Jijé
Encyclopedia
Jijé was a Belgian
comics artist
, best known for being a seminal artist on the Spirou et Fantasio
strip (and for having introduced the Fantasio character) and the creator of one of the first major European western strips, Jerry Spring
.
Born Joseph Gillain in Gedinne
, Namur
, he completed various art studies (woodcraft, goldsmithing, drawing and painting) at the abbey of Maredsous
. In 1936, he created his first comics character, Jojo in the catholic newspaper Le Croisé. Jojo was heavily influenced by The Adventures of Tintin
, but Jijé gradually developed his own style. Soon a second series followed, Blondin et Cirage, for the catholic youth magazine Petits Belges. Jijé also produced many illustrations for various Walloon magazines.
In 1939, he started to work for the new magazine Spirou
, where he would produce the largest part of his oeuvre and with whom he would remain associated with until the end of his life. Because the magazine could not receive foreign comic strip material during the war, as the main local artist, he drew most of the comics during that period. He took over the main series, Spirou et Fantasio
, from the Frenchman Rob-Vel: he added the sidekick Fantasio to the lone hero Spirou in order to add some comic relief in the series. He then created his own series, Jean Valhardi, and drew episodes of the American series published during the war, like Red Ryder
and Superman
, when due to the war, the American pages could not reach the publisher.
His Catholic faith inspired biographies of Don Bosco and Christopher Columbus
, as well as a gospel in comics form, Emmanuel. After the war, he handed over his existing series' to younger artists: André Franquin
got Spirou et Fantasio
, Eddy Paape
Jean Valhardi and Victor Hubinon
Blondin et Cirage. In the 1950s, he drew new adventures of Jean Valhardi and Blondin et Cirage, while starting a new series, the western Jerry Spring. He also drew a biography of Baden-Powell
. In the mid-1960s, he took over the artwork of Tanguy et Laverdure
from Albert Uderzo
and Redbeard from Victor Hubinon
, both in the magazine Pilote
. He died at Versailles
after a prolonged illness.
-like Ligne claire
style, he went on to create his own distinctive style, the so-called Atom style. This style mixed elements of the Ligne Claire with Art Déco
elements, and became one of the defining styles of the Franco-Belgian comics. He also had a few young cartoonists living with him in Waterloo
, thus creating the so-called "School of Marcinelle
": this included André Franquin, Morris
, and Will
. Other famous artists working in the style and influence of the School of Marcinelle include Peyo
and Jean Roba
.
Together with Franquin, Jijé is considered to be the father of the Atom style, which has had a revival since the 1980s with artists like Yves Chaland
and Ever Meulen
.
But Jijé was also the first master of the Franco-Belgian realistic comic, with Jerry Spring. Both his drawing style and his writing was very influential and groundbreaking. Later students of Jijé, not really working in the Atom style or the School of Marcinelle, include Jean Giraud
(aka Moebius), Jean-Claude Mézières
and Guy Mouminoux. Artist Jean Giraud started working in the style of Jijé before developing his own style.
He is held in high esteem by many of his peers, both those he tutored like Franquin and Moebius, and other ones. Tibet
, author of Ric Hochet
and Chick Bill
, and for the major part of his career working for the rival magazine Tintin
, has said that "If Hergé is considered as God the Father, then Jijé undoubtedly is the Godfather".
In his writing, he can be seen as a transitional figure between the classic hero-driven comics like Alix
or Michel Vaillant
, and the modern anti-heroes like Blueberry or the works of Hermann Huppen
. Jerry Spring still was the perfect, flawless hero, but the rest of the cast was no longer strictly divided into heroes, victims and villains, and no longer was the Native American the bloodthirsty figure he often was in earlier comics. A similar early anti-racist message was also given by Blondin et Cirage, with a white and a black boy featured as equals.
