Jean Pol/Original coloring for a humorous military-themed postcard for Maezell Publishing. Watercolor realized in the 80's. CP included. Rare. TBE+. 38 X 25 cm Jean-Pol Van Den Broeck (1943) is a recognized talent in popular comics. Like many of his future colleagues, he attended evening classes in advertising and decorative arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels. He joined the Real-Presse agency as an apprentice, lettering and editing various foreign series and photonovels. At the same time, he produced illustrations for denominational youth periodicals (e.g. BONJOUR, TREMPLIN) and cartoons for antagonistic Flemish political parties, under different pseudonyms. After several complete short stories based on scripts by Jacques Acar for the weeklies TINTIN (1964) and PILOTE (1965), he became assistant to Hurey (Hugo de Reymaeker). In 1966, an advertising agency commissioned him to produce strips of the Michelin Man for various Michelin promotional brochures, mainly for South Africa. His real debut as a full-fledged author dates from this period, with "Bertje Kluizenaar" in the weekly LIBELLE and "Le Mystère de Mornetour" for the daily SUD-OUEST. Along with Berck, his almost-neighbor, he's one of the best representatives of the Flemish Louvain school, with its roundness, hectic action and sympathetic drollery aimed above all at a young audience. Curiously enough, they never worked together, although their styles interfered to a considerable extent, accentuated by the fact that, over the last twenty years, the apprentices Jean-Pol launched into comics were often later taken on as Berck's assistants for his various series. It was therefore only logical that Jean-Pol should accept Berck's succession in 1994 for "Sammy", after the latter's retirement: no one better than he could ensure this revival and the continuation of the characters joyously imagined by Cauvin to bring America of the 20s back to life...