Pierre Christin, 1938-2024

5 hours ago 2

Dean Simons | November 25, 2024

For Pierre Christin, a favor for a childhood friend led to the career of a lifetime. From his typewritten scripts and multiple creative partnerships – particularly with Jean-Claude Mézières, Anne Goetzinger and Enki Bilal – came the influential Valérian science fiction series and multiple works of historical and political fiction steeped in canny commentary that drew public attention and helped redefine the scope of French bande dessinée in the latter part of the 20th century. On Oct. 3, 2024, at the age of 86, the prolific comics writer, journalist, author, mentor, and teacher died, but he leaves behind an extensive legacy cementing his place in the annals of the 9th Art.

Beginnings

Born July 27, 1938, in the east Paris suburb of Saint-Mandé to parents of very modest means, Pierre Christin was a young child during World War Two. He had vague recollections of Nazi soldiers during French occupation, but his first particularly vivid memory from that period was of an air raid shelter during Allied bombing in the lead up to Liberation in August 1944. Among the many children present was Jean-Claude Mézières, who even at that young age was intently doodling with chalk on the floor as bombs dropped in the distance. It was possibly their first meeting, but it was far from their last.

Christin’s childhood was difficult. A sickly child with hearing issues, he was excluded from many activities and often had to stick close to his parents’ hair salon. That didn’t stop him from perusing the newspapers and magazines set out for clients, or regularly frequenting the local bookstore and marveling at the titles. By his teens he would develop a fondness for literary, detective, and science fiction novels – and particularly enjoy translated work from America and Britain. Cinema was another early form of escape in those post-war years and American Westerns captured his young imagination.

A capable student, he was offered a pace at a high school at a time when it wasn’t widely accessible. Lycée Turgot was farther away from home though, in the Republique neighborhood of Paris, and necessitated taking the metro. During this period he became reacquainted with Mézières, who had coincidentally enrolled at the nearby School of Applied Arts. They would regularly take the metro together and around that time Mézières introduced Christin to his talented classmate Jean Giraud, also known as ‘Gir’ and later ‘Mœbius’. The three became good friends.

From Turgot, Christin went on to university, enrolling at the Sorbonne and then Sciences Po (Paris Institute of Political Studies). During those university years he met his first wife and began his teaching and writing career. Mixing with those of different social and political backgrounds made an impact, moving him towards the left (to the chagrin of his father). Meanwhile, culturally he was attracted to France’s emerging Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) cinema movement, surrealism, and American jazz - even playing piano in a band with fellow students.

By the early sixties – now well into his twenties – Pierre Christin began to feel stifled by the atmosphere of a France still struggling toward modernity. He desired to see the "land of the free," jazz, and the open spaces depicted in his beloved Westerns. By 1965, he was offered a teaching post at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and immediately shipped off. Although hired as a visiting professor of French he negotiated it into conducting seminars on surrealism and the French New Wave. Only familiar with the USA of movies and novels, the arrival was a huge culture shock for Christin. In later interviews he would remark that America was like a Technicolor film while France was stuck in black and white.

America of the 1960s was a time of rapid political, economic and social change. To help him acclimate and understand America’s middle class, the 27-year-old read Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoons. He also enjoyed Mad Magazine. Meanwhile two of his passions, science fiction and jazz, were hitting their stride. Science fiction’s own golden age had peaked and Christin grabbed as much as he was able, including genre defining works by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and A. E. van Vogt.

His wife and son yet to join him, he wasn’t wholly alone in America. His old friend Mézières showed up some months later, having lived out his own Wild West dream of becoming a cowboy by working at a ranch in Montana. He needed a place to stay for the winter and Christin was happy to oblige. They got up to their own adventures – and were even requested by the NAACP to produce a documentary about property segregation in Salt Lake City, to be presented to the local news network, with Mézières serving as cameraman. They fulfilled their remit but the news station decided to redo the entire piece by reporters without French accents. It was Christin’s first bad experience with contracts, and also his first solid piece of investigative journalism – stoking a passion for research and reportage that would remain a thread throughout his career.

The honeymoon period in America didn’t last. Not long after the arrival of his wife and young son from France, Pierre was feeling a financial strain. Additionally, the flip side of American culture wore away at his enthusiasm. The materialism, the food, machismo, and more became harder to stomach. He considered returning to France but needed enough funds to procure tickets. That’s when Mézières mentioned possibly making a comic.

