Desclez - Richard Bantam 1/2 pl 11B

Henri Desclez is a Belgian comics author and painter, who currently resides in Québec. Born in Braine-le-Comte in the province of Hainaut, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. He created his first comic stories in cooperation with scenarist Michel Noirret, that were published in Pilote in 1967 and 1968. A year later, he joined Le Soir Jeunesse, where he served as an editor and made the 'Mycroft et Klaxon' series with André-Paul Duchâteau and later J. Daniël. He additionally drew 'Le Tailleur de Londres' and 'Les Mystères de Bruges' for this newspaper supplement under the pseudonym Hapic. Also with scripts by Duchâteau, Desclez drew 'Saint Fauston' for Tintin in 1969, and 'Richard Bantam' for Spirou in 1970. 'Richard Bantam' was later continued in Le Soir by Henri Decoster. In 1972 he founded Studios Desclez, to produce seven comic adaptations of 'San-Antonio', based on the stories starring the police commisioner of the same name by Francis Dard. The first two books were drawn in cooperation with Franz and published by Fleuve Noir. That same year, Desclez became editor-in-chief of the Belgian edition of Pilote, where he opened the doors for many national artists. In 1975 and 1976, he succeeded Michel Greg as editor-in-chief of the Belgian version of Tintin, bringing with him most of his team from Samedi Jeunesse, including Cosey, Henri Decoster, Christian Denay