XIII #8 - 'Treize Contre Un'.
William Vance was a Belgian comic artist and writer, best remembered as the artist of the hit thriller series 'XIII' (1984-2010), which he co-created with scriptwriter Jean Van Hamme. 'XIII' is an action-packed crime mystery about an amnesiac and his quest to uncover his true identity. Van Hamme's suspenseful narrative, filled with political and military intrigues, is complemented by Vance's atmospheric and well-researched artwork. 'XIII' became a global bestseller, translated into dozens of languages and adapted into two TV series. Prior to his work on 'XIII', Vance was the third artist to continue the comic book adaptations of Henri Vernes' novel series 'Bob Morane' (1971-1980) in the magazine Femmes d'Aujourd'hui. In Tintin magazine, he illustrated Greg's espionage series 'Bruno Brazil' (1967-1979), which marked a wave of more adult comics in the classic comic magazine. Vance also specialized in historical comics, like the naval series 'Howard Flynn' (1964-1973) and 'Bruce J. Hawker' (1976-1996) and two comic series set in Spain during the Middle Ages, 'Rodric' (1972-1974) and 'Ramiro' (1974-1989). He was a master in depicting fast-paced action sequences and went to legendary lengths to get every detail right. Vance was one of the bestselling Flemish comic artists worldwide, along with Morris and Willy Vandersteen, but at the same time a prime example of Belgian unity, since he mostly worked together with Walloon scriptwriters.
Cover illustration for Kuifje/Tintin issue #50 (Christmas 1966).
Early life and career
William Vance was born in 1935 in Anderlecht, near Brussels, as William van Cutsem. He was raised in a Dutch-speaking family, where reading comic magazines like Bravo! and Spirou fuelled his passion for comics. As a child, he copied his favorite comics, and so gradually developed his talent for drawing. He was also an avid movie fan, visiting the local cinema up to four times a week. Between 1950 and 1953, Van Cutsem studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, despite the fact that everyone spoke French there and his knowledge of this language was still minimal at the time. Among his graphic influences were illustrators like Frank McCarthy, Ken Riley, Tom Lovell and Bob Peak and comic artists like Hergé, Edgar P. Jacobs, Hugo Pratt, Sirius, Morris, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, Burne Hogarth. He developed a particular fondness for Jijé's 'Jerry Spring' and Hans G. Kresse's 'Matho Tonga'.
Halfway through his third year at school, Van Cutsem received an offer to come and work for the Publi-Synthèse advertising division of the textile factory Fabelta. He dropped out of school, and spent the next year working at the company's art studio, illustrating advertisements and designing products. After fulfilling his military service, he went to work for another advertising agency, OTP. Among the clients he worked for were companies such as Dreft washing powder, Jupiler beer, Volkswagen, Shell, the Priba and Bon Marché supermarkets and the Sabena airline company. In 1961, he joined the agency Publicem, which created ads for the Belgian wing of the Dutch company Philips.
While advertising paid well, Van Cutsem felt the job was quite boring. He foresaw that advertisers would quickly prefer to use photographs instead of illustrations to advertise products, so he tried his hand at creating comics. In 1961, together with a friend from the academy, Lucien Meys, he went to work at Dino Attanasio's studio. While Meys became a gag writer for Attanasio's comical series, Van Cutsem assisted on the artwork for the more realistic 'Bob Morane' adventures. After a while, he decided to pursue a solo career.
'Walter Bonatti' (Kuifje/Tintin #16, 1963). Dutch-language version.
Tintin magazine
Since Spirou and Tintin were the leading Belgian comic magazines at the time, William Van Cutsem applied for both and was rejected twice. But as fate would have it, one of Tintin's top artists, Liliane Funcken, happened to notice the rejected drawings in the office. She felt he was a genuine talent who deserved a chance. When other comic legends like Tibet and Albert Weinberg expressed the same opinion, Tintin's editor Marcel Dehaye offered William Van Cutsem a contract. In 1962, he was hired as an artist for Tintin's weekly one-shot historical-biographical comic stories. Together with scriptwriter Yves Duval, he created about sixty of these short stories, and additionally made a great many full color illustrations for text stories by Pierre Step and Jacques Acar. During the same period (1964-1967), he also drew five short stories with similar historical themes for Record magazine. As his pen name, he chose "Vance", based on the initial of his last name ("Van C").
