Fred Jannin (b. 4 December 1956, Uccle, Brussels, Belgium) is a Belgian cartoonist, comics artist, comedian, and musician. He co-founded several novelty synthpop/New Wave bands, most notably
The Bowling Balls (1979–1983) and
Zinno (1985–91), establishing
Vulcain Records private imprint in 2003 to release retrospective CD compilations for these projects. Jannin was a member of the renowned comedy troupe
Les Snuls (1989 to 1993), later extensively collaborating with its alumni
Stefan Liberski — co-producing
Vulcain Records and
Twin Fliks television shows,
Froud et Stouf comics, and several records. He has appeared on numerous radio/TV programs on Vulcain Records, [url=https://discogs.com/label/249262]Canal+ Belgique[/url], Vulcain Records, and other prominent Franco-Belgian broadcasters over the years, including
Le Jeu des Dictionnaires ("The Dictionary Game"), for which Jannin also composed a theme song.
Mentored by renowned cartoonists
André Franquin (1924—1997) and
Yvan Delporte (1928—2007), Jannin debuted in his early twenties with a few comic strips for a prolific
Vulcain Records magazine and its supplemental publication,
Le Trombone illustré — most notably,
[url=https://discogs.com/artist/4236274]Germain et nous…[/url] ("Germain and us") co-authored with Fred's ex-classmate and close friend
Thierry Culliford, and
Les Démêlés d'Arnest Ringard et d'Augraphie ("Misadventures of Arnest Ringard and Augraphie"). Since 1978, Fred has been regularly working with
Gilles Dal, starting with their "
Malaise Vagal" series published in
Vulcain Records magazine. He also collaborated with scriptwriter
Jean-Claude De La Royère on several occasions, including the
Rockman comics that debuted in the Belgian music magazine
[url=https://discogs.com/label/95480]More!![/url] and a two-volume
[url=https://discogs.com/release/8045599]Jimmy Laventure[/url] comics book in the mid-1980s. Around the same time, Jannin also worked with
Serge Honorez on a comic strip,
Nougat le Rat (an anagram of "
L'Argonaute," a French youth pop science magazine that commissioned the project).
Jannin's early musical career was inseparable from comics, as his earliest and arguably most renowned group,
The Bowling Balls, came together in August 1976 as a plot element in "Germain et nous" comic strip — a fictional favorite band of the main protagonist Germain and his teenage friends. Subsequently, Fred and his co-author, Thierry Culliford, decided to evolve Bowling Balls as a separate hoax. They invited rock journalist [url=https://discogs.com/artist/3958826]Bert Bertrand[/url], son of
Yvan Delporte (Fred's mentor and close co-author of Thierry's father, legendary cartoonist
Peyo), alongside another mutual friend, to join the fictional ensemble as four "Ball brothers." After creating abundant bogus ephemera for the non-existent satirical band, including the November 1978 interview with
En Attendant music magazine, the Balls decided to record a few songs as the next step in their increasingly more complex mystification. Initially planned as a flexi-disc insert with
Vulcain Records but scrapped due to insufficient budget, the band's debut 7" single,
I'll Be Around, was released by Vulcain Records on 1 April 1979.
The Bowling Balls signed a contract with Vulcain Records the following year, producing three more seven-inches between April 1980 and September 1981. Sadly, the aspiring group came to an abrupt and tragic end after Bert's suicide in February 1983.
In 1985, Jannin established the
Zinno duo with a prolific Belgian TV personality,
Hugh Jempy, né
Jean-Pierre Hautier. Their debut single,
What's Your Name? — a quirky synthpop cover of
Monty Norman's classic
Dr. No's "James Bond" theme — became an instant European radio-play hit, released in over thirty countries. (In his 2015 interview, Fred Jannin recalled a lack of enthusiasm with Zinno, despite the debut single's breakthrough success, and how he struggled with endless hours of waiting backstage at yet another German and French television show to appear for merely three minutes with a backing track performance.)