Mézières had heard that Jean Giraud was working on a western for a weekly children’s publication in France. The comic was Blueberry, written by Jean-Michel Charlier, and the magazine was Pilote. Mézières was thinking of sending something in but was reticent – while a competent artist in his own right, he felt like he couldn’t match up to Giraud and thought he needed a writing partner to share the load. Christin was likewise unsure – besides Mad and Peanuts, he had not looked at a comic since childhood. And while he had experience with prose and journalism, he had no idea how to write a comics script. Still, he wanted to help his friend and he needed the money. They submitted two Mad Magazine-style parodies which were accepted, the first of which was Le Rhum du Punch, a pastiche of the swashbuckling pirate genre that was published in the March 24, 1966 issue of Pilote. The money paid for Christin and his family’s ship back to France with Mézières following later after visa issues.

Bringing back sci-fi

Returning to Paris and still in need of money, Pierre Christin paid a visit to the offices of Pilote on Rue du Louvre to seek more work and advice. The two submissions with Mézières were well received but Christin had no understanding of the formal process of comics writing. The office at that time was shared by co-editors and formidable comics writers Jean-Michel Charlier and René Goscinny, the co-creator of what was rapidly becoming Pilote’s signature strip, Asterix (with artist Albert Uderzo).

Helmed by Goscinny and Charlier, Pilote was a game-changing publication in its time. In 1959 it had launched as a weekly children’s newspaper featuring a mixture of articles, editorial, and some comics with the intention of veering culturally away from more traditional Franco-Belgian publications (Spirou, Tintin, Cœurs Vaillants) and directly target contemporary French (increasingly middle class) audiences. After a period of financial difficulties, in 1963 Goscinny and Charlier found themselves in the editorial driving seat and they made comics the central feature, bringing in emerging talents who would become respected names in their own right.

At the same time, Goscinny was actively trying to carve out the role of writer in a system that previously made comics production entirely the sole purview of cartoonists. Entering those offices in 1966, Christin had found the right people and arrived at the right time. The pair gave him a quick crash course in formatting and writing scripts then set him to work on more shorts for the magazine, which he would publish for a time under the Peanuts-inspired pseudonym "Linus." Mézières would likewise serve an artistic apprenticeship working from scripts provided by the cartoonist Fred (Frédéric Aristidès).

Before long both Christin and Mézières were hungry to create a longer story, possibly even a series. They brainstormed possibilities. Westerns, a shared passion, were immediately out of the question – with Charlier and Giraud’s Blueberry in Pilote, and Jijé’s Jerry Spring in Spirou the pair would struggle to stand out and Mézières could not compete. But there was another genre, one which had languished for too long in Franco-Belgian comics: science fiction . The pair developed the idea of “spatio-temporal agents” which made both time and space a fertile creative playground for stories. Also Christin had another idea: to introduce a strong, independent female co-lead. Up to that point female characters in bande dessinée were often stereotypes – either silly comic relief or the forgettable love interest – and almost never at the forefront of stories. Editor Goscinny, for his part, didn’t quite understand science fiction but commissioned the series to ensure Pilote remained dynamic and diverse in content and appeal. He did want more jokes, though.

With Pilote #420 (Nov. 9, 1967) readers were introduced to Les Mauvais Rêves (Bad Dreams) the first story of the series Valérian, agent spatio-temporel (shortened to Valérian, later retitled Valérian et Laureline). The first story introduces Galaxity, capital of 28th century Earth; and the stoic, capable – though not necessarily bright – hero Valérian, who would chase a villain to the 11th century and stumble across the savvy, adventurous Laureline. She would return to the 28th century and become his partner.

Visually this story, aside from the early pages, leans toward medieval fantasy but it shows Christin and Mézières finding their feet with their cast and serialized storytelling. The second series La Cité des Eaux Mouvantes (City of Shifting Waters, published 1968-69) has the creators sticking close to familiar set pieces, in a near-future New York City following an ecological disaster. It is only by the third series, L'Empire des mille planètes (The Empire of a Thousand Planets, published 1969-70), that Valérian et Laureline finds its creative feet, taking the action away from Earth and to the stars, with new vistas and strange creatures galore (and self conscious Mézières clearly more at ease) as the characters start to come into their own.