For the next three decades, William Vance continued to work for Tintin magazine, often switching between series, tackling both historical comics and contemporary action features. At the height of his production, he drew about four books a year. Most of his comics for Tintin were collected in book format by Éditions du Lombard.
Howard Flynn
A 1963 trip to Portsmouth, where he visited the 18th century naval vessel HMS Victory, inspired Vance to create his first series. On 28 January 1964, Yves Duval and Vance's naval comic series 'Howard Flynn' made its debut in Tintin's pages. Set in the late 18th century, the series told the adventures of English navy officer Howard Flynn. Much of the inspiration came from C.S. Forester's 'Horatio Hornblower' novels, of which Vance was a huge fan, while Flynn's name was inspired by Hollywood swashbuckler movie actor Errol Flynn. Vance impressed many readers with his dynamic artwork and well-researched recreations of the time period. The artist always loved depicting scenes involving water, whether it be oceans, rivers, lakes or just heavy rainfall. Scenes like these can be found in all of his future comics stories. Until 1973, about eight 'Howard Flynn' stories of varying lengths were created. In later years, Vance further explored maritime themes with his 'Bruce Hawker' (1976-1996) series.
'Howard Flynn'. Dutch-language version.
Ringo
On 23 September 1965, Vance went ashore and created the western comic 'Ringo' (also known as 'Ray Ringo', 1965-1978). While the stories take place in the Wild West, the title character isn't the typical cowboy or a gunslinger. Associated with Wells & Fargo, Ray Ringo has to guard the bank's coach rides and ensure cargos arrive safely at their destination. This premise gave Vance a chance to draw many brutal action scenes, while the stories could take place at virtually any location in the Far West. In total, seven stories of 'Ray Ringo' were created. Three of them, 'Piste Pour Santa Fe' (1965), 'El Diablo s'en Mêle' (1970) and 'Le Duel' (1978) were written by Vance himself. For 'La Ville de la Peur' (1966) and 'Le Serment de Gettysburg' (1966), he worked with co-scriptwriter Jacques Acar, while Yves Duval co-wrote 'L'Or des Déserteurs' (1970) and André-Paul Duchâteau 'Trois Salopards Dans La Neige' (1977). While the first two 'Ringo' stories were serialized in Tintin, later episodes only appeared in Tintin Sélection, a trimestrial supplement of the magazine.
'Ringo'.
Bruno Brazil
In 1967, Vance teamed up with Tintin's new editor-in-chief Michel Greg (working under the pseudonym Louis Albert) to create ‘Bruno Brazil’ (1967-1979), a spy series inspired by the popularity of the James Bond movie franchise and the TV series 'Mission Impossible'. The main characters were the CIA agent Bruno Brazil, his military trained brother Billy, the tough Mexican Felipe "Gaucho" Morales, sharp shooting cowboy Texas Bronco, former race horse hockey Big Boy Lafayette, who uses a steel yo-yo as a weapon, and Whip Rafale, a woman who is adept with whips. Together they form Commando Caiman. Bruno Brazil leads their secret missions, although he himself is under command of Colonel L. The team's nemesis is Rebelle, a diabolical female mastermind. After a while, Greg felt this character was a bit corny, so he let the team combat a more realistic enemy in later stories, the mafia. The first episode of 'Bruno Brazil' was published in Tintin on 17 January 1967 as a short story. After five short episodes, it became a full-blown adventure series, starting with the serial 'Le Requin Qui Mourut Deux Fois' ("The Shark That Died Twice", 1968).
Bruno Brazil - 'Commando Caïman'. Dutch-language version.
'Bruno Brazil' often surprised readers with its audacity. Greg didn't shy away from killing off many of the series' major cast members, including Big Boy Lafayette in 'Des Caïmans Dans La Rizière' (1975). His death led to numerous angry letters from readers, some even going as far as canceling their subscriptions. In the series, Lafayette was replaced by the hippie Tony Nomade. When Greg wanted to have no less than four main cast members be murdered in the episode 'Quitte où Double' (1977), Vance tried to convince him otherwise, but to no avail.