He also pursued sculpting and painting, mainly for his private use or for family and friends. His illustrations for stories like The Count of Monte Cristo
(in the Belgian magazine Bonnes Soirées with René Follet
) mix elements from his comic work and his paintings into one decorative style.
In 2004, the Maison de la Bande Dessinée, a comics museum in Brussels dedicated to his works was created, later expanding its focus to the work of Jijé as well as the creators he has influenced.
Footnotes
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
comics artist
Comic book creator
A comic book creator is someone who creates a comic book or graphic novel.The production of a comic book by one of the major comic book companies in the U.S...
, best known for being a seminal artist on the Spirou et Fantasio
Spirou et Fantasio
Spirou et Fantasio is one of the most popular classic Franco-Belgian comic strips. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares many characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like Tintin and Asterix...
strip (and for having introduced the Fantasio character) and the creator of one of the first major European western strips, Jerry Spring
Jerry Spring
Jerry Spring is a Franco-Belgian Western comics series created by the Belgian comics creator Jijé. Originally published in Le Journal de Spirou, the series made its debut on March 4, 1954.-Bibliography:-Sources:* BDoubliées Footnotes...
.
Biography
Gedinne
Gedinne is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Namur. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 4,405 inhabitants. The total area is 151.56 km², giving a population density of 29 inhabitants per km²....
, Namur
Namur (province)
Namur is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium, and on France. Its capital is the city of Namur...
, he completed various art studies (woodcraft, goldsmithing, drawing and painting) at the abbey of Maredsous
Maredsous
Maredsous may refer to:*Maredsous *Maredsous Abbey, a Benedictine monastery at Denée near Namur in Belgium*Maredsous beer, an abbey beer brewed by Duvel Moortgat Brewery in Belgium...
. In 1936, he created his first comics character, Jojo in the catholic newspaper Le Croisé. Jojo was heavily influenced by The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
, but Jijé gradually developed his own style. Soon a second series followed, Blondin et Cirage, for the catholic youth magazine Petits Belges. Jijé also produced many illustrations for various Walloon magazines.
In 1939, he started to work for the new magazine Spirou
Spirou (magazine)
Spirou magazine is a weekly Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company...
, where he would produce the largest part of his oeuvre and with whom he would remain associated with until the end of his life. Because the magazine could not receive foreign comic strip material during the war, as the main local artist, he drew most of the comics during that period. He took over the main series, Spirou et Fantasio
Spirou et Fantasio
Spirou et Fantasio is one of the most popular classic Franco-Belgian comic strips. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares many characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like Tintin and Asterix...
, from the Frenchman Rob-Vel: he added the sidekick Fantasio to the lone hero Spirou in order to add some comic relief in the series. He then created his own series, Jean Valhardi, and drew episodes of the American series published during the war, like Red Ryder
Red Ryder
Red Ryder was a popular long-running Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman. Beginning Sunday, November 6, 1938, Red Ryder was syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, expanding over the following decade to 750 newspapers, translations into ten languages and...
and Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, when due to the war, the American pages could not reach the publisher.
His Catholic faith inspired biographies of Don Bosco and Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
, as well as a gospel in comics form, Emmanuel. After the war, he handed over his existing series' to younger artists: André Franquin
André Franquin
André Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best known comic strip creations are Gaston and Marsupilami, created while he worked on the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1947 to 1969, during a period seen by many as the series' golden age.-Franquin's beginnings:Franquin was...
got Spirou et Fantasio
Spirou et Fantasio
Spirou et Fantasio is one of the most popular classic Franco-Belgian comic strips. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares many characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like Tintin and Asterix...
, Eddy Paape
Eddy Paape
Eddy Paape is a Franco-Belgian comics artist best known for illustrating the series Luc Orient.-Biography:Eddy Paape was born in Grivegnée , Belgium in 1920...
Jean Valhardi and Victor Hubinon
Victor Hubinon
Victor Hubinon was a Belgian comic-book artist, best known for the series Buck Danny and Redbeard.-Biography:...
