Two years after the death of their designer Jean-Claude Mézières in 2022, Valerian and Laureline lost their second dad, the screenwriter Pierre Christin, with whom he created them in 1967 for the magazine Pilot.
Pierre Christin died on Thursday October 3, 2024, at the age of 86, announced the publisher Dargaud in a press release, where the twenty-three albums in the series were published. Valerian and Laurelineadapted for the cinema by Luc Besson in 2017.
“He was a comic book scriptwriter – undoubtedly one of the greatest –, writer, academic and professor”recalls the publishing house in its press release.
Pillar of the magazine PilotPierre Christin collaborated on nearly 100 albums between the 1960s and 2020. In addition to Jean-Claude Mézières, with whom he was childhood friends, he also worked with Enki Bilal, on the series Legends of today et End of centuryJacques Tardi (Rumors about Rouergue), François Boucq (Lessons from Professor Bourremou) or André Juillard (Lena).
A “major screenwriter in the history of comics”
“Pierre Christin is not only considered a major screenwriter in the history of comics, both by the richness of his work, which is not limited to the series Valerianbut also by his desire to address social issues”underlines Dargaud.
“Progressive, he is one of the first to dare to highlight a female character (Laureline) as a strong heroine”continues the publishing house, which welcomes “a great traveler, an assiduous observer of our world, a cultured, curious man who loves to debate”.
In 2019, the Angoulême Festival awarded him the René-Goscinny prize for all of his work. He also received the French screenwriter prize from the same festival in 1976. Also author of eight novels, Pierre Christin also created the Bordeaux journalism school (Ijba) with Robert Escarpit in 1967.
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