Nevertheless, 'Bruno Brazil' became Vance's first huge success and launched a new era in the history of Tintin magazine. Up to that point, most comics in Tintin had been serious in nature, but still intended for a young audience. As the 1960s progressed, more Franco-Belgian comics aimed strictly at adults emerged, with Pilote magazine's 'Blueberry' (1963) by Jean Giraud and Jean-Michel Charlier as a trailblazer. Greg realized Tintin couldn't stay behind and allowed more mature comics in its pages. 'Bruno Brazil' was Tintin's first comic of this new wave. When it caught on, it opened the door for more mature comics with anti-heroes, less naïve and more complex storylines, brutal violence and sly eroticism. Among the most notable were Greg & Hermann's 'Bernard Prince' (1966) and 'Comanche' (1969), Derib's 'Buddy Longway' (1973), Cosey's 'Jonathan' (1975), Jean van Hamme and Grzegorz Rosinski's 'Thorgal' (1977) and foreign translations such as Hugo Pratt's 'Corto Maltese' (1974) and Andreas' 'Rork' (1978).
Bruno Brazil - 'Sarabande à Sacramento'.
As popular as 'Bruno Brazil' was, the series remained stuck in development hell from 1978. By then, Greg went to the United States to secure some business deals. He gave Vance the first twenty pages of a new script in advance, but circumstances kept Greg too busy to ever send the conclusion. Ironically enough he had already named a successor in case he wouldn't be able to finish the storyline, namely Jean Van Hamme. However, legally Vance and Van Hamme couldn't do anything as long as they didn't have Greg's official acceptance and signature on the contract. Since Greg stayed in the USA until halfway through the 1980s, 'Bruno Brazil' couldn't continue, and after his return he had lost interest in the series. It took until 1995 before a new 'Bruno Brazil' came out: 'La Fin... !??' (1995), but this was merely a collection of previously published short stories with the final unfinished story as a bonus feature. In 2019, the comic was revived by Philippe Aymond and Laurent-Frédéric Bollée as 'Les Nouvelles Aventures de Bruno Brazil'.
Move to Spain
During the 1960s, Vance had met his wife, Petra Coria (1937-2024), a Spanish woman living in Belgium. From the start, she collaborated with her husband as his regular colorist, working on nearly all of his productions. In the 1970s, her brother Felicisimo Coria began assisting Vance with the artwork of his series. By 1979, William and Petra Van Cutsem had grown tired of Brussels, and relocated to Santander, Spain. Since he was a solitary man, Vance could easily adapt to his new environment, while exploring the country's rich history. Up till then, several of his comic series were already set during the Spanish Middle Ages, a time period that fascinated the artist.
'Bob Morane'. Dutch-language version.
Bob Morane
While Tintin launched Vance's career, he had an even more fruitful collaboration with the Belgian women's magazine Femmes d'Aujourd'hui and its Dutch-language edition Het Rijk der Vrouw. At the start of his career in comics, in 1961, Vance had already assisted Dino Attanasio on the comic book adaptations of Henri Vernes' 'Bob Morane' novels, which were serialized in the magazine. After 1962, the comic was continued by Gérald Forton, who left the feature abruptly in 1967. Vance was brought in to draw the final two pages of the running story, after which he effectively became Forton's successor.
And so, William Vance was the third artist to continue the thrilling adventures of Morane, the famous engineer with combat experience. In his stories, writer Vernes tackled nearly every genre, from fantasy and sci-fi to contemporary adventures and time travels, offering Vance a new challenge with every episode. However, much like Michel Greg, Vernes had a reputation for not meeting his deadlines, leaving the artist without a script. As a result, Vance sometimes adapted one of Vernes' original novels into a comic story all by himself. From 1968 onwards, Vance was assisted by René Follet on certain albums. Starting in 1975, several 'Bob Morane' stories were also printed in Tintin magazine. In 1980, after eighteen 'Bob Morane' stories, Vance passed the pencil to his brother-in-law Felicisimo Coria, who continued to work on new episodes with Henri Vernes until 2012.
'Rodric'. Dutch-language version.
