Jacques Devos

After twenty years of repairing bikes in his father's company, Jacques Devos turned to making comics in 1961. He began his career as a writer of numerous "mini-books" for artists like De Gieter, Kiko and Salverius, in Spirou. He soon also worked for the normal pages of Spirou, starting series like 'Tim et Tom' and 'Whamoka et Whikilowat' with Louis Salvérius. With Hubuc, he began 'Victor Sébastopol', a series about the memoires of a Russian spy, in 1962. After two years, Devos continued this series on his own. He also began 'Djinn' with Kiko. While writing for other artists, he also took on the artwork of several micro-stories himself, introducing characters like 'Schwartzbrot' and 'Superherman'.

Devos produced several humorous silent and absurd comics for Spirou, which appeared under the title 'Farfeluosités de Devos'. His most famous character, 'Génial Olivier', was already introduced in a mini-book in 1963, but from 1969 it became one of Spirou's regular recurring characters in the magazine's normal pages. This series, about a genious boy and his severe teacher, ran until his retirement in 1988. Besides his work for Dupuis, Devos drew two albums of the James Bond parody 'Steve Pops' at Casterman. In the 1970s, Devos made small comics about the history of weapons ('La Petite Histoire des Armes à Feu' and 'Armes Farfelues'). These comics were published in an album in 1985. In the 1970s, Devos also created comics in the realistic genre, with the science-fiction stories 'Les Chroniques Extraterrestres'. In 1984, he also produced a long continuing science-fiction story, 'L'Étoile Vert'.