lit a candle 1d agonever really got into his stuff, the art style wasn't for me, but the Kenya covers we looked at in art class had such good colour work. didn't know he'd written that many albums until now.
Their story
Rodolphe Daniel Jacquette, known throughout Franco-Belgian comics simply as Rodolphe, died in Colombes on 22 September 2026 after a cardiac arrest. He was 78. Publishers Glénat and Anspach announced the loss the next day, saluting an erudite, generous and passionate storyteller whose enthusiasm had marked the ninth art for half…
Rodolphe Daniel Jacquette, known throughout Franco-Belgian comics simply as Rodolphe, died in Colombes on 22 September 2026 after a cardiac arrest. He was 78. Publishers Glénat and Anspach announced the loss the next day, saluting an erudite, generous and passionate storyteller whose enthusiasm had marked the ninth art for half a century.
Born on 18 May 1948 in Bois-Colombes, he studied literature at the University of Nanterre, earned a licence and a master's degree, and taught lettres before becoming a bookseller and literary journalist. In 1975, while keeping a shop in a Latin Quarter alley, he met Jacques Lob. Lob read his short stories and urged him toward comics scripting. That friendship opened a career that would run more than fifty years and produce well over two hundred albums (some tallies approach three hundred), ranging through adventure, mystery, fantasy, science fiction and emotion, nourished by Anglo-Saxon literature, Celtic legend and rock and roll.
With Leo he co-created Trent and later Kenya, whose world continued in Namibia, Amazonia and Scotland. At Dargaud he also wrote the police-fantasy series Cliff Burton, first drawn by Frederik Garcia and later by Michel Durand. With Jacques Ferrandez he launched Commissaire Raffini. At Glénat his long run included Les Ecluses du ciel (with Michel Rouge, then Francois Allot), Le Cycle de Tai-Dor (with Serge Le Tendre and Jean-Luc Serrano), Dock 21 / Les Abimes du temps, Dickens and Dickens, Memphis, and, in March 2026, Chagrin with Griffo. He continued Greg's unfinished Comanche and later wrote Robert Sax and many one-shots with artists including Annie Goetzinger, Andre Juillard and Bertrand Marchal. In 1993 he received the Jacques-Lob Prize for his body of work.
He remained active to the end: Conan Doyle - Tome 1 - Le Monstre du Staffordshire, again with Griffo for Anspach, was due in bookshops around 25 September 2026. Glénat remembered an author whose communicable enthusiasm had deeply marked bande dessinee; Anspach called him essential to the house and a friend with whom talk of stories never stopped. He leaves a catalogue that helped introduce Leo to European readers and that still moves between Western, Africa-set mystery, Victorian pastiche and quiet human drama.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia Rodolphe (comic book writer) EN and Rodolphe (auteur) FR CC BY-SA; Glénat communique via ActuaLitte (Hocine Bouhadjera, 23 Sep 2026); ToutenBD 23 Sep 2026; Livres Hebdo / AFP 23 Sep 2026; La. Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“Beyond the immensity of his work, all who knew him will keep the memory of an erudite, generous and passionate author whose communicable enthusiasm deeply marked the world of bande dessinee.”
“Through his friendship, through the certainty he seemed to have in my abilities (which I did not have!), Jacques Lob gave me a certain self-confidence.”
Photos
1Rodolphe at the Salon du livre de Paris, 2010
by People Forever
