Rob-Vel

Robert Velter, who went by the pen names Rob-Vel or Bozz, is best known as the creator of the famous bellboy 'Spirou' for the magazine of the same name. Ironically, Velter began his career working in a hotel himself, the Ritz Charlton in London. He later became a navy officer, and during one of his many trips, he met the American comic artist Martin Branner.

Branner taught Velter the comics profession by taking him as his assistant on 'Winnie Winkle'. After several years in the USA, Velter returned to France, where he created his first comic character, strangely enough called 'Tintin'. The strip appeared in Le Petit Parisien and Velter signed it with Bozz. The character was a predecessor of Velter's later character 'M. Subito'.

In 1937, he developed his comic 'Toto', together with his wife Davine, who wrote the scenarios. In 1938, Éditions Dupuis approached him to develop a character for a new juvenile magazine they wanted to start. This character became Spirou, and Velter first used the pseudonym Rob-Vel. He also took on the 'Bibor et Tribar' series for the Spirou weekly.

When Velter went into the army during World War II, his wife Davine, assisted by Luc Lafnet, took over 'Spirou' for a while. However, it became increasingly difficult to send the pages from France to Belgium, and Rob-Vel and Davine had to abandon their "child", handing the duties of producing 'Spirou' over to Jijé.

During the war, Rob-Vel still worked for the magazine Pierrot, for which he produced several comics (such as 'Ce Pauvre Plouck') and continued the 'Bibor et Tribar' series. He also worked for André Rigal's animation studios. After the war, Velter created many other comics, but none of them ever reached the same level of success as Spirou with the general public. He joined the Opera Mundi agency, where he drew the textless 'M. Subito' strip from 1949 to 1969.

He returned to a new version of Pierrot, where he continued 'Bibor et Tribar', 'Le Père Pictou' and 'Les Tribulations du Chien Petto', among others. His work was also published in Le Journal de Bébé-Poucet, Bravo! and Lisette ('Babouche et Babouchette').

He revived the 'Ce Pauvre Plouck' series in Récréation and La Dernière Heure. In 1971, he took on the pseudonym of Darthel and created new adventures with André Daix's 'Nimbus' for Opera Mundi. After that, he hardly produced any comics until his death in 1991.