WEBORGERS-

The Belgian Comics

[IMAGE]The most famous Belgian comic: Tintin!!!

European Comics bloomed after WW II, especially in Belgium, France, Italy and England. As most of you certainly know Tintin, few only could point Belgium as Tintin's native land. However, the Belgian contribution to the Comics' universe was certainly not limited to the world famous reporter and to his small dog Snowy (Milou, in French- the original language of the Tintin stories). The forties and the fifties saw the apparition of an incredibly rich and diversified production of comic books in Belgium.

THE REVIVAL IN THE SEVENTIES
The end of the sixties and early seventies saw a tremendous revival in the Comics in Belgium and France: as well by the creators as by the interest of the readers, young..and not so young...!
Brussels, Charleroi and Liège were the Belgian towns were the majority of the creators and publishers were concentrated. As Belgium has not a large population (10 Million), with two main national languages: French and Dutch (Flemish) it was necessary to keep France and The Netherlands as a natural market for the Belgian comics. By the reputation of quality and appeal to a mixed public (kids, young teen-agers ...and adults)the success rapidly grew farther out of the borders of Belgium.


A MIRACLE: TWO BELGIAN COMICS MAGAZINES
The local growth of talents was fueled by two incredibly high quality magazines for the youth: "Spirou"(1938) and... "Tintin" (this one appeared only in 1946). The publishers of these magazine could detect and develop talents such as: André Franquin, Edgard Jacobs, Morris, Maurice Tilleux, Jijé, Willy Vandersteen, Jacques Martin, Peyo, Roba, Walthéry... and so many others until the mid eighties. Looking back to collections of these magazines seems like entering the world of a wizard: all the Belgian talents in comics were present! All the fabulous characters started their lives in these mags.

Event
{image: cover of Tintin mag} 1996 should have seen the 50th year of the Tintin magazine: the first issue was published in French in Belgium the 26th September 1946.
Le journal Tintin (Tintin's journal) was an immediate success! It carried the famous slogan in its front page: For the Young from 7 to 77 years (Pour les Jeunes de 7 á 77 ans).
<<<Cover of the first issue

A French Website devotes a few pages to an interesting description of the early days of the Tintin magazine: Les débuts du journal Tintin
Well documented and accurate it is a good reminder of the Belgian golden age for comics. A must for Tintin lovers and anybody interested in Belgo-French comics!

INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM FOR THE BELGIAN COMICS

The most popular Belgian comics were translated in many languages during that period for a wide European distribution (and in non European languages as well, such as Indonesian, Japanese or Chinese).

However only the super-famous Belgian comics series, best-sellers in most of the other countries, were finally translated in English for the British market first. It means that only a small number of Belgian comics reached the English public, due to the filtering made by the British publishing world. This, because most of the UK editors were applying old-fashion criteria and some pre-conceived idea about what their readers should like.. or not.
The result of this, was that top comics series were not always very well distributed in the English speaking countries.

This explain why some of the best of the Belgian comics are still not well known by English speaking readers, but are familiar to the rest of the world since decades.

I think it was useful to underline this aspect for the visitors of this site being a majority of English speaking readers.

FAMOUS CHARACTERS FROM THE BELGIAN COMICS



Marsupilami: one of the most cute and original character created by Franquin!


[N O T E :
to avoid too long delays in downloading, famous and interesting Belgian comics' characters are listed hereunder, each name being linked to one of the following pages of this WEBORGERS site]




INTERESTED IN COMICS? Don't miss this on the WEB!!!

European comics on the WEB: the best for graphic sources and for the most complete lists of links for the Comics in Europe.
Erik Tjong Kim Sang, creator of the site is a University researcher in fundamentals for computer applications. He is presently working in Sweden. Erik is a great fan of European comics and a real amateur, as proved by his own articles !
Big parts of the lists are dedicated to the Belgian comics because of their success and qualities.

European Hard-Boiled Comics: A selection of some of the best European comics production having detective/crime stories as topics, with tough guys and gals handling the situations. Can be borderline to Noir, similar to this genre of rough tales developped in films and mystery novels. Meet Canardo, Nestor Burma (Tardi), Largo Winch and more.

