Raymond Macherot
(Zara)
(b. 30/04/1924, Belgium)

Raymond Macherot is the creator of characters like Chlorophylle, Clifton, Chaminou and Sibylline. Except for Clifton, who was a British colonel-detective, all of his characters are animals. His stories about the lovely mice against the awful rats are very warm and sympathetic stories for every age and considered to be some of the best in the rich Belgian comic history. Originally, Raymond Macherot focussed on a career in journalism and painting, but he soon started illustrating for financial reasons. His first drawings, which he made under the name Zara, appeared in the magazine Pan. Macherot's actual comics career started in 1953, when he joined the Tintin magazine and the art studios of Lombard publishers.

Here, he started out making some illustrations and short stories, as well as writing the scenario of the first 'Chevalier Blanc' episode (artwork by Fred Funcken). He eventually found his way in 1954, when he started his first animal series, 'Chlorophylle et Minimum'. The animal comics genre suited him best, but this didn't prevent him from starting the 'Clifton' series in 1959. In 1964 Macherot turned over all his series for Tintin to other artists and went to Spirou. For this magazine he started other animal series, like 'Chaminou' and 'Sibylline'. In the 1970s he also drew gag series about cats in cooperation with scenarists like René Goscinny and Raoul Cauvin ('Pantoufle' and 'Mirliton'). Raymond Macherot also wrote comics for fellow artists. Along with Yvan Delporte, Macherot wrote 'Mulligan' for Berck and 'Isabelle' for Will.