Gérard Dorville came from an artistic family. His grandfather was the press artist Noël Dorville (1871-1938) and his father, Jean Dorville (1901-1986) was a painter and author of comic strips for L'Humanité. Gérard Dorville started his career in Vaillant with a story about automobiles. When Spirou launched its "hero without work" Gaston Lagaffe, Vaillant took the competition and introduced three "heroes without work". From 1957 to 1962 Dorville drew the adventures of 'Alfred, Auguste et Popaul', who wandered through the offices of Vaillant. The resemblance to Franquin's 'Gaston' didn't end with the theme, one of Dorville's characters has got almost the same looks as the early Gaston.