Other work for Femmes d'Aujourd'hui
Besides 'Bob Morane', Vance also provided Femmes d'Aujourd'hui with editorial content and illustrations. Together with Coria, he illustrated the eductional column 'S.O.S. Nature' (1969-1970). As the scientific information was provided by Edgar Kesteloot, the journalist M. Colinon transcribed it for a general audience. The irregularity of working with Vernes also prompted Vance to start several other projects for Femmes d'Ajourd'hui, for which his editors often gave him free play. Between 24 November 1971 until 19 April 1972, the magazine ran 'Mongwy' (1971-1972), a western comic inspired by the Italian spaghetti western films, written by Lucien Meys and drawn by Vance and Coria. The team used the joint pseudonym of Mail-Syme, with "Mail" being the final syllables of Vance's first name backwards and "Syme" an anagram of Meys' last name. 'Mongwy' remained a one-shot story, 'Les Vautours de la Sierra Mendoza', which was however reprinted in Michel Deligne's Curiosity Magazine (1973-1974) and the comic fanzine Hop! (1994-1995).
In 1983, Vance also had a brief dive into science fiction with 'XHG-C3 - Le Vaisseau Rebelle', a serial starring a spacewoman. It was collected in book format in 1995. However, in between 'Bob Morane' episodes, Vance also had the opportunity of establishing more enduring series against a historical backdrop.
'Ramiro'. Dutch-language version.
Rodric
Together with scriptwriter Lucien Meys, Vance additionally created the 'Rodric' series for Femmes d'Aujourd'hui (1972-1974). This comic was the artist's first entry into the Spanish Middle Ages, a time period he adored but due to the success of his other series he was never able to explore much. Set during the Crusades in the 12th century, the comic follows the adventures of a knight in the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The series however terminated after only two episodes, because Meys felt that there were already enough chivalry comics.
Ramiro
Disappointed that 'Rodric' was canceled, Vance came up with another medieval hero, 'Ramiro' (1974-1989). After working with another scriptwriter, Jacques Stoquart, Vance eventually wrote his own stories. This series takes place in 13th-century Moorish Spain and centers around Ramiro, the illegitimate son of the Castilian king Alphonso VIII. His squire Jos accompanies him during all of his difficult missions. 'Ramiro' was serialized in Femmes d'Ajourdhui until 1975. Between 1977 and 1989, new stories appeared directly in book format. A total of nine albums were published by Dargaud.
'Bruce J. Hawker'. French-language version.
Bruce J. Hawker
In the Femmes d'Aujourd'hui issue of 15 December 1976, Vance launched another historical comic series, 'Bruce J. Hawker' (1976-1996). It marked a return to the maritime adventures he explored before in 'Howard Flynn', although this series was set in the 19th century rather than the 18th. Another major difference was that 'Bruce J. Hawker' offered a more raw, mature and far less romanticized view of the time period. The protagonist is a shipmate who is falsely accused of treason and disgraced. Only his good friend, lieutenant George Lund, believes in his innosense. Hawker tries everything to regain his good name and travels the seven seas in between. Originally, 'Bruce J. Hawker' was serialized in Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, but from 1979 on it also ran in Tintin, while Lombard collected the series in book format. For this occasion, Vance redrew the first pages of the first adventure. After a hiatus, the comic strip was picked up again in the mid-1980s, with chief editor André-Paul Duchâteau as the comic's new scriptwriter from the third story on (Duchâteau wasn't credited until the fourth album). A total of seven albums of 'Bruce J. Hawker' came out before William Vance called it quits, although he always considered the series to be his personal favorite. In 2024, scriptwriter Christophe Bec and artist Carlos Puerta relaunched the comic as 'Les Nouvelles Aventures de Bruce J. Hawker'.
XIII #3 - 'Toutes les Larmes de l'Enfer'. Dutch-language version.
