Berck (Berckmans, Arthur) - 1 Original page - Lombok - 1990'

About the illustrator;
Berck's drawing style was influenced by Raymond Macherot (Chlorophyl) and André Franquin (Guust), “the best comic artist in the world,” according to Berck. Berck drew for a young audience with a touch of attention for adults. He believed that the drawing itself should be able to tell the story, while the accompanying text provides the refinement that fits the work. He educated himself by watching old films and consulting books. As a child, Berck already loved drawing. He studied at the Sint-Lucas Institute in Brussels and studied anatomical drawing in Leuven. When he turned 18, he got a job with the Jesuits in Leuven, where he did part-time administrative work and supplied part-time illustrations for the religious magazine Pro Apostolis. He mainly adapted biographies of saints into comic stories. Eight years later he began working for the comic publisher Le Lombard, where he supplied illustrations for the magazine Chez Nous. He also designed advertising drawings for the ad agency Publiart. In 1958 he published the strip “Pechvogel” (French: Strapontin) in the weekly Kuifje, with René Goscinny writing the storylines. This strip series revolved around a Paris taxi driver. In 1965, when Goscinny was too busy with the successful series Asterix, Pechvogel got another writer, Acar. With him Berck continued the series for two more years. Berck’s humor is often a bit biting, especially in the stories he himself created. Afterward he created the James Bond pastiche “Ken Krom,” but had to drop the series after protests from his publisher. With Yves Duval as writer, he drew the comic series Hansje, about a young drummer during Napoleon’s time. The comic is called Rataplan in French, a name that has nothing to do with the dog from the Lucky Luke series.
Together with Leo Loedts, Berck under the pseudonym “Studio Arle” created the comic series Wim en Eric: De Verdwenen Sloep (1965) and the adventure series De Zwartepinken (1965-1972) on script by Maurice Renders in the magazine Zonneland. In 1967 Berck left Kuifje. He then started working for Robbedoes, where he drew the comic series Kapitein Mulligan under the script of Yvan Delporte and Raymond Macherot. Mulligan was the captain of a tugboat in the America of the 1920s during Prohibition. Two years later Berck proposed to Raoul Cauvin to make a detective comic. Cauvin had enough inspiration for this and used the same historical backdrop. Inspiration came from the television series The Untouchables. Cauvin created two main characters: Sammy Day (the small dark-haired one) and Jack Attaway (the tall blond and leader of the duo). In March 1970 the first Sammy adventure appeared in Robbedoes. Initially the stories mostly took place in Chicago, later also in other parts of the world. Besides his own series for Dupuis, he also published for the Dutch comic market the series De Donderpadjes, about a gang of Boy Scouts, and Lowietje, a series about an orphan who is also a rich heir. This series was later published in the Francophone edition of Robbedoes as Lou. In Flanders he published together with Daniël Jansens the daily strip “Lombok” in Gazet van Antwerpen. From 1972 to 1974 he conceived the humorous science fiction series “Mischa” for the German Rolf Kauka studios in the Primo magazine, often together with Francis Bergèse, Raoul Cauvin, Guy Bollen or Lucien De Gieter. Berck retired in 1994. The artist Jean-Pol took over the series “Sammy.” During his career Berck would have liked to draw a humorous cowboy strip, but he never found time for it. In 1973 Berck was the laureate of the Prix Saint-Michel for “Best humorous illustrator,” and again in 1975 together with Cauvin for the best humorous comic story Les gorilles font les fous (The bodyguards go nuts). In 1979 he also received a Bronze Adhemar for his entire body of work. Berck passed away in December 2020 at the age of 91.

This lot concerns an old page from LOMBOK. It is a page that has been “worked” on because it was used for different publications. A beautiful page from a comic from a period when virtually nothing was circulating and almost never anything was offered before.

See also the photos that form part of the description. The masterpiece will be well packaged and sent by registered mail.