Co-creator of the Yakari comic strip, André Jobin, better known under the pseudonym Job, died Tuesday at the age of 96, Editions du Lombard announced on Wednesday.
Born October 25, 1927 in Delémont, André Jobin was not really predestined for a career in comics. A graduate of the Higher School of Journalism and the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Lille, he is a journalist in various media such as Le Pays à Porrentruy (JU). He became involved in politics by becoming a member of the steering committee of the Jura Rally.
Yakari, child of the wild nature
His career took a new turn in 1967, when he met the designer Derib, who had recently returned from Belgium. Together they launch “The Adventures of Pythagoras and Co”, whose main character is a learned, talkative and prankster eagle owl. A first entry into the world of the 9th art for André Jobin.
In 1969, when Derib took a character out of his boxes, a certain Yakari, he suggested to his screenwriter that he create stories from it. The latter accepts, on the condition that the young hero remains a child of the wild and that the intrigues do not fall into the clichés of the western, recall Editions du Lombard. Each episode must also introduce a new animal.
>> To see, a report on the work of Derib and Job (Broadcast Books for you, RTS archives, January 1970):
A pioneer of ecology
Yakari took his first steps in black and white on December 12, 1969. The two authors could not imagine the success to come. Interviewed in 1970 on the show Livres pour toi, Job explained: “What we both really like is telling stories and having fun while telling them. Stories that are likely to please, “firstly to children and above all to adults, which is perhaps our reward”.
Between 1973 and 2014, Job wrote 38 volumes of the adventures of the little Indian, before, aged 87, he gave way to Joris Chamblain, then Xavier Giacometti. Throughout his career as a comic book writer, Job’s stories reflected his good humor and a visionary spirit, particularly in the field of ecology, according to his publisher.
André Jobin has received numerous awards, including two Youth Prizes from the Angoulême International Comics Festival for “Yakari and the Secret of Petit Tonnerre”, then “Yakari and the Appaloosas”, in 1982 and 2006 respectively. .
ats/sf
This subject is covered in the Vertigo show, on RTS Première, on October 9, 2024 at 5 p.m.
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