a youth camp in Strasbourg, I moved to a youth camp in Kehl, Germany. We dreamed of being real soldiers... I found myself in the Wehrmacht, the German army. What would you have me do? As a deserter, I would have been shot...We trailed in the mud, we did not sleep and we were afraid, it was terror. But I do not regret anything, I'm glad I knew it, even if it was very hard". Career as comic artist After the war, Mouminoux worked extensively in comics published for the Franco-Belgian market under his real name, and also a variety of pseudonyms: "Lahache", "Dimitri Lahache" and just "Dimitri". Mouminoux's comics often include the theme of war and plenty of black humor. He made his debut as a comic artist in 1946, working extensively in the 1950s and 1960s for the French magazine Cœurs Vaillants and its two spin-offs from Catholic publisher Fleurus, creating comics of a mostly historical nature, inspired by his predecessor Jijé. For Fleurus, he co-illustrated two educational books together with younger colleague and future French comic great Jean Giraud, who was also employed at the publisher as comic artist in the period 1956-1958. After a couple of early editorial illustrations, Mouminoux followed his colleague into the employ of publisher Dargaud in the 1960s, where he created several humoristic comics for its magazine Pilote aside from providing additional illustrations for the editorials. He also befriended his earlier role model Jijé, and became assistant on the adventure Jean Valhardi series. The publication of The Forgotten Soldier in 1965 brought Mouminoux success as a writer, but also cost him his job as a comic artist. "It allowed me to live for years. [But] If I chose to publish my novel under a pseudonym [it] was precisely not to mix everything... Now everyone knows it's me, but at the time, I was furious. I got fired from Pilote because of that." In May 2000 Mouminoux published a comic book account of the Battle of Kursk, again drawing on his personal experiences in WW2, titled Kursk: Tourmente d'Acier, under his pen name Dimitri. Later life and death He died on 11 January 2022, at the age of 94. Bibliography Biography Le soldat oublié by Guy Sajer (1965) Comic albums Kursk : tourmente d'acier by Dimitri (2000) References External links Biography of Guy Mouminoux ("Dimitri") at www.lambiek.net Retrieved 13 September 2019 Discussion at