[4] After drawing complete real-life stories of four pages for a few years, he started work on his first series, Howard Flynn, written by Yves Duval.

This science fiction series, based on the novels by Henri Vernes, was started by Dino Attanasio and continued by Gerald Forton before Vance took over and made it a success.

[5] Vance meanwhile started two new series, Ramiro, with stories set in medieval Spain, and from 1976 onwards, Bruce J. Hawker, his personal favourite, starring a lieutenant in the Royal Navy.

[7] His final breakthrough and largest commercial success came in 1984, when writer Jean Van Hamme proposed a new series, XIII.

He also started experimenting with the page layout, with large central panels, and with the colouring, which showed influences of psychedelic art.