XIII
During the 1980s, William Vance dropped most of his series in favor of a new comic series in collaboration with scriptwriter Jean van Hamme. In 1983, he left Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, and his appearances in Tintin became more sporadic. Halfway through the 1980s, Vance co-created what became the biggest bestseller of his career: 'XIII' (1984-2007). The concept was thought up by Van Hamme while the artist-writer team was waiting in vain for Greg's official contractual permission to create new 'Bruno Brazil' stories. Their original working title was 'Cobra', since Lombard director Guy Leblanc planned to launch a new comic magazine under that name, of which Van Hamme and Vance's protagonist would be the mascot. As this project proved to be a dead end too, they offered their project to a different publisher. On 7 June 1984, the comic that was now retitled to 'XIII' made its debut in the pages of Spirou magazine, after which the album series taking off with the October 1984 release of 'Dimanche Noir' ('Black Sunday') at Éditions Dargaud. His previous experiences with Greg and Leblanc made Vance take a precaution. His contract stipulated that if Van Hamme was to retire as scriptwriter, Vance was legally allowed to find a replacement.
XIII #4 - 'S.P.A.D.S.'. Dutch-language version.
'XIII' centers around a mysterious man who washes ashore on the U.S. East Coast. An elderly couple nurses him out of his coma, but the stranger has no clue who he is or what happened to him. The only hint at his true identity is the Roman number 13 tattooed on his collarbone, hence the series title. XIII soon discovers he is a wanted man, as a group of assassins track him down and try to kill him. As he outwits them, he realizes he is an expert in military combat. Determined to find answers about his past, he goes to the city, with a photograph and a key to a safe as his only clues. The intrigue thickens as XIII meets new people on his path, some friends, others enemies, though he is never sure who to trust. His closest ally is Major Jones, a young female African-American military lieutenant (later promoted to colonel) with whom he develops a relationship. Another person sympathetic to his cause is Jones' superior, general Benjamin Carrington, who trained XIII into the combat expert he is today. XIII can also count on Colonel Amos, an older and one-armed man who works for a special commission trying to solve the murder of U.S President William Sheridan. Even though Amos has visual proof that XIII seems to be the assassin, he doesn't want to jail him, but instead have him find out the conspiracy behind this unsolved political crime. By far the most dangerous opponent of XIII is Le Mangouste, a notorious assassin-for-hire who tries to silence him. Many other characters make XIII's quest for his true identity one huge mysterious puzzle.
XIII #7 - 'La Nuit du 3 août'. Dutch-language version.
Van Hamme wrote 'XIII' as a clever mystery thriller. The initial plot and tone were inspired by Robert Ludlum's novel 'The Bourne Identity' (1980), but he also drew inspiration from the Kennedy murders, McCarthyism, governmental organizations like the CIA and the NSA, as well as the KKK, the IRA, the Sandinista rebellion in Nicaragua and Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II's novel 'Seven Days in May'. Exciting intrigues and hard-boiled action form the core ingredients of the series. Conspiracy theories involving government and military cover-ups are interwoven into the plot. Each episode is full of surprising plot developments. One of the reasons 'XIII' remained suspenseful, even for the creators themselves, was that Van Hamme had no idea where the plot would take them. Sometimes he changed ideas at the last minute. Certain characters became less or more important as the narrative continued. It all makes up for a veritable page-turner whose cliffhangers kept readers longing for each new episode. As the series follows a continuous narrative, all titles have to be read chronologically.
XIII #11 - 'Trois Montres d'Argent'. Dutch-language version.
While the narrative of 'XIII' is mostly to Van Hamme's credit, Vance gave the series its visual style. 'XIII' reads like a clever and exciting Hollywood action movie. Vance was a huge fan of such pictures, even the more formulaic but spectacular ones. His joy of drawing fast-paced chase and fight scenes splashes from the pages, especially visible in his personal favorite albums, 'S.P.A.D.S.' (1987) and 'Secret Défense' (2000). Vance loved drawing such sequences so much that he preferred more emphasis on action, but the artist was aware that this would probably lead to overload. His love for film can also be spotted in the physical looks of some of the characters. General Carrington was inspired by Hollywood actor Lee Marvin, and the vice President borrowed his physique from Paul Newman. When Vance saw 'The Bodyguard' (1992) with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, he decided to remodel Major Jones' haircut into Whitney Houston's.
