Page 25 de l'empire du milieux

Brussels-born Éric Maltaite learned the comic trade from his father, Willy Maltaite, the comic artist better known as Will. After brief appearances in Tintin and BideVision, he started out helping his father on some of the 'Tif et Tondu' short stories. Eventually, in 1978, he teamed up with his father's scenarist, Stephen Desberg, to work on his own comics. After humorous series like 'Jules et Gil' and 'La Famille Hérodius', Maltaite and Desberg came up with the espionnage series '421', starring special agent Jimmy Plant (a name derived from Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant). The graphics of the series were at first strongly influenced by the humorous style of Will. Eventually, the artwork turned more realistic, as did the scripts. In the mid-1980s, Maltaite also started a collaboration with Denis Lapière for the exotic series 'Mono Jim', that was at first published in L'Écho des Savanes. After quiting '421' and their affiliation with publisher Dupuis in 1992, Maltaite and Desberg continued their collaboration at P & T Productions with the series 'Carmen Lamour'. Maltaite reappeared in Spirou with 'Nationale Zéro' (scripts by Janssens, 1995) and 'Dédé et Dédé' (scripts by Jean-Michel Thiriet, 1997). In 1999 he also returned to L'Écho des Savanes with erotic stories like 'Robinsonne, la Naufragée' and '1001 Nuits de Schéhérazade' Text (c) Lambiek