Jean-Claude Mézières (; 23 September 1938 – 23 January 2022) was a French bandes dessinées artist and illustrator. Born in Paris and raised in nearby Saint-Mandé, he was introduced to drawing by his elder brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis. Educated at the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art, he worked upon graduation as an illustrator for books and magazines as well as in advertising. A lifelong interest in the Wild West led him to travel to the United States in 1965 in search of adventure as a cowboy, an experience that would prove influential on his later work. Returning to France, Mézières teamed up with his childhood friend, Pierre Christin, to create Valérian and Laureline, the popular, long-running science fiction comics series for which he is best known and which influenced many science fiction and fantasy films, including Star Wars. Mézières contributed as a conceptual designer on several motion picture projects, most notably the 1997 Luc Besson film, The Fifth Element, as well as continuing to work as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines and in advertising. He also taught courses on the production of comics at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. Mézières received international recognition through numerous awards, most notably the 1984 Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême. Biography Early life and career Raised in the Saint-Mandé area in the suburbs of Paris, Jean-Claude Mézières met his friend and frequent collaborator Pierre Christin at the age of two in an air-raid shelter during World War II. He was first inspired to draw by the influence of his elder brother who, aged fourteen, had a drawing published in the magazine OK. Mézières' initial inspiration came from such OK strips as Arys Buck by Uderzo, Kaza the Martian by Kline and Crochemaille by Erik. Later he was exposed to Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin, Franquin's period on Spirou et Fantasio and, his favourite of all, Morris' Lucky Luke. He had his first drawings published in 1951, at the age of thirteen, in the magazine Le journal des jeunes, published by Le Figaro. A year later, "completely fascinated by Tintin", he created an eleven-page strip, Tintin in California, which features an unusually muscle-bound Arys Buck-influenced Tintin. This was followed, at the age of sixteen, by La Grande Poursuite, a Western influenced by Tintin,