The feature first appeared in Tintin magazine, where Jean Graton had already published a number of short stories about real-life sporting heroes.

[4] On February 7, 1957,[citation needed] Jean Graton created the character Michel Vaillant, with five short stories published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin, with publication beginning June 12, 1957.

In 2000, the Palmarès Inedit series was created, with early works and stories previously unpublished in books.

Michel, Henri's son, is the main driver, his usual team-mate being the American, Steve Warson.

Michel Vaillant competes in existing motor races and Grand Prix on real-life circuits.

The Vaillante firm is run as a real company, it has financial problems, must launch advertising campaigns and search for sponsors.

While he looked like a young man of about twenty years at the beginning of his adventures, he is seen progressively reaching middle-age.

In spite of this he is still depicted as quite young for a man who has competed against drivers of multiple generations, including Juan Manuel Fangio, Graham Hill and Ayrton Senna.

[13] His many abilities, his courage and his values, his kindness and his physical appearance make him a practically perfect hero, without any flaws.

At that time, she was a journalist for a newspaper owned by her father Louis Latour, a good friend of Henri Vaillant.

He married Agnès de Chanzy, the daughter of Henri Vaillant's friend living in Argentina, in the very first album.

The team resorts to aggressive strategies to win races and uses dangerous drivers, such as Vince Hummer, Bob Cramer, Dan Hawkins, Donald Payntor, Michael Borman, and Jack Moore.

An ambitious and cruel man, he studied a form of Buddhism that gives him amazing powers, which he uses to try to dominate the motor industry.

Her father, of noble heritage, first opposed such a union, due to Yves's poor origin, but later gave his permission, in the face of Gabriele's determination.

Drivers, most notably French and Belgians like Vanina and Jacky Ickx, François Cevert, Patrick Tambay, Thierry Boutsen, René Arnoux, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Éric Bernard, have made appearances in the storylines.

Gilles Villeneuve and Jacky Ickx are portrayed as good friends of Michel's as is Didier Pironi, and are the most recurring drivers of the series.

New series In 1986, the album Irish coffee was awarded the Avoriaz Festival's Grand Prix (Morzine, France).

In 1967, French TV broadcast a live-action adaptation of the series, Les Aventures de Michel Vaillant.

Episodes offer rare close-up contemporary footage of races and cars that year at the Rallye Du Nord, Magny Cours, Nürburgring, Monza, Targa Florio, Le Mans, Monaco, Rouen-Les-Essarts, Sebring and Reims.

A Michel Vaillant film was made in 2003, and the soundtrack to the movie composed by the band Archive was released at the same time.

[17] In 1969, Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari personally wished Michel Vaillant a happy 20th birthday.

[20] Some fans have built a real Vaillante Grand Defi, a model which appeared several times in the comics series.

[24] It was also Luc Donckerwolke who transformed a Lola B98/10–Judd into a Vaillante and a Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S into a Leader car in 2003 for the Besson movie.

[25] Donckerwolke also collaborated with Studio Graton on the latest titles of the series, drawing some cars featured in the albums.

[32] Menu won the second feature race of the event (round 14) under the name M. Vaillant, even dying his hair and shaving his beard to resemble the look of the character.

The series is very popular among fans of automobiles, because it features real-life cars, including renowned and prestigious models.

The series have fans throughout several countries, though it has not translated into other languages except for English, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian (with Michel Vaillant renamed Mark Breton in the two latter), Portuguese, Serbian, Croatian, Finnish and Italian.

A stamp representing Michel Vaillant was published in Belgium,[33] a rare privilege granted only to the greatest comics series'.

[34] Celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the series took place in 2007, among them Strip Turnhout, at the bi-annual official Flanders comics festival, organizing a retrospective exhibition.

[36] In 2008, an original page from "De l'huile sur la piste" was sold for 11,520 euros at auction in 2008 at Brussels among other works previously published by Tintin magazine, establishing the record sale of that day.