île du crabe
- Jacques Le Gall, le randonneur de l'aventure
- Jacques Le Gall et les trésors cachés