Robert Velter

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Rob-Vel

Birth name	Robert Velter
Born	February 9, 1909 Paris, France
Died	April 27, 1991 (aged 82)
Nationality	French
Pseudonym(s)	Robvel, Bozz
Notable works	Spirou and Spip

François Robert Velter (February 9, 1909 – April 27, 1991), known by his pen-name Rob-Vel, was a French cartoonist, noted for creating the character Spirou in 1938.

[edit] Biography

Like Spirou, Velter began his career as an elevator operator at age 16, in the London Ritz Charlton. He later learned the trade as an assistant to American cartoonist Martin Branner on the Winnie Winkle strip from 1934-1936.

Spirou by Rob-Vel

In 1938, Velter created the title character for the launch of a new magazine by Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis, Le Journal de Spirou. Signing by the pen-name Rob-Vel, the story was titled Groom au Moustic–hôtel (Bellboy at the Hotel Moskito). Later the same year, he created Spirou's inseparable companion, the brave squirrel Spip, for the story L’héritage.

When Velter was drafted and wounded in 1940, his wife Davine (Blanche Dumoulien) took over the strip for a while. Due to the increasing difficulty of getting the strips from Paris to Belgium, Velter sold his rights to the publisher in 1943, and Jijé took over the strip.^{[citation needed]}

After the war, Velter published a number of strips, including Le Père Pictou, Les Tribulations du Chien Petto, Bibor et Tribar and M. Subito, but he was never able to reach the broad popularity of Spirou again.