'Franjo, Eenvoudige Koejongen'.
François-Joseph Herman was a Belgian comic artist, and the first in a long line of staff assistants toWilly Vandersteen. Between 1949 and 1952, Herman provided pencil and inking duties for several of Vandersteen's series, most notably 'Suske en Wiske' ('Spike & Suzy'). In addition, he worked on some of his own comic projects, for instance the unfinished comic strip 'Le Secret de la Mer' (1949-1950) in Feu Sacré and the serial 'Franjo, Simple Vacher' ('Franjo, eenvoudige koejongen', 1955) on the back pages of Héroïc-Albums. In 1963, Herman drew some installments of the educational historical comic feature 'Les Belles Histoire d'Oncle Paul' inSpirou magazine. His early death prevented a possibly more prominent career.
Studio Vandersteen
Born in 1931 in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean/ Sint-Jans Molenbeek, François-Joseph Herman was raised speaking French. He attended the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels and began his association with Willy Vandersteen while still a teenager, in 1949. In the previous years, Vandersteen had been assisted by his wife for the inking of his comics, and byMaurice Tillieux for his realistically drawn productions. Herman was Vandersteen's first co-worker on a payroll, marking the unofficial start of what would become Studio Vandersteeen.
One of Herman's early tasks was drawing the remaining pages of 'De Pantoscaaf' (1949-1950), a serious adventure serial by Vandersteen published in De Knape, the weekly magazine of the scouts department of the KSA Jong-Vlaanderen. The first five pages of this story were almost certainly drawn byMaurice Tillieux. Most notably, Herman inked several stories of Vandersteen's signature series 'Suske en Wiske', starting with the final strips of 'De Mottenvanger' (1949) up until presumably 'De Sterrenplukkers' (1952). Until early 1952, he also contributed to the 'Suske en Wiske' stories forTintin magazine, as well as a couple of other Vandersteen series. After Herman's departure, Vandersteen found a replacement inKarel Boumans for the inking of 'Suske en Wiske', andKarel Verschuere as an assistant on his realistic series. In the following years, many additional artists and writers joined Studio Vandersteen, whose productions would dominate the Flemish comics market for decades.
'Le Secret de la Mer'.
Solo comics
Already during his Vandersteen years, Herman created a couple of comics of his own. In terms of plot and art style, several of them clearly reveal his association with Vandersteen, though. For the obscure magazine Feu Sacré, Herman created the adventure serial 'Le Secret de la Mer' ("The Secret of the Sea", 1949-1950), which showed a remarkable resemblance to the 1949-1950 'Suske en Wiske' episode 'Lambiorix' (coincidentally one of the stories inked by Herman). Herman's 'Le Secret de la Mer' was abruptly ended, possibly through interference by Vandersteen who noticed the plagiarism.
For both the French and Dutch-language editions ofFernand Cheneval's Heroïc-Albums, Herman produced the comic story 'Franjo simple vacher'/'Franjo, Eenvoudige Koejongen' ("Franjo, Simple Cowboy", 1955). Although each Héroïc issue generally ran one full story by one of its associate creators (Maurice Tillieux,Albert Weinberg,Marcel Moniquet), Herman's 'Franjo' appeared as a serial on the back pages. In 1963, he drew two short stories in the educational series 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul' byOctave Joly forSpiroumagazine.
Final years and death
François-Joseph Herman lived in Jette, where he had a modest career as a fine artist. He passed away in 1963.
'L'Oncle Paul' - 'Une Flamande Dragon du Roi Soleil' (Flemish version from Robbedoes #1299, 7 March 1963).