Magny-Cours file, trip to Indianapolis: Michel Vaillant's all-out return to school

Let it be said, Michel Vaillant is not about to slow down. The comic book hero, imagined by Jean Graton in 1956, is having an already very rich year 2022 with an adventure across the United States (Cannonball, published at the end of June in Season 2) in a supercar, but the driver touches everything is getting ready to return at full speed through several new products.

Jean-Louis Dauger, Director of Brand and Development at Michel Vaillant, is on all fronts. “Since the start of Season 2 (in 2012), we have sought to maintain regularity with one album per year, He explains. In 2021, it was “Pikes Peak”, in 2022, the Cannonball, to get away from the race a little. In 2023, it will be Le Mans, this is important to us », he reveals.

Indeed, Michel Vaillant's team is present during the last 24 Hours of Le Mans in order to carry out scouting which will be fundamental in the writing and drawing of the album, planned for the first half of 2023, before the Le Mans test.

“2023 will be synonymous with the Centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but for us, it will also be about celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jean Graton, the creator of Michel Vaillant (disappeared in 2021. Editor’s note). When he was 14, he went to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with his parents on a motorcycle. It was there that he discovered his passion for motorsport. This is the reason why, a few years later, Jean Graton located a good number of Michel Vaillant's adventures at Le Mans. specifies Jean-Louis Dauger.

Drawing people we will find Marc Bourgne, back in the Vaillante team since the album “Cannonball”. Benjamin Bénéteau will design the cars and the decor. He took advantage of the opening of the circuit to the public, the day before the race, to cycle around the track for three hours and take a large number of photos, “what we have never been able to do until now”, continues Jean-Louis Dauger. With the benefit of increased realism, what Michel Vaillant's readers are looking for.

Precisely, comic book lovers will be able to mark the date of September 23, 2022. On that day, not one but two works bearing the Michel Vaillant stamp will land in bookstores. On the one hand, volume 16 of the “Dossier Michel Vaillant” series will endeavor to retrace the history of the Nevers Magny-Cours Circuit on 128 pages. Unpublished short stories will take Michel Vaillant and his sidekick Steve Warson on the track which hosted the French Grand Prix of Formula 1 and between 1991 2008.

“The focus given on the files is given on the legendary circuits. Last year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Paul-Ricard with a Dossier. Next year, in partnership with Ouest-France, we will publish a Dossier on Le Mans. »

But here's the best for last: a brand new concept called “Michel Vaillant Légende” also available on September 23! “We wanted to go back in time with Michel Vaillant, justifies Jean-Louis Dauger. This was never done because Michel Vaillant was always the pilot of his time. In the 50s he fought against Juan Manuel Fangio, in 2020 he faced Lewis Hamilton in a Renault. With “Michel Vaillant Légende”, our hero will relive races of the past, with an educational perspective. »

The first stop is in Indianapolis, to attend the 500 1966 Miles. The race was won by Graham Hill, who would subsequently become the only driver to obtain the Triple Crown (victory at Le Mans, Indianapolis and the Monaco Grand Prix) . “We called on a specific designer for this series, Vincent Dutreuil. He has his hands on everything: cars, characters, settings. The idea is that the drawing is vintage, the reader will be projected into a style of the 60s and 70s, as in the era of the works created by Jean Graton. » This should delight Michel Vaillant's most loyal readers.