Blondin et Cirage. In the 1950s, he drew new adventures of Jean Valhardi and Blondin et Cirage, while starting a new series, the western Jerry Spring. He also drew a biography of Baden-Powell
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....
. In the mid-1960s, he took over the artwork of Tanguy et Laverdure
Tanguy et Laverdure
Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Albert Uderzo, about the two pilots Michel Tanguy and Ernest Laverdure, and their adventures in the French Air Force.-Publication history:...
from Albert Uderzo
Albert Uderzo
Albert Uderzo is a French comic book artist, and scriptwriter. He is best known for his work on the Astérix series, but also drew other comics such as Oumpah-pah, also in collaboration with René Goscinny.-Early life:...
and Redbeard from Victor Hubinon
Victor Hubinon
Victor Hubinon was a Belgian comic-book artist, best known for the series Buck Danny and Redbeard.-Biography:...
, both in the magazine Pilote
Pilote
thumb|Cover of the first Pilote teaser issue, #0.Pilote was a French comics periodical published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as Astérix le Gaulois, Blueberry, Achille Talon, and Valérian et...
. He died at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
after a prolonged illness.
Style and appreciation
Jijé is one of the few European artists to have worked on both realistic and humorous features. After starting in a HergéHergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
-like Ligne claire
Ligne claire
Ligne claire is a style of drawing pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It uses clear strong lines of uniform importance. Artists working in it do not use hatching, while contrast is downplayed as well...
style, he went on to create his own distinctive style, the so-called Atom style. This style mixed elements of the Ligne Claire with Art Déco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
elements, and became one of the defining styles of the Franco-Belgian comics. He also had a few young cartoonists living with him in Waterloo
Waterloo, Belgium
Waterloo is a Walloon municipality located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium. On December 31, 2009, Waterloo had a total population of 29,573. The total area is 21.03 km² which gives a population density of 1,407 inhabitants per km²...
, thus creating the so-called "School of Marcinelle
Marcinelle school
The term "Marcinelle school" refers to a group of Belgian cartoonists formed by Joseph Gillain following World War II...
": this included André Franquin, Morris
Morris (comics)
Maurice De Bevere , better known as Morris, was a Belgian cartoonist and the creator of Lucky Luke. His pen name is an alternate spelling of his first name.-Biography:...
, and Will
Will (comics)
Willy Maltaite known by the pseudonym Will, was a comics creator and comics artist in the Franco-Belgian tradition...
. Other famous artists working in the style and influence of the School of Marcinelle include Peyo
Peyo
Pierre Culliford , known as Peyo, was a Belgian comics artist, perhaps best known for the creation of The Smurfs comic strip.-Biography:...
and Jean Roba
Jean Roba
Jean Roba was a Belgian comics author from the Marcinelle school. His best-known work is Boule et Bill.-Biography:...
.
Together with Franquin, Jijé is considered to be the father of the Atom style, which has had a revival since the 1980s with artists like Yves Chaland
Yves Chaland
Yves Chaland was a French cartoonist.During the 1980s, together with Ted Benoît, Serge Clerc and Floc'h, he relaunched the Ligne claire style in French comics.-Biography:Chaland published his first strips in the fanzine Biblipop when he...
and Ever Meulen
Ever Meulen
Ever Meulen is a Belgian illustrator and comic strip artist. His work has appeared in Humo, the magazine for which he drew "Balthazar de Groene Steenvreter" and "Piet Peuk"...
.
But Jijé was also the first master of the Franco-Belgian realistic comic, with Jerry Spring. Both his drawing style and his writing was very influential and groundbreaking. Later students of Jijé, not really working in the Atom style or the School of Marcinelle, include Jean Giraud
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
(aka Moebius), Jean-Claude Mézières
Jean-Claude Mézières
Jean-Claude Mézières is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis...
and Guy Mouminoux. Artist Jean Giraud started working in the style of Jijé before developing his own style.
