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Louis Cance

[By Louis Cance and François Willot:]

Louis is a comic artist, a comic writer, and a journalist.

He was born on January 12th, 1939 in Sansac de Marmiesse (in French land Cantal) and has always been an aurillacois (inhabitant of Aurillac).

He was first an amateur comic author in L'écureuil (The Squirrel), a newspaper made by young people (from Saint Etienne) and launched with the help of the show by Pierre Bellemare Vous êtes formidables (You Are Formidable, 1958-59). His first activity as a professional comic author was in the monthly Johnny Texas in 1959-1960 featuring complete stories and adventures of Red Devil.

From 1965 on, he wrote numerous realistic complete stories, with historical topics (like true-life stories) for Record (pub. Bayard Presse), Lisette (pub. Éditions de Montsouris, a weekly for little girls), Nade (ex-Bernadette) and Amis Coop (newspaper of "Coopératives Scolaires").

In 1967, he wrote Pif stories (character created by C. Arnal in 1948) for Pif gadget (weekly comic) and Pif poche (monthly comic) up to 1990 (23 years!).

For Amis Coop, he created in 1973 Un de la police montée, a character who existed up to 1990, when the monthly stopped to be published.

For the publishing house Fleurus, he created, together with Claire Godet for the scripts, "Pépé Dynamite" (humorous complete stories), published in Formule I (1970-75).

Around 1978, he was contacted by Patrice Valli to write new stories for Edi-Monde in Le journal de Mickey. Two years later, Le Papillon qui venait du froid, his first story, was published. It was pencilled by Claude Marin and inked by Gilles Formosa. This is the first long story made in France featuring Donald or Scrooge. The idea or synopsis is not from Cance, it comes from discussions between Pierre Nicolas and Patrice Valli at the time they were creating a new French Disney comics production department.

Louis Cance wrote both Duck and Mice stories, some of these as typed scripts or sketches (story-boards). Some of his best stories are Les Fleurs du Fantôme Noir and Mickey prisonnier du temps.

Louis Cance is also an author of texts, articles, interviews, bibliographies and studies on the art of comic-book for specialised magazines: Ran-tan-plan (Belgium), Les Cahiers de la BD, Samizdat and Hop !, fanzine specialised in comic information, which is still in print (he has been the editor of the later since 1973).

He had the Haga prize for best child story (for Pif) at the third Salon nationale de la bande dessinée de Toulouse (1975), and in 1976 the Haga prize of best fanzine for Hop ! (at the same convention). (Haga is a comic-fanzine.) On January 1st, 1992, he received the Alph Art prize for best fanzine (for Hop !) at the 19th salon of Angoulème.

Printed sources

Sources on the Internet

Last updated January 25, 2000.

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