Jean Roba

The great creator of Boule et Bill was what one might call a fake city dweller. He was born on July 28, 1930 in Schaerbeek (Brussels). But he always preferred the airy streets of the suburbs to the city center. The kind of village within the city where the houses have pretty gardens with swings, children's cries, cockers, birds, even a turtle.

If Bill was lucky enough to be born with magical ears, Roba was born with a pencil in his hand. Lover of drawing since childhood, he never imagined doing anything else.

At 3, he draws upside down, upside down. When he was 11, he attended evening classes at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. At 16, he started in advertising. At the time, we said the advertisement, a word now deliciously old-fashioned. He already has most of the drawing and printing techniques: from washing to engraving through photographic retouching. On leaving military service in 1952, he entered a studio specializing in advertising design. His path seems all mapped out.

It is Franquin who ultimately diverts young Roba from advertising. Joined Dupuis in 1957, Roba started out doing a bit of everything (except coffee, he already had too much talent!). Illustration of a Christmas tale signed Peyo, sketches for two Histoires de l'Oncle Paul, and even, the first complete stories of "Tiou le Petit Sioux". At the same time, he produced some illustrations for the magazine “Bonne Soirée", also edited by Dupuis. André Franquin appreciates his paw and calls him to him. We are in 1958. For Jean Roba, the hour of a second birth! Franquin teaches him the tricks of the trade and embarks him on three adventures of Spirou and Fantasio: Tembo Tabou, Les Hommes Bulles and Les Petits Formats.

And then comes the “Spirou" 1132 of December 24, 1959. Six weeks after having completed a puzzle with his new heroes for the newspaper, Roba offers them a first adventure. Boule contre les mini-sharks sees the official appearance of the cocker spaniel and his young master, a boy named Boule, blue overalls, yellow T-shirt.

Rosy, artistic director of the newspaper, agrees to give Roba a hand with the cutting. But very quickly, the designer of Boule et Bill no longer needed anyone. After a second complete story, he launches, like his master André Franquin, in the supreme challenge of the weekly gag. This does not prevent him from bringing other heroes to life, on occasion: "Pomme" in 1962, and above all, La Ribambelle, from 1965 to 1984 (six albums published)

For more than forty years, Jean Roba continued to draw Boule and Bill with the same talent and the same humility. In 2003, he passed the baton to Laurent Verron, his former assistant. He can then devote himself to personal drawings and watercolors.

24 albums with Dupuis, before deciding in 1987 to move to Dargaud. And with each new collection, success is evident. Because, citizen of the country of childhood, Jean Roba speaks from the heart. Because, an outstanding designer, he invents the world with a pencil. Because Boule and Bill, inspired by his own son and his cocker spaniel, could not ring a bell. He was made a knight of arts and letters in 1992.

The artist died at the age of 75, in June 2006.