Clifton (comics) - Publication History

Publication History

It was originally Raymond Macherot who created the Colonel Clifton character, and the first story was published in the comics magazine Tintin on December 16, 1959. In preliminary studies, Macherot had used Colonel Horatio Amaory Crickett as a working name, but before the first story decided on Colonel Clifton instead. Clifton's first names Harold Wilberforce were not mentioned until the second story. After three stories, published in 1959-1960, Macherot went on to do other work, and eventually left Tintin for the competitor Spirou, leaving behind his Tintin-owned work. Clifton was shelved for six years.

In 1969 Jo-El Azara and Greg revived the series, collaborating on the story Les lutins diaboliques, and in 1975, with the story Le mystère de la voix qui court, the duo of Turk and De Groot began a long-lasting collaboration of Clifton volumes.

There followed another change in 1983 as Bédu took over the artwork from Turk and worked with De Groot until the 90s. In 1991 Bédu became responsible for both artwork and scenario with the story Le clan Mc Gregor, the last story serialised in French Tintin, and continued to work alone for the following two stories published directly to albums.

In 2003, after a long inactive period, Rodrigue collaborated with Bob de Groot who returned to write Clifton scripts, and two volumes have been published since.