For the most part, Valérian et Laureline is a series of standalone adventures that sees its creators play with new ideas and concepts, and sometimes other genres. What makes Christin’s writing is the interplay of the lead characters and how the series characteristically approaches complex political subjects in an entertaining and engaging way. One clear early example is the fourth story, Bienvenue sur Alflolol (Welcome to Alflolol; first published 1972), which features a seemingly abandoned planet with unlimited resources that has been turned into an industrial colony for Earth’s Terran Galactic Empire. As the pair are departing from a routine inspection, they stumble across a ship in distress. They discover that the passengers are some of the planet’s extremely long-lived original inhabitants who periodically travel en masse to the stars for around four thousand years and are part of the returning caravan. What follows is a surprisingly offbeat and comedic adventure that handles subjects like indigenous peoples rights, colonialism, vested corporate interests, and environmental degradation. Despite still being a children’s series, it subtly contributed to the maturation of bande dessinée at a time when they were still resolutely expected by society (and law) to be the domain of children.

Christin and Mézières had a solid seller and it became a lifetime collaboration for the good friends – together they would produce 23 albums before deciding to retire the series in 2018. It would help inspire other science fiction works and aesthetically see imitation outside the world of bande dessinée. For their labors, Valérian et Laureline earned recognition: a 1987 European Science Fiction Society award, an English compilation was a Harvey Award nominee in 2005, and Mézières received the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 1984. It would also spawn a 2007 animated TV series and a 2017 feature film written and directed by Luc Besson, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, whose $223 million budget made it the most expensive independent film ever made, giving the series renewed public attention, a decent sales bump, and its authors – including longtime series colorist, Mézières sister, Évelyne Tranlé – a last chance to enjoy the fruits of their collaboration before Mézières’ passing in January 2022.

Beyond Valérian

From the beginning Pierre Christin was aware of the precariousness of the creative profession and remained busy. Immediately after his return from the United States, he took on translation and copywriting jobs alongside his comics scripting work. Within a year he landed a teaching position at the newly formed Bordeaux Institute of Technology, teaching journalism and communication. By 1968 he had enough funds to buy a country house in the southern French provinces of Aveyron, which would become his writing retreat and also a source of inspiration. He would regularly take field trips around the world that contributed toward future stories and articles. In comics, he would also partner with other artistic collaborators who would help him push ideas to thematically broaden and mature bande dessinée, whose boundaries were being aesthetically tested in the pages of Pilote, Métal Hurlant and others through France’s politically charged 1970s and beyond.

In 1972, a young Jacques Tardi was eager for his shot at his own first full length series at Pilote and Christin scripted "Rumeurs sur le Rouergue" ("Rouergue Rumors"), a contemporary magical realist farce about the forces of modernity being resisted by local residents and the mysterious creatures of the woods. This would be their only collaboration as Tardi became eager to explore other vistas and eras solo but these themes would carry over to Christin’s next significant collaboration.

In 1975 Christin took another young artist under his wing, Enki Bilal. Spotted in a talent competition for Pilote in 1972, Bilal had his first short story published, "Le Bol Maudit" ("The Cursed Bowl"), at the humble age of 20. The Serbian-born French artist was keen to work with the writer of Valérian and Christin was happy to oblige. What emerged was the trilogy Légendes d'Aujourd'hui (Legends of Today): three surreal contemporary tales dealing with the politics of French modernization. These stories, released in album form between 1975 and 1977, saw Bilal rapidly finding his artistic feet and Christin plumbing starker and darker themes.

Their collaboration would peak with two works that drew attention from the French public: 1979’s Les Phalanges de l'ordre noir (The Black Order Brigade), which explores terrorism and the folly of ideology via an aging cast of former international volunteers from the Spanish Civil War; and 1982’s Partie de chasse (The Hunting Party), featuring Soviet Union acolytes and apparatchiks gathering at a dacha for a hunt, with glimpses of the building of the Soviet dream and the disillusionment that came with its reality. Drawing on contemporary issues, both stories were critically acclaimed and Christin made an appearance on French literary TV talk show Apostrophes, indicating a moment of growing public awareness of the maturation and possibilities of bande dessinée.

A particularly productive partnership for Christin was Annie Goetzinger, one of the first women to break into the male-dominated Franco-Belgian industry. Although Goetzinger had well established herself as a solo writer-artist by the late 1970s, the pair found an affinity. At the time Christin was seeking to delve into another untapped genre in bande dessinée – biographical fiction intimately focused on the emotional and psychological life of its subject amidst the backdrop of (often contemporary) history. From this emerged four fictive biographical portraits of women, each first published in the pages of Pilote before being collected into album form by Dargaud as the Portraits souvenirs series. The first story La Demoiselle de la Légion d'honneur (The Lady of the Legion of Honor; Dargaurd, 1980), followed the life of a French girl in the 1950s/60s raised in a strict religious orphanage before marrying a French soldier stationed in French Africa. It drew great controversy upon publication as it was among the first comics to depict unvarnished portraits of female life, colonial war, and the French military. The publisher Georges Dargaud was summoned before the Grand Chancellor of the Order of the Legion of Honor for a reprimand but the book would stay on shelves and three more works in the series would be produced.

