Jean Roba

At the age of ten, Jean Roba began attending evening classes at the School of Decorative Arts in Molenbeek before turning his attention to engraving, printing, and photo retouching. He eventually shifted his focus to advertising illustration and quickly became a studio head. During an evening out with Peyo, he met André Franquin. The relationship between the two men would prove enduring and definitively marked Roba’s entry into the world of comic art: Franquin introduced him to Éditions Dupuis in 1957, where he collaborated on Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul (The Beautiful Stories of Uncle Paul). Immediately appreciating his artistic style, Franquin taught him the ropes of the trade and called upon his talent as early as 1958 to handle the backgrounds for three episodes of Spirou and Fantasio: Les Hommes-bulles (The Bubble Men),Tembo Tabou, Les Petits Formats (The Miniature Editions). On December 24, 1959, with the help of Maurice Rosy, he created his flagship series, Boule et Bill, in the pages of Spirou magazine: a boy in blue overalls and his mischievous cocker spaniel, inspired by his own son and dog. The series, conceived as a European Peanuts, quickly became a staple on the cover of Spirou for more than twenty-five years. At the same time, he launched La Ribambelle (The Ragamuffins) as a series of long-form stories (based on scripts by Vicq and later by Maurice Tillieux) and created the little girl “Pomme” for the monthly magazine Record in 1962. Winner of the Saint-Michel Prize for Best Humorous Illustration in 1971 and the Prize for Best Foreign Comic Book at Angoulême in 1978 for Ras le Bill! (Sick of Bill!), he produced 28 albums before passing the torch in 2003 to his assistant, Laurent Verron. The series has now sold over twenty-five million copies in France and Belgium.