For his artwork, Vance did a lot of research. The first 'XIII' story was just set in "anytown USA", so Van Hamme simply instructed him to draw a typical American city. But Vance felt that the story would be more believable if the backgrounds depicted recognizable U.S. locations. He therefore collected countless photographs of landscapes, but also had a bottomless archive with documentation about military uniforms, weapons, helmets, ships, jeeps, airplanes and helicopters. The artist wanted to avoid readers spotting mistakes in his work. Even if he had the required documentation he still wanted to double-check whether it was up-to-date, since "it would be lazy to just use pictures from 15 years ago." The most notorious detail he wanted to get right was the Amrak railway service in 'Lâchez les Chiens!' (2002). Together with his son, he searched the Internet to find images of not just the train, but also each station and the exact hours of arrival and departure. Still Vance denied being a detail freak. He didn't want to be compared to Edgar P. Jacobs or Jacques Martin in terms of perfectionism, since he only wanted to capture a certain atmosphere, not the tiniest of details. Interestingly enough, Vance never visited the United States in his entire life.
XIII #14 - 'Secret Défense'. Dutch-language version.
Bestseller
Originally 'XIII' didn't sell many copies, also because there was little to no promotion involved. Publisher Dargaud defended this strategy since René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's 'Astérix' also had a slow but steady climb to the top. Indeed, through sheer word-to-mouth advertising, 'XIII' doubled its sales with each new album. The first signs were notable in Flanders, where 'XIII' was prepublished in Robbedoes. The spark then skipped to Wallonia and the rest of the francophone market. In time the bestseller was translated into English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Lithuanian and Tamil. Oddly enough, Dargaud kept referring to 'XIII' as a "cult series", even though its huge sales and unanimous appreciation didn't fit that definition well. The comic was prepublished in Tintin's successor Hello Bédé from 1990 on, although this didn't stop the magazine's demise three years later. In Belgium, episodes of 'XIII' have also been serialized in De Morgen, Télémoustique and Le Soir, as well as the French magazines Le Courrier de l'Ouest, Le Télégramme de Brest, Midi Libre, VSD and Libération. In 2000, the story 'Secret Défense' was made available online by the Belgian site Skynet and the French one Liberty Surf.
XIII #16 - 'Opération Montecristo'.
With the eighth album, 'Treize Contra Un' (1991), it was announced that the series would come to an end. To promote this event, Dargaud created a 16-second long commercial broadcast for French film theaters. This unusual strategy for comic books paid off, because sales increased spectacularly. Fans didn't have to worry, since the album merely tied up the loose ends of the previous albums together. New media stunts were used to keep promoting the series as it went into its second story cycle. When 'Pour Maria' (1992) came out, Dargaud organized a contest. The winners received a voyage to Latin America in the company of Van Hamme, Vance and a camera team of the French TV channel France 2. By the time 'Trois Montres d'Argent' (1995) rolled from the presses, Dargaud handed out a free copy to first class travelers with the French railway service TGV. The next story, 'Le Jugement' (1997), was accompanied by yet another theatrical promo and various merchandising products, including T-shirts, watches, ties, hats, a tarot game, a CD-rom and a soundtrack album.
The second cycle was resolved with the twelfth entry in the series. The 13th volume, 'The XIII Mystery: L'Enquête' (1999) was an extra addition to delve deeper into the finer details. It would have been a nice symbolic touch to end the series with the thirteenth story, and this was Van Hamme's actual intent. But Vance loved 'XIII' too much and wanted to continue, so Van Hamme wrote a new story cycle in which XIII further explores his past. Six more albums came out before Van Hamme pulled back from the project with the 2007 album 'Le Dernier Round'. In total, 19 albums had been created based on Van Hamme's scripts. Of these, 18 were drawn by Vance. The special 18th volume, the "story-within-a-story" 'La Version Irlandaise', was drawn by comic legend Jean Giraud and colored by Claire Champeval. In 2010, William Vance too announced his retirement from the series, after which a new writer-artist duo was established. Originally Stephen Desberg was considered as writer, but the choice eventually fell on Yves Sente. The new illustrator became Russian artist Iouri Jigounov.