He is held in high esteem by many of his peers, both those he tutored like Franquin and Moebius, and other ones. Tibet
Tibet (comics)
Tibet, the pseudonym of Gilbert Gascard , was a French comics artist and writer in the Franco-Belgian comics genre...
, author of Ric Hochet
Ric Hochet
Ric Hochet is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by Tibet and André-Paul Duchâteau . It first appeared on March 3, 1955 in the comics magazine Tintin.-Synopsis:...
and Chick Bill
Chick Bill
Chick Bill is a Franco-Belgian humorous Western series created by Tibet. It was first published in the comics magazines De Avonturen van Koenraad and Chez Nous Junior in 1953, and began serial publication on October 19, 1955 in Tintin under the title Les aventures de Chick Bill le...
, and for the major part of his career working for the rival magazine Tintin
Tintin (magazine)
Le journal de Tintin or Kuifje , was a weekly Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century...
, has said that "If Hergé is considered as God the Father, then Jijé undoubtedly is the Godfather".
In his writing, he can be seen as a transitional figure between the classic hero-driven comics like Alix
Alix
Alix, or The Adventures of Alix, is a popular Franco-Belgian comics series drawn in the ligne claire style by one its masters, Jacques Martin. The stories revolve around a young Gallo-Roman man named Alix in the late Roman Republic...
or Michel Vaillant
Michel Vaillant
Michel Vaillant is the title of a Belgian comics series created in 1957 by French cartoonist Jean Graton and published originally by Le Lombard. Later, Graton published the albums by himself when he founded Graton éditeur in 1982...
, and the modern anti-heroes like Blueberry or the works of Hermann Huppen
Hermann Huppen
Hermann Huppen is a Belgian comic book artist. He is better known under his pen-name Hermann. He is most famous for his post-apocalyptic comic Jeremiah which was made into a television series.-Biography:...
. Jerry Spring still was the perfect, flawless hero, but the rest of the cast was no longer strictly divided into heroes, victims and villains, and no longer was the Native American the bloodthirsty figure he often was in earlier comics. A similar early anti-racist message was also given by Blondin et Cirage, with a white and a black boy featured as equals.
He also pursued sculpting and painting, mainly for his private use or for family and friends. His illustrations for stories like The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
(in the Belgian magazine Bonnes Soirées with René Follet
René Follet
René Follet , sometimes known by the pen name Ref, is a Belgian illustrator, comics writer and artist.-Biography:René Follet was born in Brussels in 1931. His first publication appeared when he was 14, illustrating a promotional issue of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island for Aiglon, a...
) mix elements from his comic work and his paintings into one decorative style.
In 2004, the Maison de la Bande Dessinée, a comics museum in Brussels dedicated to his works was created, later expanding its focus to the work of Jijé as well as the creators he has influenced.
Awards
- 1975: Grand Prix Saint-MichelPrix Saint-MichelThe Prix Saint-Michel is a series of comic awards presented by the city of Brussels, with a focus on Franco-Belgian comics. They were first awarded in 1971, and are the second oldest comics award in Europe still presented, behind the Adamson Awards...
of the city of BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... - 1976: StripschapprijsStripschapprijsThe Dutch Stripschapprijs is a prize awarded to comic writers and cartoonists for their whole work. It is awarded annually by the Stripschap, the Dutch Society of comics fans. The prize is non-pecuniary.-Winners:...
, NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... - 1977: Grand Prix de la ville d'AngoulêmeGrand Prix de la ville d'AngoulêmeEvery year, the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is awarded during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to an author for his body of work and/or for his achievement in the evolution of comics....
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Sources
- Jijé publications in Le journal de Spirou BDoubliées
- Jijé albums Bedetheque
Footnotes
External links
- Jijé official site
- Biography on Dupuis.com
- Jijé biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
- Jijé biography on BDparadisio
- Jijé biography on Bedetheque.com