24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend!

With the ’24 Hours of Le Mans’ happening this weekend, I figured it would be an excellent moment to catch up with some of the old Vaillant comic books! Above: Audi R15 TDI, winner of Le Mans 2010.

For those of you not into the whole racing thing… ‘Le Mans’ is a 24 hour (!) car race, held annually since May 1923 in the North of France. It’s called the ‘Grand Prix of Endurance and efficiency’, with a complete distance of over 5000 Kilometres, six times longer than the Indianapolis 500 and 18 times a Formula One Grand prix. Trying not to crash your car at these velocities for 24 hours straight is extremely difficult!

The worst motor sport accident occured during the 1955 Le Mans race when Pierre Levegh's Mercedes collided with an Austin Healy driven by Lance Macklin. The car rammed the bank, exploded and its engine flew into the crowds, killing 80 spectators instantly!

French comic legend Jean Graton.

Michel Vaillant is a popular European comic about a race car driver who meets with all kinds of adrenaline raising danger, on and off the racing circuit. Created by famous French author Jean Graton since 1957, the comic appeared in legendary ‘Tintin’ magazine (Le Journal de Tintin, 1946 - 1988) and ranks among many of the European masterpieces of that era. Seventy volumes have since appeared and a movie based on the comic series was produced in 2003 by Luc Besson ('The Fifth Element', 'Transporter'), depicting the ‘24 Hours of Le Mans’, shot during the actual race of 2002.

Above: The orginal first edition of 'Le Grand Defi', Graton's first album from 1959 and the cover for the most recent volume 70: '24 Hours under the influence' from 2007, written and created by his son Phillipe and the guys at Studio Graton.

After a few shorter stories in ‘Tintin’ magazine, Graton created his first full length adventure in 1959,  published in comic book by Belgian publisher ‘Le Lombard’, which would remain Graton’s publisher until 1976. After an argument Graton switched to Paris based publisher Dargaud, known for the French edition of the ‘Tintin’ magazine and ‘Asterix’. Vaillant’s adventures were published by ‘Novedi’ during the early eighties, but soon after, Graton and his son Phillipe started their own publishing business ‘Graton Editeur’.

Above: various classic covers by Jean Graton for his stories in Tintin comics magazine during the fifties and sixties.

Graton is known for his extremely detailed artwork, depicting every aspect of his racing cars and elements from the surrounding industry through profound documentation. In 2004 he retired at the age of 80 and left the creation of the series in the hands of his son, Philippe and ‘Studio Graton’, home of artists Christian Papazoglakis, Nedzak Kamenica and Robert Paquet.
(Left) Graton was always to be found at the circuits, attending the races and befriending the drivers, who were inspired by his art and stories early on.

Original editions and artwork from Michel Vaillant by Graton are highly valued on the collector’s market, fectching the highest prices at auctions. Below: Original pages from Graton’s first volumes in the Vaillant series, ‘Le Grand Défi’ and 'Le Circuit de la Peur' (1961) sold online in 2008 through Artvalue.com.

Although most stories are still to be published in the USA, Studio Graton released three volumes in the English language: 'The Great Challenge' (the first volume), and the later stories 'China Moon' (68) and '24 Hours Under the Influence' (70). 'Le Pilote sans visage', the second volume from 1960 was published in the States by Mediavision in 1997 as a graphic novel ('The Mystery Driver').

The 79th '24 hours of Le Mans' will start this Saturday, June 11 at 15:00 CET and is broadcast live around the world in HD! Check their official website, visit the original Michel Vaillant site (in French) or check out the video beneath, shot at the Graton Studio during the release of the 70th album and Vaillant's 50th anniversary.