William van Cutsem was born in
Anderlecht near
Brussels in 1935, member of the
Van Cutsem family. Originally from Flanders, he worked most of his life in France, and moved later to
Santander, Spain. William Vance started drawing for the
Franco-Belgian comics magazine
Tintin in 1962. 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. From 1967 on, he continued the stories of
Bob Morane in ''Femmes d'aujourd'hui'', a magazine aimed at adult women. 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. Between 1969 and 1979, 18 albums with his artwork were published. 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. His final breakthrough and largest commercial success came in 1984, when writer
Jean Van Hamme proposed a new series,
XIII. First serialised in
Spirou magazine, this series of contemporary adventures with action, violence, and complicated intrigues, let Vance draw upon his talent for realistic drawings, action scenes and exotic settings. By 2007, he had drawn 18 albums in the series, which sold more than 14 million copies in more than 20 countries, and was twice adapted into a TV series. The series was coloured by his wife Petra Coria, with whom he lived in
Santander, Spain. In 2010, Vance announced his retirement due to
Parkinson's disease. He died of the disease on 14 May 2018. ==Style==