XIII Mystery
'XIII' also inspired the spin-off series 'XIII Mystery' (2008- ), of which each album focuses on the background of one major character from the main series. Originally Van Hamme and Vance felt nothing for the idea, but at the instance of publisher Dargaud, they created a first book, listing backgrounds to all 130 characters up to that point. Vance even created some new comics to function as bumpers between each chapter. Van Hamme's research came in handy when 'XIII Mystery' effectively became a series. For each new title, a different scriptwriter and artist were assigned. Van Hamme acted as a supervisor and insisted that the writers and artists should always be creators who had never collaborated before. Since 2008, the associated writers and artists have been Xavier Dorison and Ralph Meyer, Éric Corbeyran and Philippe Berthet, Yann and Éric Henninot, Alcante and François Boucq, Fabien Nury and Richard Guérineau, Laurent-Frédéric Bollée and Steve Cuzor, Joel Callède and Sylvain Vallée, Frank Giroud and Colin Wilson, Matz and Christian Rossi, Fred Duval and Michel Rouge, Luc Brunschwig and Olivier TaDuc, Daniel Pecqueur and Philippe Buchet and Jean Van Hamme and Olivier Grenson. Van Hamme wrote down a list of rules which the writers and artists need to respect. Among them, that the authors don't try to imitate Van Hamme and Vance, but put their own mark on the franchise. Van Hamme proved very strict and has been known to refuse some of the scripts and even creators involved if he felt they were sub-par.
'XIII' albums in Dutch.
XIII: Media adaptations
'XIII' also conquered other media. In 2008, a two-part miniseries, 'XIII: The Conspiracy' aired on the pay channel Canal+ with Stephen Dorff in the starring role, Lucinda Davis as Major Jones and Val Kilmer as The Mongoose. The series was continued with another TV mini-series, 'XIII: The Series' (2011-2012), produced by Prodigy Pictures and Cipango. However it had other actors in the starring roles, namely Stuart Townsend and Aisha Tyler. To avoid unfavorable comparisons with the popular 'Bourne' film franchise based on the Robert Ludlum books, the plot was slightly changed. The comic was also developed into a board game, 'XIII: Le Complot' (2001), and two video games, 'XIII' (2003) and 'XIII: Lost Identity' (2011).
'Marshall Blueberry'. Dutch-language version.
Marshall Blueberry
Since 'XIII' took up so much of his time from 1984 on, Vance rarely had time to work on other comic series. In 1991, he was hired by publisher Alpen to draw a spin-off of Jean Giraud's western 'Blueberry', named 'Marshall Blueberry' (1991-1993). Jean Giraud provided the plots, but Vance was free in his graphical interpretation. Giraud's plot for the second story was reworked into a script by Thierry Smolderen. As he didn't like the story's ending, Vance refused to draw the third installment of the trilogy, so this book was drawn by Michel Rouge and published in 2000.
Graphic contributions
Vance was one of the artists making a graphic contribution for 'Pepperland' (1980), a collective comic book celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Pepperland comic book store.
Recognition
In 1972, William Vance received the Prix Saint-Michel as "Best Realistic Artist" for the 'Bruno Brazil' album 'La Nuit des Chacals'. In 1997, the 'XIII' album 'Le Jugement' won the Audience Award at the Charleroi comic festival. In August and September of the following year, the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels hosted the exposition 'William Vance Retrospective'. In 2005, Vance received the Bronzen Adhemar - the most important Flemish comics prize - and in 2009 the city of Brussels named him an honorary citizen.
Final years and death
Between 2003 and 2011, publisher Le Lombard released the book series 'Tout W. Vance', collecting all of his short stories with writer Yves Duval, his illustration work, as well as the comic series 'Howard Flynn', 'Rodric', 'Ringo' and 'Ramiro'. A year later, Vance announced his retirement from the comic industry due to Parkinson's disease. He passed away in his hometown Santander in 2018, at the age of 82.
Legacy and influence
'XIII' remains one of the most critically and commercially successful European comic series of all time. Since 15 November 2010, 'XIII' has had his own mural in the Rue Philippe de Champagne/Philippe de Champagne Straat as part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route. William Vance has been named an influence by Anco Dijkman.
Secondary literature
In 2005, the Dutch publisher Stripstift released a special interview book with William Vance by Geert de Weyer. For fans of XIII, the special 'XIII, Dans lLs Coulisses d'une Oeuvre Mythique: Hors Série L'Express BD' (L'Express, 2015), which appeared in the magazine Le Vif/L'Express is highly recommended. The book has special commentary by Jean Van Hamme about every entry in the 'XIII' series up to that point and contributions by various famous French celebrities.
Self-portrait from 1993.