Franco-Belgian comics/temp
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This page aims at describing deeply Belgian regional aspects in the comics field. This text would become a new section the Franco-Belgian comics article. At this stage, it is only a draft with ideas and content to reorganise later on.
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[edit] A possible introduction
Seen from the outer world, Belgium is considered as a single market, based on authors such Hergé, Morris, Peyo, Edgar P. Jacobs. However, due to having three official languages, Belgium has developed regional specificities. Although some of the most renowned and influential authors are from the French speaking part of Belgium (in 1980 there were about 300 Belgians listed as comic authors, with just 50 of them living in Flanders[citation needed]), the Flemish scene should not be underestimated. (explain why it shouldn't here, examples)
[edit] History
=> Early comics in French and Belgian newspapers
=> Tintin and the emergence of a separate comic culture
=> Brussels during and after the war
=> Tintin magazine, Spirou magazine and the comic magazine industry
=> Development outside of Brussels
=> New magazines, new ideas and reform movements
=> Decline of the magazines and emergence of the album-only publishers
=> The scene today, latest styles and influences
[edit] Characteristic elements of the Franco-Belgian comic
Although in the course of the years the style of Franco-Belgian comics have changed just as much as their American or Japanese counterparts, there are a number of elements that directly allow to classify a comic as a typical example of the Franco-Belgian style. Many of those elements came to being during the days of the comic magazines and have their roots in the physic and economic constraints of working for a weekly magazine publishing house. Yet they became rooted in the minds of publishers and artists alike so strongly that they survived the decline of the magazines and continue to give the Franco-Belgian comics its characteristic features.
* Only one draughtsman The most important aspect of the Franco-Belgian comic is that an album is drawn by only one draughtsman-artist and written by only one author. Historically this came with the comic books growing out of the newspaper strips where each strip was assigned to one writer-draughtsman only. With the emergence of comic magazines, the mayor artists were already well-established and so the publishers choose to keep the artist in full control of their own comic for reasons of name recognaissance rather then have the comic assigned to a team of artists and writers. The volume of work needed for a complete magazine was made up by simply publishing several series by several artists side by side. Thus, instead of the more uniform look of the American comic studios, the reader of the magazine could browse through several stories, recognizing each comic by the personal style of the artist.
The decline of the magazines only served to reinforce the artistic freedom of the draughtsman and as a result, today still every book has but one artist who's name is proudly displayed on the title page. Therefore in the Franco-Belgian comic scene any particular album is directly associated with the draughtsman (and the author) just like one associates a novel with its author or a movie with its director.
Although Hergé in the postwar years operated a studio where several people contributed to his Tintin albums, he kept a close control over his fellow draughtsmen, assigning each to specific tasks such as drawing backgrounds or vehicles and therefore the postwar Tintin albums are not different in style than the prewar ones he drew alone. Hergé however was the exception and the closest thing to a studio was the magazine editors room where the magazine would match up an artist with a textwriter and if needed the magazine's own colorers or letterers. As a rule of thumbs however an artist does his own inking and lettering and often also does the coloring or works close with a professional coloring studio without the editors intervention.
* Only one author. A second big difference with the American studio system is that the storylines are not made up by a studio pool in a brainstorming session, but are either written by one author working close together with the draughtsman or by the draughtsman himself doubling as his own author. Although one author can write for several series, one series generally is assigned to but one author, which again gives each series its distinctive style. This is especially true for series where the artist is the author. However a well-working team of author and artist often perfectly bring out each others strong points and often are proudly displayed next to each other on the album's cover.
* series = author + artist. Out of this concept of only one author and only one artist follows the total control of a series by its author-artist team. A series grows with the skill and collaboration of the team and ends when author and artist have a fall-out or move on to continue other projects or ... as happened in a few well-known cases if one of them dies. Although for instance Asterix and Lucky Luke continued for years after the death of storywriter Réné Gozcini, it is very rare that a series continues after the death or departure of its artist.
* Series stay true to main character, one main character, no 'leagues' or cross-overs
* Distributed in soft-or hardcover 40-pages A4-sized books, generally on high-quality paper
* Always colored, either by the author or by the editor
* High level of research and attention to accuracy and details
* Mature storylines aimed towards elder public
[edit] further elements of the earlier magazine comics
=> Published one page or one double-page at a time in magazines, then re-issued as complete album => twists or cliffhangers on the end of each page or double-page => often loss of storyline over the course of the adventure => often deus-ex-machina endings
[edit] Taken out of the Belgian comics article
Belgium is considered an important country with a huge production of comics of all sorts, relative to its size and population. In 1980 there were about 300 Belgians listed as comic producers , just 50 of them lived in Flanders.
That the French part of the Franco-Belgian comics is better known and more influential internationally than its Flemish counterpart can be understood easily, by looking at the difference in numbers between speakers of French and Flemish. It often seems that in the comics field the French-Belgian border is of much less importance than either the Belgian-Dutch or the language border.
There is an important difference between the Dutch and the Flemish comics, with much more sex, drugs, utterly non-PC main characters etc. POSSIBLE in Dutch comics. (this needs to be clarified)
[edit] related or complementary comic styles
=> The one-page or short chapter gag comic
- Importance of the situation comedy in the comic strips
=> The Flemish newspaper comic
- From the 1930s, Flanders has seen the opposite movement to the French-speaking area. While the comic books gained more and more attention in the French-speaking area (in detriment of the comic strips), the comic strips were one of the principal comic medium in Flanders, with magazines such as De Standaard, Het Volkske, B&B, Kuifje ...
=> The Dutch magazine comic
=> The ligne claire comic in Spain and Italy
