Pierre Christin, 1938-2024

Entrevue recently announced the French comics writer Pierre Christin, who together with the recently deceased artist Jean-Claude Mezieres created Valerian and Laureline in 1967, has passed away at age 86:

Pierre Christin, a major figure in French comics, passed away this Thursday, October 3, 2024 at the age of 86. A renowned screenwriter, he is known for having co-created the cult series with the cartoonist Jean-Claude Mézières Valerian et Laureline, forever marking the world of science fiction comics.

Born on July 27, 1938 in Saint-Mandé, in the Paris region, Pierre Christin first studied at Sciences Po Paris before embarking on an academic career. Passionate about literature and history, he taught for a time in the United States, where he met up with his childhood friend Jean-Claude Mézières. Together, they imagined the spatiotemporal agent couple Valérian and Laureline, whose adventures began in 1967 in the pages of the newspaper [Pilote]. The series, which mixes science fiction and social criticism, quickly became a classic and influenced generations of readers.

Christin's narrative style, which integrates political, social and philosophical themes, has left a deep mark on the ninth art. The planets and civilizations he imagines with Mézières are all pretexts for exploring the human condition, which he approaches with intelligence and subtlety. Albums like The Empire of a Thousand Planets ou The Heroes of the Equinox are full of allusions to contemporary issues, whether colonization, ecology or totalitarianism.

Comicon has more about Christin's portfolio. I just think it's a shame the 1967-2010 comic had to be made into an expensive live action movie that didn't live up to its potential back in 2017. One that, as I recall, made too much of an effort to stuff nearly everything overrated director Luc Besson thought was great about the comic into one single movie, even in cameo format. That kind of trick hardly works. The comics are decidedly better for consumption, and the funny thing is that they apparently inspired some of the designs used in Star Wars decades back. And neither creator got much credit for it, if at all.

So thanks to Christin, along with Mezeieres, for what they brought to the table in their time.