Kim Norton

Born in Barcelona, José Ramón Larraz began his career working for Spanish magazines in 1952. He made 'Aventuras de Wilkens, el Cazador' in Alcotan and 'Castigo del Artico', 'Ray Walker' and 'El Hombre del Asfalto' in Nicolas. Larraz then drew 'Vivian, Pecas, Janet y Pipa' in Florita, before beginning a collaboration with Marijac after his arrival in France in 1954. Together, they made 'Douce-Liane l'amie de la Jungle' and 'Jenny la Fille du Désert' for Mireille. Afterwards, Larraz started working for the Opera Mundi agency, where he worked on numerous strips for the press, including 'Jed Foran' in Le Soir, 'Capitaine Barroud' in L'Equipe, 'Hommes et Bêtes' in France-Soir, 'Cécile' in Le Parisien Libéré, 'Tim la Brousse' in Le Journal de Mickey, 'Croc Blanc' in Libération, 'La Guerre de Feu' in L'Humanité and 'Yves la Brousse' in Pilote. Then in 1967, he started working for Spirou, using various pseudonyms. As Dan Daubeney, he created 'Christian Vanel' and 'Michaël'. Under the name Gil, he wrote the scenarios for 'Paul Foran' (artwork by Jesus Blasco a.k.a. Montero, and later Jordi Bernet) and finally, using the name Watman, Larraz did the artwork of new stories with 'Paul Foran' as well as the series 'Kim Norton'. Text (c) Lambiek