Arthur Berckmans facts for kids

Arthur Berckmans (born May 3, 1929 – died December 28, 2020) was a talented Belgian comics artist and writer. He was most famous for creating the comic series Sammy. He was widely known by his pen name, Berck.

The Life of a Comics Creator

Arthur Berckmans was born in Leuven, Belgium, in 1929. He loved drawing and studied art at the Art Academy in Leuven and the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels.

His first job as an artist was in 1948. He worked for a magazine called Pro Apostolis. He also drew pictures for several books written for young people. Later, he joined PubliArt, which was a part of a big publishing company called Le Lombard. There, he created many drawings and even some comics for advertisements that appeared in Belgian newspapers and magazines.

Early Comics Work

In 1958, a famous comic magazine called Tintin asked Berck to work with René Goscinny. Together, they created a funny new comic series called Strapontin. This series became quite popular. Berck then made a few other series for Tintin magazine, with Rataplan being one of the most well-known.

Around the same time, he also started working for Zonneland. This was a youth magazine published by Altiora Averbode. In later years, he also contributed to Sjors, a major Dutch comics magazine. For Sjors, he created a series called Lowietje.

The Success of Sammy

Berck's biggest success came when he started working for Spirou magazine. His first series there, Mulligan, did not become very famous. However, everything changed when he teamed up with writer Raoul Cauvin. They created the comic series Sammy.

Sammy is about two bodyguards who work in Chicago during the 1930s. This was a time when famous gangsters like Al Capone and law enforcement agents like Eliot Ness were active. The series quickly became very popular, and the comic albums sold incredibly well. Because Sammy was such a hit, Berck decided to stop working on his other series. He wanted to focus only on Sammy.

In 1994, Berck announced that he would retire from drawing comics. This was a big surprise because it was very unusual for a comics artist to retire at age 65. The Sammy series was then continued by another experienced artist named Jean-Pol.

Awards

Berck received several important awards for his work:

• 1973: Prix Saint-Michel for Best Comical Artwork, Brussels, Belgium
• 1975: Prix Saint-Michel for Best Comical Comic
• 1985: Bronzen Adhemar, Turnhout, Belgium