The designer André Chéret in 2002. - JEAN AYISSI / AFP

The designer André Chéret, creator with Roger Lecureux de Rahan , one of the most popular heroes of French comics, died at the age of 82, we learned this Thursday from his family.

“With Rahan , I found a series to my liking, which highlights human and animal anatomy, nature in its raw state. I feel good about it, which may explain why my graphics quickly refined, ”declared the designer to Hop magazine ! in 2005.

A lively and realistic line

Also the author of the series Bob Mallard , a fearless aviator, Chéret was known for his lively and realistic line. He had a keen eye for detail and was a master in the art of performing spectacular panoramas. Son of the savage ages , Rahan, prehistoric hero, was born in February 1969 in the first issue of Pif Gadget . His adventures (also featured in an animated television series from 1987) marked a whole generation of readers even if the stories of Rahan did not pretend to have a scientific vision of prehistory.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Rahan , Soleil editions published last year a full of his adventures in 26 volumes, or 4,000 pages.

Two hundred Rahan adventures

Hair "color of fire", white skin, athletic, dressed in a loincloth in beast skin, wearing a necklace of five claws of "saber-toothed tiger", symbolizing the qualities which he constantly demonstrates (generosity, courage, tenacity, loyalty and wisdom), armed with an ivory cutlass, Rahan, the lonely prehistoric man, goes from clan to clan to share with "those who walk upright" (his human brothers) his knowledge and the spirit of tolerance.

Through his 200 adventures, Rahan, the first revolutionary in history, pacifist and free thinker, obstinately denouncing obscurantism and the superstitions of "wizards", will have invented, among other things, the long view ("the eye-who- see far ”) or the raft. He naturally knows how to swim and make fire.

Rahan's screenwriter, Roger Lecureux died on December 31, 1999 at the age of 74.

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