Clifton (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 picture by Jo-El Azara, 1969 |
|||||||||||||
|
Clifton is a Franco-Belgian comics book series about the exploits of Colonel Sir Harold Wilberforce Clifton, a British colonel, retired from MI6, and sometimes still active for the British government. Also as amateur sleuth, his phlegmatic approach to stress leads to humorous situations. Harold Clifton lives in Puddington, near London, supported by housekeeper Mrs Partridge, who makes a prize-winning goulash. Clifton drives a red MG TD from the early fifties, which gets mangled in most stories, but is repaired regardless of cost. Clifton's hobbies include Boy Scouting (he's Boy Scoutmaster Singing Heron), cats, and collecting cigar wraps. He received a Knighthood in 1993 for saving a member of the Royal family.
Over the fifty years of publication of Clifton comic books, approximately 20 full books and 20 smaller stories have been published, totalling about 800 pages. A succession of cartoonists and scenarists have been creating the Clifton character.
Contents |
[edit] Cartoonists
The original cartoonist was Raymond Macherot, who created the Colonel Clifton character in 1959 and the early sixties. In preliminary studies, Macherot used Colonel Horatio Amaory Crickett as a working name, but before the first story decided on Colonel Clifton instead. Clifton's first names Harold Wilberforce were not mentioned until the second story. After three stories, Macherot focused on another character, and Clifton was quiet for six years.
At the end of the sixties Jo-El Azara and Greg did one story, and during the seventies and the early eighties the duo of Turk and De Groot boosted the Clifton cartoon stories to the top of the lists with nearly twenty stories.
Then at the peak of change in the mid eighties, Bédu took over, and continued with over ten more Clifton stories well into the nineties. His last Clifton story was published in 1995. In 2003, after a long and quiet period, Rodrigue with again Bob de Groot have taken over, and two Clifton stories have been published since.
[edit] Timeline of major stories
| Cartoonist | Scenarist | Year | FR title | NL title | EN title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macherot | Macherot | 1959 | Les enquêtes du colonel Clifton | De onderzoekingen van kolonel Clifton | |
| Macherot | Macherot | 1962 | Clifton à New York | Clifton in New York | |
| Macherot | Macherot | 1963 | Clifton et les espions | Clifton en de spionnen | |
| Jo-El Azara | Greg | 1969 | Les lutins diaboliques | De duivelse dwergen | |
| Turk | De Groot | Le mystère de la voix qui court | Het geheim van de rennende stem | ||
| Turk | De Groot | Le voleur qui rit | De lachende dief | The laughing thief | |
| Turk | De Groot | Alias Lord X | Alias Lord X | ||
| Turk | De Groot | Sir Jason | Sir Jason | ||
| Turk | De Groot | Ce cher Mr Wilkinson | Dear Mr Wilkinson | Dear Mr Wilkinson | |
| Turk | De Groot | 7 jours pour mourir | 7 dagen om te sterven | 7 days to die | |
| Turk, assisted by Walli | De Groot | Atout...coeur ! | |||
| Turk, assisted by Walli | De Groot | Une panthère pour le colonel | Een panter voor de kolonel | ||
| Turk, assisted by Michel Breton | De Groot | Weekend à tuer | Weekend om te doden | ||
| Turk, assisted by Michel Breton | De Groot | Kidnapping | Kidnapping | ||
| Bédu | De Groot | Passé composé | |||
| Bédu | De Groot | La mémoire composée | |||
| Bédu | De Groot | Dernière scéance | |||
| Bédu | De Groot | Matoutou-falaise | Matoutou-falaise | ||
| Bédu | Bédu | Le clan Mc Gregor | |||
| Bédu | Bédu | Mortelle saison | |||
| Bédu | Bédu | Le baiser du cobra | De kus van de cobra | ||
| Rodrigue | De Groot | 2003 | Jade | Jade | |
| Rodrigue | De Groot | 2005 | Lune noire | Zwarte maan |
[edit] Publications in magazines and books
The cartoonists worked with original French stories, whereas all were published simultaneously in French and Dutch, the two main Belgian languages, in the weekly magazines Tintin (French), Junior (French) and Kuifje (Dutch) and Ons Volkske (Dutch), all four by Lombard Editions in Brussels.
Subsequently, the stories were also published in cartoon albums by the same publisher, and in co-operation with several non-Belgian publishers, such as Drukkerij-Uitgeverij Helmond (the Netherlands) and Carlsen Verlag (Germany), and in several other magazines, such as Zack and YPS (both German).
In the mid-eighties a Clifton movie was made by Belvision, the movie department of Lombard.
Beside French and Dutch, the stories were translated into Finnish, Danish, English (published by Cinebook Ltd, a specialist in Franco-Belgian comics), and also into German where in some publications our hero is named Percy Pickwick.
Over 30 stories (from one to 42 pages each, totalling over 800 pages) of Clifton have been published so far, from the hands of 6 cartoonists and scenarists.
