'Tom Brinfin et Dodolf' (1940).
Hector Brault was a mid-20th century Canadian illustrator and comic artist from Quebec. During the 1930s, he was a trainee ofPierre Saint-Loup at the weekly newspaper Le Samedi. During this period, he may have been the artist behind the pseudonym Tom Lucas, who drew the gag comic 'Casimir' (1935-1945) in Le Petit Journal. During World War II, Brault drew the political-satirical newspaper comic 'Tom Brinfin et Dodolf' (1941-1942) in Le Samedi.
Early life and career
Hector Brault was born in 1908. In the second half of the 1930s, he became a trainee ofPierre Saint-Loup, an illustrator and comic artist with the Montreal weekly newspapers Le Samedi and Le Petit Journal.
L'Oncle Pacifique and Casimir appearing in one strip (2 January 1944), with the announcement of Tom Lucas' holiday.
Casimir
It is believed that Hector Brault has participated in the production of Pierre Saint-Loup's comic strips in Le Petit Journal. Three months into the run of Saint-Loup's weekly humor comic 'L'Oncle Pacifique', on 11 August 1935, a companion strip was launched under the title 'Casimir' (1935-1945). 'Casimir' ran as a six-panel strip at the bottom of each 'Oncle Pacifique' episode. Casimir was a dumb person who always found himself in wacky situations. The feature was signed "Tom Lucas", a cartoonist whose identity has remained a mystery. Historians believe it may have been either Pierre Saint-Loup under another pseudonym, given that the artist was capable of switching graphic styles, or his assistant, Hector Brault. Either way, both comics enjoyed a similar long run. Both debuted in 1935 and were absent from papers during the summers of 1943 and 1944. On 2 January 1944, L'Oncle Pacifique and Casimir were seen together in a crossover episode. And after 26 August 1945, both comics were discontinued. It is possible that Brault only worked on 'Casimir' for a limited period of time and that Saint-Loup was the artist during the rest of its run.
'Tom Brinfin et Dodolf' (1940).
Tom Brinfin et Dodolf
Between 20 December 1941 and 13 June 1942, Hector Brault drew the political-satirical newspaper comic 'Tom Brinfin et Dodolf' (1941-1942) in the newspaper Le Samedi. This four-panel gag comic features an allied soldier with a black curly quiff, Tom Brinfin, who plays tricks on Dodolf, an obese Nazi. Time and time again Dodolf is fooled, which makes him yell out in anger his catchphrase "Kamarade!". It seems that Briault didn't understand what this German stock phrase meant, since Dodolf used it as a curse word, while it simply means "friend" in German.
Headers drawn by Brault for translated British comics published in Le Samedi between 1937 and 1940.
Other work
From the 1930s until the 1950s, Brault remained active for Le Samedi by designing headers for serialized comics imported from British magazines. In 1941, Brault became art director for Poirier & Bessette, the same company that published the newspaper Le Samedi and the magazines La Revue Populaire and Le Film. On 15 February 1941, he drew a comic for a game section, 'Le Jeu du Soldat', based on the game Snakes and Ladders.
Death
Hector Brault passed away in 1983, at age 74 or 75.
Hector Brault in 1939.