Jean-Claude Fournier

Jean-Claude Fournier (French: [fuʁnje]; born 21 May 1943, Paris), known simply as Fournier, is a French cartoonist best known as the comic book artist who handled Spirou et Fantasio in the years 1969-1979.

In 1965, Fournier approached André Franquin with drawings of his favourite characters, the cast of Spirou. As Franquin sought a way to retire as Spirou creator, and devote himself to Gaston Lagaffe, he passed on Fournier's work to Yvan Delporte, the editor of Spirou magazine. Fournier's own creation Bizu was serialised in Spirou between 1967–69, until Fournier was finally chosen by Dupuis as Franquin's successor. The first story was Le faiseur d'or which first appeared in Spirou on 29 May 1969. Fournier added his personal poetic and environmentalistic mark to the saga.

In 1979, after nine feature stories, he decided to leave the project and devote himself to Bizu. Spirou et Fantasio was eventually continued by Nic and Cauvin, In 1998 Fournier launched Les Crannibales, a humouristic comics series based on scripts by Zidrou.