Jacques Martin (comic artist)

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Bust of Alix on the grave of Jacques Martin in Céroux (Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium).

Jacques Martin (born September 25, 1921 in Strasbourg , † January 21, 2010 in Pully ) was a French cartoonist .

As a child, Jacques Martin discovered his love for pictures and stories. After leaving school, he first studied at Arts et Métiers , where he received technical training and became an engineer. As an Alsatian , he was forced to work for the Third Reich . Due to his drawing training, he was sent to the construction department of the Dornier works in Friedrichshafen , where he worked on the development of propellers for aircraft.

After the end of the war, Martin traveled through Belgium and France with his drawing board and looked for work at various editorial offices. He initially worked in various branches of the graphic arts and invented the comics Monsieur Barbichou , Gray Owl and Partridge Eye during this time . His idea for his own youth magazine found no support, so he tried to get a job with the Belgian comic magazine Tintin . It was only when Tintin was looking for additional French draftsmen to expand into France that Martin was given the opportunity in 1948 to publish his Alix series, which was based in Roman antiquity . After three years of uninterrupted work, he asked the editorial staff to try a contemporary topic. This is how the first story about the reporter L. Frank was written in 1952 .

Hergé , the artistic director of Tintin , who was always on the lookout for suitable talents for his own Tintin series , first handed him the completion of the last adventure of Jo, Jette and Jocko and then hired him in his studio. From then on he supported Hergé in the development of the plot of The Little Bee , Coal on Board , Tim in Tibet , The Singer's Jewels and Flight 714 to Sydney . Parallel to this work, he continued his series Alix and L. Frank . In 1972 he quit Studio Hergé and stood on his own two feet again.

Other historical series such as Jhen , Arno , Orion and Keos were created until 1992 . Although Martin had suffered from an eye disease since 1991 that made it impossible for him to draw, he increasingly resorted to young draftsmen who initially worked for Les Voyages d'Orion and Les Voyages d'Alix and were later involved in the main series. In 2005, Casterman and Jacques Martins' two children took responsibility for his series, which continued after his death in 2010.

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personal data
SURNAME Martin, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French comic artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg , France
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 2010
Place of death Pully , Switzerland