Born in Uccle on 24 March 1944, Louis-Michel Carpentier attended the Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Brussels for four years before being employed as an illustrator at Belvision studios where he worked on feature-length films (Astérix, Tintin and Lucky Luke). With the recession hitting this company hard, he tried his luck at Casterman from 1975 onwards, where he adapted the countess of Segur novels into comic strips, creating a successful series of 11 volumes which ended in 1984.
At the same time, he turned to Raoul Cauvin in 1980 to create his own series, “Les Toyottes”, five volumes of which were published from 1980 to 1982 (Casterman), before a final reissue by Lombard in 1989.
Carpentier and Cauvin worked together on some pieces of work published by Artiscope and sought a subject which was not at risk of going out of fashion: bar-room talk and the unusual set of people who haunt such places. Archers published the first two volumes of their ” L’année de la bière” in 1986 and 1987, with translations into half a dozen dialects for the thirsty population of the provinces.
In 1989, they pursued the adventures of their favourite taverner for Éditions Dupuis, entitled “Du côté de chez Poje”. Since then, they have visited that friendly bistro every year to create a new volume, sometimes slipping in a few caricatures of their favourite colleagues and friends (Malik, Kox, Walthéry, Jidéhem, etc). A simultaneous version in the Brussels dialect was most successful in the Belgian capital.
Nevertheless, this venture encouraged Louis-Michel Carpentier to discreetly launch his own Éditions Top-Game where he produced some albums from time to time which were unclassifiable but wonderfully humorous all the same: the “Jour le plus con” series or the collections gathering together all his friends in the illustration of “Chansons cochonnes” intended for an audience of informed experts.
The family business did well and also produced ingenious spin-off items, such as electronic games. The artist’s son, Laurent, specialised in colouring, both for his father and for several of his colleagues.
Jovial and never even trying to take himself seriously, Carpentier has found his niche: as long as people are thirsty for beer and friendliness, Poje will not be short of customers!
