El cetro de Ottokar
Vandevelde was born in Brussels. An operation left him blind for a short while at the age of eight. His first experiences of comics were the "Adventures of Tintin" story "King Ottokar's Sceptre" and "Corentin" read aloud to him. Under the pseudonyms "Phil" and "Tom", he published his first illustrations and comics for the school magazine "Buck" (made by Thierry Groensteen) from 1972 to 1974. His first comic was a medieval parody "Estrel, le troubadour".