Michel Weyland (born 19 August 1947, in Brussels) is a Belgian artist, writer and cartoonist. [1] [2]
Born in Ixelles, [3] Weyland studied arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels. In 1969, during his final year of study, he published in the Journal de Tintin a science fiction series entitled Stereo-land, which however he stopped after some thirty pages. From that year to 1979, he worked as a retoucher in a large printer plant in Brussels. In 1974, he made a few cartoons for the Belgian weekly Pourquoi pas?.
In August 1979, he created for the Journal de Tintin the character of Aria; the first album of this heroic fantasy series would be published in 1982 by Lombard. In September 1979, he left the photographic work to devote himself exclusively to comics. After the creation of Aria, Weyland worked in this series, the few exceptions including the science fiction fairytale Yvanaëlle, la Dame de Mordorez, published in 1988.
The 37th album of Aria, entitled Faîtes taire l'accusée, was published in 2015. [4]
Bandes dessinées, abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics, are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition in comics, separate from that of English-language comics. Belgium is a mostly bilingual country, and comics originally in Dutch are culturally a part of the world of bandes dessinées; these are translated to French and concurrently sold to the French-reading audience and vice versa.
Jacques Martin was a French comics artist and comic book creator. He was one of the classic artists of Tintin magazine, alongside Edgar P. Jacobs and Hergé, of whom he was a longtime collaborator. He is best known for his series Alix. He was born in Strasbourg.
Spirou is a weekly Franco-Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company since April 21, 1938. It's an anthology magazine with new features appearing regularly, containing a mix of short humor strips and serialized features, of which the most popular series would be collected as albums by Dupuis afterwards.
Joseph Gillain, better known by his pen name Jijé, was a Belgian comics artist, best known for being a seminal artist on the Spirou et Fantasio strip and the creator of one of the first major European western strips, Jerry Spring.
Jean Graton was a French comic book author and cartoonist. Graton created the famous character Michel Vaillant and the eponymous series in 1957.
Cubitus is a Franco-Belgian comics series, and the basis for the Wowser cartoon series appearing in the United States. Cubitus was created by the Belgian cartoonist Dupa, and features Cubitus, a large anthropomorphic dog, who lives with his owner Semaphore. Cubitus is known as Dommel in Flanders and the Netherlands, Muppelo or Pom Pom in Finland, Teodoro in Italy, Zıpır in Turkey and Доммель in Russia. His name derives from the old anatomical name of the ulna bone, supposedly derived from the Greek kybiton (elbow).
Belgian comics are a distinct subgroup in the comics history, and played a major role in the development of European comics, alongside France with whom they share a long common history. While the comics in the two major language groups and regions of Belgium each have clearly distinct characteristics, they are constantly influencing one another, and meeting each other in Brussels and in the bilingual publication tradition of the major editors. As one of the few arts where Belgium has had an international and enduring impact in the 20th century, comics are known to be "an integral part of Belgian culture".
Tintin was a weekly Franco-Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century. Subtitled "The Magazine for the Youth from 7 to 77", it was one of the major publications of the Franco-Belgian comics scene and published such notable series as Blake and Mortimer, Alix, and the principal title The Adventures of Tintin. Originally published by Le Lombard, the first issue was released in 1946, and it ceased publication in 1993.
Roger Leloup is a Belgian comic strip artist, novelist, and a former collaborator of Hergé, who would rely upon him to create detailed, realistic drawings and elaborate decoration for The Adventures of Tintin. He is most famous for the Yoko Tsuno comic series.
Jean-Michel Charlier was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote.
Michel Régnier, best known by his pseudonym Greg, was a Belgian cartoonist best known for Achille Talon, and later became editor of Tintin magazine.
Edouard Paape, commonly known as Eddy Paape, was a Belgian comics artist best known for illustrating the series Luc Orient.
Raoul Cauvin was a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field.
René Follet, sometimes known by the pen name Ref, was a Belgian illustrator, comics writer and artist.
Pierre Seron was a Belgian comic book artist.
Willy Maltaite, better known by the pseudonym Will, was a Belgian comics creator and comics artist in the Franco-Belgian tradition. In the genre known in Francophone countries as bande dessinée, Will is one of the young cartoonists trained by Jijé, who made them live and work with him in his studio in Waterloo. He is considered one of la Bande des Quatre, and a founding member of the Marcinelle school.
Tibet, the pseudonym of Gilbert Gascard, was a French cartoonist in the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. Tibet, who debuted in 1947, is known for work produced for the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin, most notably the long-running series Ric Hochet and Chick Bill.
Aria is a Belgian comic book series written and drawn by Michel Weyland, with colours by Nadine Weyland. It debuted in Tintin in August 1979.
Stephen Desberg is a Belgian writer of comics. In 2010, he was the 10th bestselling author of comics in France, with 412,000 copies of all his comics together sold that year.
Maurice De Bevere, better known as Morris, was a Belgian cartoonist, comics artist, illustrator and the creator of Lucky Luke, a bestselling comic series about a gunslinger in the American Wild West. He was inspired by the adventures of the historic Dalton Gang and other outlaws. It was a bestselling series for more than 50 years that was translated into 23 languages and published internationally. He collaborated for two decades with French writer René Goscinny on the series. Morris's pen name is an Anglicized version of his first name.