The trio had lots of fun dreaming up the adventures of “Pétard Guy” (none other than their teacher !), a slightly naughty western to which all three contributed, creating caricatures of themselves for the secondary roles in the saga : Dynamite Stef (De Becker), Cactus Phil (Tome) and Coyote (Janry).

Those who appreciate details will be thrilled to learn that in this very early apprenticeship, Janry saved the beautiful Géraldine Lulu for himself, Dynamite Stef the Indian – he had the right hair for it, hanging down to his shoulders – and the inking, while Tome drew Coyote Janry and Pétard Guy. De Becker took on Cactus Phil, the secondary characters and crayoning in the backgrounds.

In 1979, the Belgian minister of cultural affairs organised a contest for young comic book authors. A student at Saint-Luc at that time, Stéphane De Becker entered his own work and won a prize. The “Pétard Guy” cartoons were also submitted to the competition judges and the trio won a second prize!

This artist will go through a period of realism and fanzinism under the influence of his studies at Saint-Luc, but his love of fun prevails and he rejoins the studio of Tome and Janry in 1985, doing the colours of “Spirou et Fantasio” from the episode “Le réveil du Z” on, and then “Petit Spirou” and “Soda”.

However, the urge to illustrate returns and, with Janry writing the script, he created the animation page of “Jeux d’enfer” in 1988. Suddenly he prefers to draw small characters rather than labyrinths or crossword puzzles. Their joint work gradually evolves into the humorous cartoon strip series “Passe-moi l’Ciel”. Although their work appears far from regularly, who are we to complain? They have all of celestial eternity before them!

It is only after 10 years, on the threshold of the new millennium, that their first albums will appear, in moderation and with slow wisdom so as not to use up the authors’ limited reserves of material too quickly.

Stuf died on 22 July 2015.