Clifton (comics)

Clifton is a Franco-Belgian comics series in the humorous spy-genre, featuring the exploits of Colonel Sir Harold Wilberforce Clifton. It was created by Raymond Macherot in 1959, and has since passed on to other artists and writers. Over the fifty years of publication of the Clifton series, approximately twenty albums and twenty smaller stories have been published, totalling about 800 pages.

Colonel Clifton
Cover to My Dear Wilkinson (1976, trans. 2005), the first album that was released in English.
Publication information
PublisherLombard Editions (French)
Cinebook (English)
FormatOngoing series
GenreHumor
No. of issues21 (in French)
6 (in English)
Creative team
Created byRaymond Macherot
Written byDe Groot
Artist(s)Turk

Character

A British colonel, retired from MI5, though sometimes still active for the British government, Clifton functions as an amateur sleuth, and his phlegmatic approach to stress leads to humorous situations. Harold Clifton lives in Puddington, near London, supported by housekeeper Miss Partridge, who makes a prize-winning goulash. Clifton drives a red MG TD from the early fifties, which gets mangled in most stories, but is repaired regardless of cost. Clifton's hobbies include Boy Scouting (he's Boy Scoutmaster Singing Heron), cats, and collecting cigar wraps. He received a Knighthood in 1993 for saving a member of the Royal family.

Clifton's amateur sleuthing leads him to investigate many cases, often with the police or MI5. His main contact at MI5 is Colonel Donald Spruce who often calls on him to deal with delicate missions. Spruce is the sort of man who would be perfectly capable of handling the missions himself if not for a leg injury which has left him partly disabled.

Note: in later adventures it was established that Clifton served in the RAF as a fighter pilot during World War II. Thus his proper rank would probably be that of group captain.

Publication history

It was originally Raymond Macherot who created the Colonel Clifton character, and the first story was published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin on 16 December 1959.[1] 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 magazine, leaving behind his Tintin-owned work.[2] Clifton was shelved for six years.

In 1969, artist Jo-El Azara and writer Greg revived the series with the short story Les lutins diaboliques. In 1972, writer Greg and new artist Turk did the story Le voleur qui rit.[3] In 1974, artist Turk and new writer De Groot (who had collaborated on the Clifton short-story Le mystère de la voix qui court in 1970), started the story Alias Lord X, and that duo began a long-lasting collaboration on eight Clifton volumes.

In 1983, Bédu took over the artwork from Turk and worked with De Groot until the 1990s.[4] 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.

Timeline of major stories
Artist Scenarist   Year*   FR title NL title EN title
Raymond Macherot Macherot 1959 Les enquêtes du colonel Clifton   De onderzoekingen van kolonel Clifton   Colonel Clifton's inquiries
Macherot Macherot 1960 Clifton à New York Clifton in New York Clifton in New York
Macherot Macherot 1960 Clifton et les espions Clifton en de spionnen Clifton and the spies
Jo-El Azara   Greg 1969 Les lutins diaboliques [short story] De duivelse dwergen The evil elves
Turk De Groot 1970 Le mystère de la voix qui court [short story] Het geheim van de rennende stem The mystery of the running voice
Turk Greg[3] 1972 Le voleur qui rit De lachende dief The laughing thief
Turk De Groot 1974 Alias Lord X Alias Lord X Alias Lord X
Turk De Groot 1975 Sir Jason Sir Jason Sir Jason
Turk De Groot 1976 Ce cher Mr Wilkinson Dear Mr Wilkinson My Dear Wilkinson  
Turk De Groot 1978 7 jours pour mourir 7 dagen om te sterven 7 days to die
Turk De Groot 1979 Atout...coeur! Hartkloppingen! Trump ... heart!
Turk De Groot 1980 Une panthère pour le colonel Een panter voor de kolonel A panther for the colonel
Turk De Groot 1982 Weekend à tuer Weekend om te doden Weekend to kill
Turk De Groot 1983 Kidnapping Kidnapping Kidnapping
Bédu De Groot 1984 Passé composé Uit de oude doos Perfect tense
Bédu De Groot 1986 La mémoire brisée Geheugenverlies The broken memory
Bédu De Groot 1987 Dernière scéance Laatste voorstelling Last session
Bédu De Groot 1990 Matoutou-falaise Matoutou-falaise Matoutou-cliff
Bédu Bédu 1991 Le clan Mc Gregor De Mc Gregor clan The Mc Gregor clan
Bédu Bédu 1992 Mortelle saison Een fataal spel Deadly season
Bédu Bédu 1995 Le baiser du cobra De kus van de cobra The kiss of the cobra
Rodrigue De Groot 2003 Jade Jade Jade
Rodrigue De Groot 2005 Lune noire Zwarte maan Black Moon
Rodrigue De Groot 2006 Elementaire, mon cher Clifton Elementary, my dear Clifton
Rodrigue De Groot 2008 Ballade Irlandaise Irish ballad
Turk Zidrou 2016 Clifton et les gauchers contrariés Spookrijders onder invloed Clifton and the left-handers thwarted
*Denotes original year of publication until Tintin ceased to be published, and Clifton no longer serialised

Publications in magazines and other media

The cartoonists worked with original French language stories, whereas all were published simultaneously in French and Dutch, the two main Belgian languages, in the weekly magazines Tintin / Kuifje (French / Dutch edition of the same magazine), Junior (French) and Ons Volkske (Dutch), all published by Lombard Editions in Brussels. Clifton also ran in other magazines, across Europe such as the German publications Zack and YPS.

Beside French and Dutch, the stories have been translated into Finnish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, English and German (where in most publications Clifton is named Percy Pickwick).

In 1984, a six minutes long Clifton theatrical animated short film was made by Belvision Studios as one of the studios' final productions in the 1980s, the film department of Lombard. The cartoon was based on the short story "Un pépin pour Clifton" (French) / "Onder Cliftons Paraplu" or "Pech voor Clifton" (Dutch) (Lit. "Bad luck for Clifton"/"Under Clifton's umbrella") by Turk and De Groot. The animation was produced by Michel Leloupe, with Anthony Hamilton voicing Clifton.

English translations

The series have been translated into English by Cinebook Ltd, a British publisher specializing in Franco-Belgian comics. So far, eight books have been translated.[5]

  1. My Dear Wilkinson, 2005, ISBN 978-1-905460-06-9
  2. The Laughing Thief, 2005, ISBN 978-1-905460-07-6
  3. 7 days to die, 2006, ISBN 978-1-905460-08-3
  4. The Black Moon, 2007, ISBN 978-1-905460-30-4
  5. Jade, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905460-52-6
  6. Kidnapping, 2009, ISBN 978-1-905460-87-8
  7. Elementary, My Dear Clifton, 2014, ISBN 978-1-849181-98-3
  8. Sir Jason, 2018, ISBN 978-1-84918-407-6
gollark: I can enchant my sunglasses though, SOMEHOW.
gollark: I tried enchanting my boots with depth strider, but alas, it failed.
gollark: So you used HAXXXXX??!??!?!?!?!
gollark: Do you have much "of" a design in mind?
gollark: Can I help with "this" "university" somehow?

References
  1. BDoubliées. "Tintin année 1959" (in French).
  2. Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Raymond Macherot".
  3. Bedetheque. "Clifton (1re série) -5- Le voleur qui rit" (in French).
  4. Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Bédu".
  5. http://www.cinebook.co.uk/index.php?cPath=162
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