Willy Lambillotte was born in Tamines, Belgium in 1936. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and first presented his drawings at the publisher Dupuis, known for Spirou magazine, when he was 16. He was accepted as a letterer, and got to know the major artists of the magazine of the time like Jijé and André Franquin. As of 2009, Lambil has made more than 40 albums of Les Tuniques Bleues, which have sold over 15 million copies.