Jean Van Hamm. “I write for my own pleasure, if there is no more pleasure, I stop there”

Eight decades after publication U-radius in a Belgian weekly rejoice Edgar P. Jacobs’ characters see their adventure come to an end thanks to Jean Van Hame. Famous screenwriter, creator Largo Winch, Thorgal, XIII, and with whom he first revived Blake and Mortimer The Francis Blake Affair really envisioned a sequel Ray U, The Burning Arrow. He takes all the codes of this sci-fi comic, both old and established, in which Australia and Norland seek to seize a mineral as rare as it is precious, uradium, which is destined to play a crucial role in the war between them… A chance to talk to one of the giants of comics, who did not lose his child’s soul at the age of 84.

In the video, wowBy Bruno Podalides, with Karin Viard, Agnes Jaoui, trailer

“Inventing and unfolding a story is like falling back into childhood”

Miss Figaro. – Why did you want to follow? U-radius ?
John Van Hamme. – I was 4 years old when I had the first contact with him U Ray. It was 1943, my mother had died, my father was in the resistance, and I lived with my grandmother, with my uncle, who read to me. rejoice where did Edgar P. Jacobs. We didn’t know at the time that he had started U Ray to replace Flash Gordon… Two or three years ago, Dargo reissued it in the Blake and Mortimer collection, and I read it again. At the time I thought it was kitschy, but we found all the basics of an adventure story there; bad guys, good guys, monsters, a war with planes we call Aeropiles, unfinished flirtations… And me. “But at the end of the day, we have absolutely no idea what this U beam is. You can see it on the front page and then, poof! we don’t hear about it anymore, we don’t know why it’s called that, the connection with uradium… And then what about the father of the young girl, Sylvia, who says she’s disappeared?

By doing this sequel, isn’t that a way to become a child again?
One of the media headlined about it. “Van Hamme returns to childhood.” It’s true, and it’s true of all comics. To invent and unfold a story is to fall back into childhood. Although when burning arrow I invented less than I took Edgar P. Jacobs album universe. Unlike albums Blake and Mortimer that I wrote the script where I was hired to play Blake and Mortimer, The burning arrow it’s not a mercenary job, if you can say so. it was born out of the desire to complete an unfinished adventure. By the way, exegetes claim that it is imagining its continuation U-radius that Edgar P. Jacobs will invent The secret of swordfish, and I think personally it has nothing to do with it. In addition, there is no secret of Tusadzka. we see the swordfish three pages from the end, and there is no secret, just as there is no ray in it. U Ray !

The burning arrow born out of a desire to complete an unfinished adventure

John Van Hamme

How did you do?
Very simple. I called the editorial director of Dargaud Benelux and Blake and Mortimer tell him I want to do a sequel. “Bof, he told me, if it amuses you…” And, actually, it amused me a lot, I wrote the script in a month and a half, it was so easy. The director was happy with it, we discussed the designer and asked Etienne Schroeder, who had worked on several albums. Blake and Mortimer, he grabbed his friend Christian by the neck of Kylo, ​​and voila. It was a fun adventure from all angles because it was unexpected. On the other hand, I did not expect at all the reception that the booksellers gave to the project, which was so enthusiastic that the house printed the album in 150,000 copies…

“I never said I’d stop writing comics”

You won’t retire this year yet…
I never said I’d give up writing comics, only that I quit soap operas. XIII, Largo Winch, Thorgal – because I felt I had reached the end. Thirty years later, Torgal, Satisfied! I write for my pleasure, if I have no more pleasure, I stop there. As luck would have it, my pleasure brought me money, which is a wonderful thing. It’s a pleasure to buy and sell, it’s great.

I am happy to sell it, it is beautiful

John Van Hamme

You followed in the footsteps of another author. You work differently when it comes to inventing your own universe.
To be honest, Edgar P. For Jacobs, I just had to put myself in someone else’s place. I would say that, unlike other screenwriters, I cannot work on several plots at the same time. Many people send four pages to one cartoonist and five to another. I, for my part, have to devote myself completely to a story. And I have to write it to the end. It would be extremely foolish to realize that I have a much better ending on the way, but that I have to change page 8 for it, and that is impossible because it is already drawn… About Duchateau’s script, who sent them to him in fragmented form; “Bad knocks out Rick Hotchet with his wooden leg.” But what wooden leg? Until then, it was not written anywhere, and the boards were already made. Someone like Rosinsky (Designer by Thorgal, Editor’s Note), and he doesn’t read the scripts completely, his wife takes care of that, he goes page by page, gradually forgetting what he has done. So much so that he needs to be reminded. “Attention, remember that the character has a red scarf…”

Educating, popularizing or investigative comics are now trending while remaining a master of imagination. What is it about?
My loneliness when I was a child. I had no siblings, my father didn’t have a TV, there were no children’s programs on the radio. On the other hand, we had a bookseller who rented books for one Belgian franc a week. I discovered adventure novels by unknown writers like Jules Verne or Louis-Henri Boussennare, who imagined extraordinary plots accompanied by very precise documentation. I remember that a man had to travel around the world with only one sheet of paper in his pocket… I immersed myself in it and staged the imagination and actions of the characters in front of the mirror. And then I imagined, of course…

However, you first worked at Philips before giving it all up for fiction…
In the post-war period, everyone wanted to climb the social and financial ladders. My father had returned with decorations, but without a penny. I studied at university (Jean Van Hamme studied engineering, management, administrative law, journalism, he is also an associate professor of political economy, Ed.) while publishing short stories, then novels, which I later adapted, as we have seen Wide winch, a series for which my knowledge of multinational companies was very useful. The character was built on a simple principle. all women should want Largo and all men should want to be him… In 1976 I was director of home appliances at Philips, and I was thinking of graduating as CEO. The Philips Belgium manager did not contact me at all. When I was offered the position of Deputy General Manager of Philips Mexico, I said to myself: So I gave up and resigned the next day.

Wasn’t that a big risk?
I do not believe. Just as trapeze artists have a network, so I had my diplomas and professional experience. If it didn’t work out, I would find another job. it would not be difficult to explain that I tried to live from what I loved. Failure is not a flaw. Real failure is trying nothing.