'Kid Paddle'.
Midam is the author of the bestselling children's comic series 'Kid Paddle' and its spin-off 'Game Over'. He was born as Michel Ledent in Etterbeek, Brussels, as the son of a civil engineer. He didn't finish a studies in Interior Decoration and Photography, but eventually graduated in Illustration from the Saint-Luke Art Institute. He ranks among his main influences Charles M. Schulz, Ralph Steadman, René Hausman, André Franquin and Bill Watterson. During his military service, he became a draughtsman for the Belgian Navy. After being dismissed fom the army Midam struggled to find a job until he decided to just send sollicitations to every possible paid illustration job. This gave him work at the two-monthly magazine Intermediair, where he replaced Philippe Geluck as their official cartoonist. He made his first comics work for the magazine Micro-Systèmes during the period 1989-1993. He assumed the pseudonym Midam, and joined the team of Spirou magazine in 1992. His first work were illustrations for the "Zig Zag" section.
'Kid Paddle'/ 'Game Over'.
In the videogame section of Spirou, Midam developed his famous 'Kid Paddle' character. 'Kid Paddle' soon became one of the most popular gag series of the magazine, which eventually got its own monthly magazine (published by Disney Hachette Presse from 2002) and was adapted into an animated cartoon series. For this magazine, the often featured silent gags inside the video games eventually got their own spin-off, called 'Game Over'. Midam set up a studio and hired the artist Adam to draw the comic in 2004. Midam and Adam use crowdsourcing for the ideas of the 'Game Over' gags. Midam and Adam also created 'Harding Was Here' for Éditions Quadrants in 2008.
'Le Gowap' (Tintin, 1993).
In 1993, Midam had a brief appearance in Hello Bédé with the first gags starring 'Le Gowap' with text by Mythic, a series that was later continued by Curd Ridel. He teamed up with Clarke and created the absurd series 'Durant les Travaux, l'Exposition Continue', in which all the characters wore glasses, for the Humour Libre collection of Dupuis between 1998 and 2000, and 'Le Miracle de la Vie' for the publisher's Expresso collection in 2004.
'Grrreeny'.
In 2009 Midam created his own publishing label MAD Fabrik, together with Araceli Cancino and Dimitri Kennes, through which he manages his 'Kid Paddle' and 'Game Over' productions, as well as his new series about the green tiger 'Grrreeny' since 2010. The character is the mascot of the children's animal lover's magazine Wapiti since June of that same year. Grrreeny replaced Wapiti's earlier mascot, César the crow, designed by Michel Trublin.
'Kid Paddle'.