Brussels's Museum for Comics and Cartoons (Musée de la BD)
CBBD- Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, is its official name.
This museum, unique in the world, is installed in the very heart of Brussels in a historical architectural building designed by Horta for industrial use. It was converted to an exhibition center for the "comic strips" (bande dessinée as they are called in French, BD in short and colloquial).
Their incredible collections of albums, magazines and books, as well as original works from authors (drawings and writings) are all dedicated to the Comics.
One of the most original cultural realization in Belgium for decades!
Visit the official WEB site of this dream museum by following this link.


Check out Le calendrier du Centenaire- The Calendar of the Centennial-text in French only, but an exceptional source of info about Belgo-French Comics; a superb compilation that gives topics (related to the Calendar dates) about the Belgian comics creators and their works. Comics from other origins are presented as well. A GREAT work by this French team. Created for the WEB in 1996 : the history of modern comics was 100 years old!!




TINTIN

Tintin, the Grand-Daddy of the Belgian comics!
Born in 1929 in a Belgian newspaper, his adventures, as a grand reporter travelling over the world, made him worldwide famous.
The death of his creator, Hergé put an end to a good continuation of this series, unfortunately. The existing books are so well liked everywhere in the world, that continuous re-prints are insured in an incredible number of languages, including: esperanto, Basque, Catalan, Icelandic,Japanese, Chinese, Finnish to name a few.

Collectors of the different editions of the same Tintin comic books are hard-working to detect old editions in black and white ( with color posters or not), redesigns of the forties with colorization, and re-editions of the seventies of long existing albums like: Tintin au Congo (Tintin in Africa), Les Cigares du Pharaon (The Cigars of Pharaoh - this one was a myth as never re-published after WW II until in the seventies) Le Lotus Bleu (The Blue Lotus- a masterpiece),Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or (The Crab with the Golden Claws - one of the best! IMO and for others as well) ...and so many other tittles. This love for Tintin and all what is related to the character or his universe, led to the creation of a new word: Tintinomania...To convince yourself that Tintinologs (specialist of Tintin's world) can have a mania, visit the following site: The Cult of Tintin This site has a good Web links list as well.

Some critics speaking of Hergé's world in Tintin compared it to the creation of some of the greatest writers for its richness of characters, the set of links between all of them and the unity of the world wherein Tintin evolves.

Hergé was a great artist with a typical clear construction of his drawings. He refined this style of drawings during all his life and became the uncontested master of the style called : the clear line (la ligne claire). Most of the images of any of his comic strips can be viewed as a self contained illustration, graphically equivalent to a poster. But Hergé could obtain this result without affecting the continuity of the story (continuity = construction of the follow-up of the images to tell visually the story or script that keeps relations between all of them, in a strip, page or complete album).

In September 1946 appeared a magazine for the youth named "Journal de Tintin", capitalizing on the success of the character. This Belgian weekly magazine, tremendously succesful, became quickly one of the most important outlet for a lot of young (or not so young)comics creators at the time.

The world famous character of Tintin led to a lot of secondary creations: animated cartoons (for TV and theaters), statuettes, games, art pieces, publicity and merchandizing items... that make the collectors happy. Some secondary characters became as famous as Tintin: his small dog Snowy (Milou), Captain Haddock, the Thompsons (Dupont et Dupond), Professor Calculus (Tournesol) to name the first league; these induced a lot of collectibles as well, such as latex figurines, posters, small statues, pins ...the list is long!
Tintin has even his official statue erected in Brussels!
An underground station in Brussels has a mural decoration with all the main characters of the Tintin stories... A popular hommage to Hergé.


INTERESTING TINTIN LINKS

To more comics! >>>>To more comics

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Copyright © 1996, 1997,1998,1999,2000,2001 E.Borgers for text and setup.
Proprietary graphics, photos, illustrations remain the full property of the rights holders.
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This Page was created with WebEdit 12 July, 1996
Most recent revision, 21 October, 2005