Born in Ixelles, Christian Denayer grew up in post-war Belgium, and initially focused on becoming a teacher. But he eventually chose an artistic career, making his first drawings for advertisements. Because of his passion for cars, he became Jean Graton's assistant when he was 17 years old. He cooperated on about 10 albums of Graton's Formula 1 series 'Michel Vaillant'. In addition, he made gag pages for Junior, short stories for Tintin with Yves Duval, as well as 'Alain Bercy' in Formule 1 (1967) and 'L'Écurie Europe' in J2 Jeunes. He later worked as the assistant of Tibet on 'Ric Hochet'. Tibet encouraged him to create a comic of his own, which resulted in 'Yalek', a comic series scripted by André-Paul Duchâteau and published in Le Soir Jeunesse from 1969 on.