Achille Talon is a Franco-Belgian comics series featuring an eponymous main character, created by Greg (the pseudonym of Michel Regnier). Starting publication in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote in 1963, the series presents the comic misadventures of an anti-hero. The name derives from "talon d'Achille", the French term for an "Achilles' heel". Publication history The first Achille Talon gag was published in Pilote on November 7, 1963. After several years of gags and increasing popularity, Achille Talon became a dedicated magazine of its own, starting publication on October 1, 1975. Not achieving the intended success, the magazine ceased publication after one year, producing only six issues. The album series has produced 46 volumes. Achille Talon is presented in two quite different formats: there are album length stories such as Achille Talon et la main du serpent (Achille Talon and the Serpent's Hand), a 44-page story, as well as albums with only gags that run one or two pages each. Regardless of format, Achille Talon would typically first appear a couple pages at a time in the weekly magazine Pilote, then be collected later for hardcover or softcover books. Characters Achille Talon is a bourgeois who likes to think he's an eloquent (others say voluble) intellectual. He is vain to the extent that he builds a giant statue of himself in his front garden and desperately tries to get on the good side of the local gentry. That being said, Achille Talon is a gentleman, an intrepid traveler and an animal lover. He values etiquette and sometimes resorts to activism (e.g., pro peace or against pollution) or inventions. He is often at odds with his neighbour Hilarion Lefuneste, who loves to argue too. (In French, le funeste means "the grievous/fateful one" suggesting any dealings with him will have negative consequences.) A man in his forties, Achille is single and lives at home with his parents. His father, Alambic Dieudonné Corydon Talon, is a beer-fanatic, while his mother, unnamed but always "maman", is a strong, earthy, loving bourgeois housewife. He never tires of the attentions of the aristocratic Virgule de Guillemets, who brings sophistication to his life. Achille Talon can be courageous and magnanimous, a protector of animals and ever vigilant guardian of proper etiquette, so much so that he fights with an author of an etiquette book — over which of them has the honour of giving the right of way.