Visitor Profile: Jean-Claude Mezieres

We are so excited that Jean-Claude has been here for the last three weeks or so! He is a dear friend of the family, who also happens to be a famous French cartoonist! It is so fun to have him here. Let me tell you his story…(you can also find him on wikipedia, although I haven't asked him to verify the contents)

Jean-Claude was here for the first time in the mid 1960’s. He had a work visa for Houston, Texas, but didn’t work there. He traveled around, and he ended up working on the ranch. This was back when Number One’s Dad was running the place, not long after Number One’s grandfather had purchased the ranch. CG wasn’t even living down here back then.

Jean-Claude worked here, on the ranch, for about a month and a half. From what we can gather, he got stuck with a lot of the crappy jobs that no one else wanted to do. But, it was always his dream to be a Cowboy. He was raised on the adventures of Lucky Luke (a famous French cartoon cowboy) and I think Europeans have fantasized about the “Wild West” all along. And they did let him do some work on horseback too! (He filmed some video when he was here the first time; we are dying to get our hands on a copy of that! Number One’s Dad is in charge of transferring the old format to DVD and making copies since he lives in the City and we obviously do not)

After Jean-Claude’s initial time here, he came back circa 1969, but couldn’t stay as long. (by then CG was living here too) And after that, he lost touch with Number One’s parents and the ranch.

Until the 1990’s, when a friend of his daughter’s returned from a visit to the States, with pictures of certain rock formations. Familiar rock formations, which brought the ranch to mind, along with a sense of ownership to which anyone who visits can attest: I know those rocks! Those are MY rocks! By god, I have BEEN there! I love that place! I need to go back there!

And since then, he tries to come back and visit every few years or so. He was here in the summer, two years ago, around H-Bomb’s third birthday. We have an awesome sketch he did for us as a gift. We also have the sketches and drawings and paintings that he and H-Bomb did together, which we have documented with photographs. It is very exciting. Not many kids can claim they have sketched with a famous French cartoonist!

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Shameless Promotion:

If you'd like to read one of Jean-Claude's graphic novels, but don't read French, there is a new English compilation of several of the Valerian comics available. He collaborates on the novels with his childhood friend, Pierre Christin. Also, four of Jean-Claude's books were published in English, mostly in the 1980's I believe (let me know if you'd like the titles). We found some copies for the boys on ebay. Try your luck, they are very fun.

Incidentally, if you've ever seen a small, little-known movie series called Star Wars, you will see many similarities and inspirations drawn from Jean-Claude's work. (sadly, this inspiration has gone unacknowledged all these years. Tsk, tsk, Mr. Lucas.)

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Jean-Claude is delightful to have around, so funny and a gracious guest. He is staying in our camper for his month-long visit, when he isn’t on the mountain playing cowboy with Number One. His main objective was to ride and help Number One with the fall gather. His secondary objective is to drink wine with me and play and draw and paint with the boys and snip occasional parsley for dinner. I am also trying to expand my French vocabulary to include more than “la toilette.”

We went hiking together and carved pumpkins. H-Bomb drew and/or painted Jean-Claude several spooky Halloween pictures because they don't have Halloween in France--H-Bomb didn't want Jean-Claude to miss out!

He has repeatedly invited us to visit him in France. He has a studio in Paris, and a country house in the South of France. We all want to go, so we are planning our trip. As soon as Sawed Off gets out of diapers. I have invited my mom to come and help with the boys. I absolutely cannot wait.

Jean-Claude leaves tomorrow, and we will all miss him. We have treasured our time together.

We'll see you again soon, Jean-Claude.