Comic Art Museum - Brussels

This is the remarkable achievement of an artist turned author, a man of distinction. After a career spanning 45 years in the world of comic strip art, Benn has managed to rid himself of the ‘big nose’ style (trying out the studio Peyo genre), and of the very catching influence of one his eminent colleagues (Wasterlain), and, finally, of his script-writers, even if they are some of the very best.  

As a graphic artist with a very personal style, Benn is now an avid story-teller. “The Whitechapel Magician” is the first volume of a sequel of three; all we can say is that we can’t wait to know the outcome!

JC De la Royère, Comics Art Museum.

Jerrold Piccobello, one of the best known magicians in the U.K. suffers yet another rejection at an audition. He is absolutely desperate and decides to return to the area where he grew up, where everything started… Jerrold was 3 years old when his mother passed away. His father was a professional trickster. One evening, his career came to a tragic end whilst playing a game of craps with the big boys in which he is caught cheating. Fearing that Jerrold and his sister would become the subject of the worst possible reprisals, he placed them in the care of Jenny, his former mistress, who was the landlady at the Eagle pub in the East End just opposite a music hall. It is in this strange setting that Jerrold grew up. That is also where he met Virgill Webb, his mentor, who taught him everything there was to know about performing magic. It is to this place that he returns, completely dishevelled, after his failed audition, and having no-one else to turn to, he sells his soul to the devil…

André Beniest, known as Benn – graphic artist and script-writer – born on 4 November 1950 in Ixelles in Brussels, launches into comic strip art in 1969 by signing his first drawings for the newspaper Ons Volkske - Junior (Petit-Beurre, half-pages of gags). At the same time, he attends a three-year course in charcoal drawing and engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. After working for magazines and pre-publication newspapers, such as Spirou and Tintin, Benn publishes numerous comic books, such as Mic Mac Adam with Desberg, Elmer et moi, Woogee and also, and this more recently at Dargaud, Valentine Pitié.

Dargaud Publishing House