Ernest Laverdure

Ernest Laverdure is the wisecracking co-pilot and best friend of Michel Tanguy in the French aviation adventure series Tanguy et Laverdure, debuting in Pilote #1. A French Air Force pilot, he provides comic relief alongside the more serious Tanguy during their military flying missions.

Ernest Laverdure has a genuinely storied pedigree — he made his debut in the very first issue of Pilote in 1959, that landmark French comics magazine whose launch would help define a generation of European sequential art. Created by the legendary pairing of Jean-Michel Charlier and Uderzo, Laverdure shares his pages with some of the most beloved characters in Franco-Belgian comics history, rubbing shoulders with Astérix, Obélix, Michel Tanguy, and Le Petit Nicolas across the pages of Pilote and Super Pocket Pilote. That debut issue alone carries collector-significant key status, making any copy a genuine treasure for fans of the Silver Age European scene. For anyone tracing the roots of the Pilote universe — that remarkable creative hothouse that shaped comics on both sides of the Atlantic — Ernest Laverdure is a fascinating piece of the original puzzle.