Gilbert Gascard, who took on the pseudonym Tibet, is one of the classic artists of Tintin magazine and creator of the famous series ‘Chick Bill’ and ‘Ric Hochet’. He was born in Marseille, but he moved to Belgium during his childhood. Gascard began his career as an assistant animator in 1947. He then joined the Disney studios of Tenas and Rali, where he met his future scenarist André-Paul Duchâteau. Two years after his animation debut, he joined Héroic Albums, where he began doing various illustrations, as well as the realistic police comic ‘Dave O’Flynn’. From 1951, he worked at the art studios of Tintin magazine and he introduced such characters to the magazine as ‘Jean-Jean et Gigi’, ‘Titi et Tutu’ and ‘La Famille Petitoux’.
The same year, he created his first continuing comic in Ons Volkske, ‘De Avonturen van Koenraad’, written by Duchâteau. In the same magazine, and its French counterpart Chez Nous Junior, he began the funny western ‘Chick Bill’. In the early days of this series, the characters were all animals. As the series evolved, Tibet humanized his characters. From the fourth album, the series got its definitive shape. From 1956, the ‘Chick Bill’ series also appeared in Tintin. He created a sole episode of ‘Pat Rick et Mass Tick’ in 1955, as well as an advertising strip for Helva. He began his famous detective series ‘Ric Hochet’ a year later, again with Duchâteau.
Besides working on his two successful series, Tibet took on ‘Globul le Martien’ and ‘Alphonse’ (text by René Goscinny) and ‘Mouminet’ (text by Greg). Tibet created ‘Junior’ in 1958, the leader of his new series ‘Le Club des Peur-de-Rien’. This comic appeared in Ons Volkske/Chez Nous Junior. In the early 1960s, he illustrated the first episodes of ‘Les 3A’, with backgrounds by Mittéï and texts by Michel Vasseur (a pseudonym of Duchâteau). In the seventies, Tibet did some caricatures of celebrities in Tintin’s section ‘Tibetière’.
