Belgian comics author recognized as one of the most popular in the humorist field. His notable works include Les Tuniques Bleues, Sammy and Les Femmes en Blanc.
He studied lithography at the Institut Saint-Luc in Tournai, but upon leaving school found that there were no jobs available for lithographers. He started working at Dupuis in 1960 as a cameraman for the small animation studio the publishing house had started, working on early Smurfs cartoons and other short movies. After a few years, he started writing comics and has since became one of the most prolific Franco-Belgian comics authors, almost always staying true to Dupuis and the weekly comics magazine Spirou. Some of his earliest work was for artists like Claire Bret‚cher, Gennaux and Eddy Ryssack.
When Lucky Luke, the successful, long-running Western series, moved from Spirou to rival magazine Pilote, Cauvin came up with Les Tuniques Bleues (French for “Blue Coats”) which is set among the U.S. Cavalry around the time of the American Civil War. It was at first drawn by Louis Salv‚rius who, upon his death, was replaced by Lambil, and has since become a major best-selling comic book series with more than 15 million albums sold.
Cauvin added another success in 1972 with Sammy, about bodyguards in Chicago during the Prohibition era, drawn by Berck. A short stint on Spirou and Fantasio (drawn by Nic Broca) was not so successful. Cauvin continued to work for the animation studio as well, writing the scripts for the Musti, Tip and Tap and The Pili’s cartoons by Ray Goossens.
Cauvin, who suffered from cancer, died on 19 August 2021 at age 82.
Link to Wikipedia biography