Maurice Tillieux

Tillieux enjoyed action as well as humour and mystery, and many of his strips feature elaborate fights and car chases. He died from the results of a car crash near Tours on 31 January 1978, while returning from the annual Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Heroïc-Albums ceased publication in 1956, and Tillieux introduced his most famous character, Gil Jourdan, in Spirou magazine, where he had already worked as an illustrator since 1940. Jourdan was very similar to Félix, though he had clear vision and was an actual PI. Like Félix, he was also flanked by two sidekicks, including a police contact, both of whom provided most of the comic relief which contrasted to the earnest nature of the title character. Some of Félix's stories were the basis for some of Jourdan's own adventures.

It was in the weekly comic Heroïc-Albums, which started in 1947, that he developed his style and proved himself a master of detective stories loaded with humour and atmosphere. Heroïc-Albums's main appeal was that each issue contained complete stories rather than a number of episodes spread over weekly or monthly instalments.

He turned to writing and his first novel Le navire qui tue ses capitaines (The Ship that Kills its Captains) was published in 1943. Many of his stories would be set at sea or in the docks where his early ambitions may have developed. Two other novels are supposed to have been written at this time, but there seems to be some confusion as to whether or not they were actually published.

Maurice Tillieux (7 August 1921 – 2 February 1978) was a Belgian writer and comic artist. He is regarded by many as a major figure of post-war Belgian comics.

Maurice Tillieux was born in Huy in 1921. At first he studied for the merchant navy, but his career prospects were sunk following the German invasion of Belgium in 1940. He claims that while waiting at Bordeaux for a ship that was to take him and his fellow students to South America, a Stuka dive-bomber attacked another ship, forcing Tillieux's to turn round and Tillieux to go home.