The pair would work on an additional four standalone works for different publishers between 1989 and 1999, the first of which, Le Tango du disparu (The Tango of the Disappeared; Flammarion, 1989), a love story set amidst the military dictatorship and political disappearances of 20th century Argentina, is considered the first bande dessinée to be actively marketed as a graphic novel (“le roman graphique”) in France. From 2001, Christin and Goetzinger shifted from standalones to an ongoing series - Agence Hardy (Hardy Agency; Dargaud), which featured private detective Édith Hardy and an eclectic supporting cast solving mysteries in 1950s Paris. Despite its lightness of tone, the well-researched stories exist in the historical and political context of France in the shadow of the Cold War. Initially planned as a trilogy, Agence Hardy would continue for an additional four volumes before ending in 2012. With a cumulative fifteen books produced by their partnership across thirty years, Annie Goetzinger is second only to Jean-Claude Mézières (23 Valérian books) as a major artistic collaborator for Christin.

Besides Mézières, Tardi, Bilal and Goetzinger, Christin was writing for other collaborators. Later in his career he partnered with André Juillard to produce the acclaimed Léna espionage trilogy, published by Dargaud between 2006 and 2020. Christin would also try his hand at graphic biographies of real historical figures, most notably 2014’s focus on controversial American architect Robert Moses with Olivier Balez (published by Glenat) and 2019’s spotlight on British writer and journalist George Orwell with Sébastien Verdier (Dargaud). Despite a personal distaste for ego and much apprehension, he was eventually convinced to script his own graphic autobiography, 2018’s Est-Ouest (East-West; Dupuis) with Philippe Aymond, which paints a fascinating picture of an unusual life. In addition, with a number of artistic collaborators, he would engage in works of illustrated reportage, which were later collected in Les Correspondances de Pierre Christin (Dargaud, 2009).

Prior to his death, despite rapidly declining eyesight, Christin was able to write three works that saw release between 2022 and 2024: a post-Mézières, post-continuity Valerian et Laureline adventure with Virginie Augustin (Dargaud, 2022), and a crime thriller set in post-war Paris, Pigalle, 1950, with Jean-Michel Arroyo (Dupuis, 2022). His final comics work released earlier this year was a short history of kidney transplants and his recent personal experience as a recipient, it was published by Éditions Caurette with Fawzi as main artist.

Christin was not short of recognition in life. As early as 1976 he received Angoulême Festival’s writers award (the third ever recipient of the award after Christian Godard and Claire Bretécher) and at Angoulême 2019 he would receive the writers’ career achievement award, the René Goscinny Prize. He was also lauded beyond France – not least in Germany and Sweden with two Max und Moritz Prizes for best international comics writer (1996) and lifetime achievement (2010); and, alongside Mézières, the 2014 Adamson career achievement award. In 2015, the French state awarded him the rank of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, explicitly for his work in comics.

Comics owes him another small debt, serving as mentor for a number of assistants aspiring to make their way in the world of bande dessinée, paying forward the experience granted to him by Goscinny and Charlier for future generations. Each new hire would help him compile his research and prepare scripts, but he also would actively participate in their own creative development, regularly setting aside dedicated time to review their work and provide critical feedback.

Despite his enormously fruitful and lauded comics work, he remained a fixture in the world of academia. He would be appointed the head of the journalism department at the Bordeaux Institute of Technology in 1968, earn his PhD in Literature (his thesis arguing daily news as the accessible literature of the masses), and helped establish France’s first dedicated journalism school, the Institut de journalisme Bordeaux-Aquitaine (IJBA) between 1988 and 2000 before retiring in 2003. He was also an active journalist and author, publishing nine novels between 1976 and 2017. In his personal life he would also find new love and have another child, some twenty years after the birth of his son – and later still he would also become a grandfather.

It started as a favor for a friend and it became the career of a lifetime. For Pierre Christin, comics became a fertile soil for his imagination, filled with significant artistic partnerships, a landmark science fiction series, and an ambition to push beyond accepted genre boundaries. That he succeeded and remained so prolific despite the rigors of parallel careers in other fields is a marvel, and he leaves behind a catalog of great works that means his name will never be truly forgotten in the world of comics.