Mazel

Luc Maezelle, alias Mazel, was born in Herentals and attended the Saint-Luc Institute. He worked as an architect for five years, and in his spare time, he designed the sets for several theatre plays. He started making comics after meeting the niece of comic artists Sirius. His first comic was a story in the series 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul' for Spirou in the late 1950s. He then got a job at Tintin, where he produced 'Cromagnon' (1961), 'L'Affaire Tarentule' (1962-63), 'Bôjolet et Riesling' (1964-66) and the series about the musketeers 'Fleurdelys et Patacrac' (with Vicq, 1966-68). He also worked for the Belvision animation studios and drew some short stories with 'Secret Agent O.K. 27.43' in Pilote under the pseudonym Zem.

Mazel returned to Spirou in 1969, and launched another musketeer series, 'Câline et Calebasse'. The first run of this comical series, about a musketeer and his irascible horse, was published with scripts by Raoul Cauvin until 1977. Mazel and Cauvin continued their collaboration with 'Boulouboum et Guiliguilli' in 1975. This series, about a mini Tarzan and his gorilla, was later renamed to 'Les Jungles Perdues', while the names of the two protagonists were changed to Kaloum and Kong. In addition to his work for Spirou, Mazel worked for Studio Greg on the series 'Les As', and he made the humorous western 'Coyote Bill' in Pif under the pseudonym Mavericq.

He briefly drew the far west heroine 'Jessie Jane' with a script by Gérald Frydman for Spirou in 1981. In 1989, he relaunched 'Câline et Calebasse' under the name 'Les Mousquetaires' in 1989, doing both scenario and artwork this time. Between 1994 en 2004, he worked with Cauvin again and created 'Les Paparazzi', a humorous parody on photographers for the gossip press. In 1997, he produced the album 'La Première Femme de Barbe-Bleue' for P&T Productions.