Mitacq
| Mitacq | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Michel Tacq 10 June 1927 Uccle, Belgium |
| Died | 22 May 1994 (aged 66) |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Area(s) | writer, drawer |
| Pseudonym(s) | Balou, Mitack, Toucan Bénévole |
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Notable works
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La Patrouille des Castors |
Michel Tacq, or Mitacq, (10 June 1927 – 22 May 1994) was an author of Belgian comics. He was involved in Scouting for most of his life.
Born in Uccle, Michel Tacq spent his childhood in Farciennes and Brussels. He went to study at the Saint-Marie Institute in Schaerbeek and stayed in France for the first years of World War II. He then returned to Belgium to continue his art studies in Charleroi. Ever since his early childhood, Tacq was involved in Scouting, a movement that has been of influence his entire career. At 17, he took on the pseudonym Mitak and developed the comic strip Tam Tam, which appeared in magazines related with Scouting in 1944 and 1945. Tam Tam also appeared in book collections, published by José Henin and De Beiaard. He illustrated for Plein Jeu, Carrefour and L'Hebdomadaire des grands recits.
In 1951, Michel Tacq was hired by the World Press, a company which provided Spirou magazine with comics strips. There, he trained and drew under the name "Balou" some 20 stories for the Oncle Paul series with writing by Octave Joly. He also illustrated "Seul maitre à bord", the 3rd novel of the collection "Marabout-Junior", written by Jean-Jacques Schellens, a friend Scout. However, MiTacq hoped for being able to draw a series dedicated to Boy Scouts. Jean Jacques Schellens wrote a scenario whose characters are Sanglier, Marabout, Gustave and Chat. Georges Troisfontaines, founder of the World Press, accepted to publish the project, at a time when the Signe de Piste collection was very popular, but he preferred to trust the scenario to Jean-Michel Charlier and demanded the characters to be reshaped. The first album of La Patrouille des Castors (The Beaver Patrol), Le mystere de Grosbois, was published in 1954 in Spirou magazine. In the face of the immediate success of the series, Dupuis decided to publish albums from 1955. With this series, his career really took off.
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