It’s a bit ironic that I’ve ended up blogging here on this British-based site. After all, it was a Brit that got me hooked on comics in the first place, although that may seem strange, with my being Belgian and all, and supposedly having been fed on comics from the cradle. But allow me to explain.
(cover to the July 1964 edition of Zonnekind, art by Gray Croucher)
As with any Belgian child born after the Second World War and educated in the Catholic part of the school system, I was raised on a steady diet of wholesome publications by Catholic publisher Altiora Averbode, and especially magazines like Zonnekind (Sun Child), Zonnestraal (Sun Ray) and Zonneland (Sun Land). These were distributed through the schools and provided readers with adventurous but safe stories, documentation and information that could be used in school, and comics. Daniël De Kesel, the driving force behind all these publications, had seen very early in his career that children would read comics, no matter what. And so, instead of denouncing comics like the majority of Catholic educators were apt to, he embraced that medium and made sure that his periodicals contained good, Catholic comics, with all the heroism and moral necessary.
(Riske en Fiske by Gray Croucher)
Enter Gray Croucher. Born in 1920 in Portsmouth, Croucher took part in Operation Overlord – better known to history as D-Day – in June 1944 as a captain. In 1947 he met a Flemish girl, married her and settles down in Bruges, working as a translator. In 1949 he meets up with De Kesel, and starts working for Altiora, creating typical gag comics in a rotund, cosy style, such as such as ‘Fox’, ‘Rik & Rak’, ‘De Verstrooide Professor’, ‘Fokske’, ‘Notenkraker’, ‘Marleentje’, ‘Sefje’ and ‘Piet en zijn Papa’. From 1953 onwards Gray works for Altiora full-time, creating illustrations, covers and commercial art. He creates short comics for all magazines, and in 1959 his most famous creation, Rikske en Fikske, begins in Zonnekind. Later, a wordless version of the same comic appears in Altiora’s pre-school magazine, Doremi.
In the mean time he had started working for Averbode’s Weekblad, a general interest magazine, creating family-oriented strips like De Familie Zwaapulle. He also takes over Renaat Demoen’s adventure comic, Johnny En Annie (see my blog here), changing the eerie, menacing tone of the comic into an almost picaresque series of adventures. Gray’s work appears in almost all children’s books Averbode publishes, as well as in magazines like Zondagsvriend.
(Zwaaipulle by Gray Croucher)
Croucher’s style was very fluent and animated, reminding me of early Disney illustrations, and was a great hit with young children. He was able to lay down an Altiora style of comics, with clear storylines (albeit with lots of text), a total lack of graphical experimentation (an almost Giffen-like grid), and round, cosy themes.
After Croucher’s early death in 1971, his assistant Roger Exelmans took over his mantle as Roex, but his style was much more static and almost childlike. Roex never managed to tie together the different Altiora magazines the way Croucher did.
I can honestly say that, next to Hergé with Tintin, Gray was the most prominent factor in my early blossoming interest in comics. I lost almost all comics I had by him over the years, and I’m constantly on the lookout for them.
(a Zonneland commercial by Gray Croucher)
More about Gray Croucher can be found at the indispensable Lambiek. For this article, I used information from Averbode, Een Uitgever Apart (red. Rita Ghesquière & Patricia Quaeghebeur, Averbode : Altiora, 2002), which also was the source for the accompanying illustrations
Mon, Jan 19, 2009
Comics and cartoons, From our Continental Correspondent