Marcinelle School

Franco - Belgian comics have a charm that is so unique. It has produced a vast volume of still growing comics of various categories. The most popular output from this part of the world is undoubtedly Herge's Tintin, and Goscinny - Uderzo's Asterix. Ever wondered how these two look so different yet so similar?



What is distinct about these comics? ...The style.

Herge and his group of artists such as E P Jacobs (Blake and Mortimer) evolved a style that uses uniform lines, more schematic in appearance, with a simple and straight forward narrative, with realistic (sometime mechanical) backgrounds and props. Even the palette was unique adding to the charm. The story was more realistic mostly related to the current happenings at the time. This has a great appeal and following and one can see this followed today in works such as The Simpsons.

This style came to be known as the Brussel's School or the Ligne Claire to mean a Clear Line.


While this was happening there was a parallel approach to graphic story telling that had more of fantasy, cartoonish realism, fun, humour and physical dynamic action. The lines are mostly made of brush and have varying thickness, similar to classic Disney cartoons. Uderzo's Asterix was an example of such style. Artist Jijé (Joseph Gillain) is credited for his contribution towards establishing this style among a group of artists. One can see this style in Lucky Luke, Oumpah -pah and a variety of other works. One can see this tradition followed till day in the publications such as Dupuis.

This style came to be known as the Marcinelle School or École de Marcinelle, after the namesake town in Belgium near Charleroi.

Well these are academics. Marcinelle or Brussels.. who cannot love them both?!!

Book Review : Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin

Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline (Author), Charles Ruas (Translator)

Interesting Insight into Herge's Life



For anyone who is a fan of Herge's works, be it the evergreen reporter Tintin and his adventures, or his funny Quick and Flupke, or the more familial Jo, Zette and Jocko , there is no such thing as enough when it comes to any literature related to the artist or his art.

Last few years has seen a surge in books on Herge and Tintin, Michale Farr's works in particular, and the newly translated Art of Herge series have given new insights into the working of Herge. How he went about creating the stories, what he used for his ever so detailed art work as reference, etc.

This book by Pierre Assouline is a refreshingly new look at the life and times of Herge. The focus is now on the happenings in the background as Herge went about spinning tale after tale of adventure and fun. It gives a very balanced and unbiased view on Herge, his political social situation, his views and attitudes, and how the political situation in Europe during the early twentieth century was shaping the creativity of Herge and others like him.

It talks about interesting things that artists, readers and anyone interested in Tintin, French/Belgian, European art/journalism in that part of history, will find very informative. This also gives a good coverage on some controversial aspects such as racial stereotyping and such. And how Herge was simply being himself, in tune with the times, plain and straight and not worrying about "political correctness" or being a hero. Those were indeed strange times, to learn that Herge was imprisoned for alleged 'collaboration' with the German occupation and some even thought he should be hanged!!

The book is full of little stories that give answers to so many questions that we might have, artistically and otherwise, for instance, here is a story about how Herge hired a very talented Jacob who influenced Herge in bringing in meticulous details to the mechanical drawings of cars and airplanes. Numerous such stories fill the book. How people, events and situations influenced the artist in his creation are a very interesting read.

The book takes the reader through the life of Herge during his creative professional years, evolution of the stories, evolution of the formats, how it all started as political journalism, as newspaper strip with the journalist investigating communist Russia, colonial Africa etc., and how the Tintin series itself matures and became more sophisticated as time progressed, with adventurous stories such as the Red Rackham's treasure and the The Destination Moon sequels. We also learn about how the series was revised, reformatted, colored and transformed into a uniform series, and how much of time and labour went into it.

The book is very well paced, like that of an exciting novel, that you want to finish it all in one go. but being a great fan of Herge and his works, one wants to sip it in ever so slowly, enjoying every bit of it as we enjoy Herge's works.

This is an extract from my review at Amazon.com, You can find more of my reviews here.

Book Review : Cartooning: Character Design :

Cartooning: Character Design: Walter Foster Books: Sherm Cohen

Outstanding !

This is an outstanding piece of work in teaching character design/cartooning. Only a person with tremendous experience can produce all the essentials in just 32 pages !!

Format: The book is Large! 13.7 x 10.1, the drawings are so clear in this format, which is very important, for us to study and draw. We can just keep it open and start drawing. Drawings are all either in pencil or in black india ink using a brush, which is simply lovely.

Concise: The book is small! :) only 30 pages. so it is very easy to work it through, refer, study and learn. no page is wasted. each page is packed with plenty of drawings with detailed notes, that are so refined and upto the point!

Clear: The large format, clear lines and step by step approach, makes this book so clear and easy to follow.

Workbook: The approach of the book is to take us in a workbook manner, as you study, draw, redraw, practice each of the pages progressively you will get to learn about various aspects of character design (and cartooning) is systematic manner. learning and mastering basic shapes, the Head, the features of the head, variations, body shapes, "Types", body language etc.. and if one sincerly works this book through, one would have become a character designer !.

This would form perfect platform to launch into cartooning, animation and more advanced character design through books such as ,
Cartoon Animation (The Collector's Series),
The Animator's Survival Kit--Revised Edition: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators,
Creating Characters with Personality: For Film, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Graphic Novels

Sherm Cohen and Walter Foster.. Thank you!

This is an extract from my review at Amazon.com, You can find more of my reviews here.