Edgar P. Jacobs

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Edgar P. Jacobs
BornEdgard Félix Pierre Jacobs
(1904-03-30)30 March 1904
Brussels, Belgium
Died20 February 1987(1987-02-20) (aged 82)
Lasne-Chapelle-Saint-Lambert, Belgium
NationalityBelgian
Area(s)artist, writer, colourist
Notable works
Blake and Mortimer
Le Rayon U
Awardsfull list

Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs (30 March 1904 – 20 February 1987), better known under his

Franco-Belgian comics movement, through his collaborations with Hergé and the graphic novel series that made him famous, Blake and Mortimer
.

Biography

Edgar Félix Pierre Jacobs was born in

extra.[1] In 1929 he received the annual Belgian government medal for excellence in classical singing. Financial good fortune did not follow, since the Great Depression
hit the Brussels artistic community very hard.

After a career as extra and baritone singer in opera productions between 1919 and 1940 in Brussels and Lille, punctuated by small drawing commissions, Jacobs turned permanently to illustration, drawing commercial illustrations and collaborating in the children's weekly comic magazine Bravo until 1946, after he was introduced there by Jacques Laudy.[2] This review or periodical was a smashing success, hitting a circulation of 300,000 at times.

When the American

denouement to the readers. German censorship banned this continuation after only a couple of weeks. Jacobs subsequently published his first comic strip in Bravo, Le Rayon U (The U Ray), largely in the same Flash Gordon style.[2]

Around this time, he became a stage painter for a theatre adaptation for

Gounod's Faust, and as a mummified egyptologist on the cover of Cigars of the Pharaoh, as well as in the rewritten version. In a 1977 interview with the BBC (excerpted in 2016 on the Witness radio program/podcast), Hergé stated that Jacobs was part of his inspiration for the major character of Captain Haddock: "He [Jacobs] is just like Captain Haddock, full of movement...bursting into...invective."[3]

In 1946, Jacobs was part of the team gathered by

Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin, where his story Le secret de l’Espadon (The Secret of the Swordfish) was published on 26 September, the first of the Blake and Mortimer series.[4]

In 1947, Jacobs asked to share the credit with Hergé on The Adventures of Tintin. When Hergé refused, their collaboration suffered a bit of a setback. Hergé still remained a friend however, and as before Blake et Mortimer continued to be serialised in Tintin magazine. In 1950, Jacobs published The Mystery of the Great Pyramid. Many others soon followed. Jacobs finally published in 1970 the first volume of The Three formulas of Professor Sato, which was staged in Japan.

In 1973 he restyled his first full-length album, Le Rayon U, and wrote his autobiography under the title Un opéra de papier: Les mémoires de Blake et Mortimer. He then wrote the scenario for the second episode of Les Trois Formules du Professeur Sato, but the artwork remained unfinished at the time of his death. Bob de Moor was drafted in to complete the album, which was published in 1990.

Jacobs has two stone sphinxes to commemorate him. One of them is in the Bois des Pauvres near Brussels, where his home used to stand, and the other one is over his tomb at the Lasne cemetery, also near Brussels. The cemetery sphinx has a "collar" beard, and his face looks a lot like Philip Mortimer, the protagonist of most of the Jacobs albums.

Jacobs' style varies greatly from one album to another. There are however many common threads, such as the theme of subterranean descent and the consistent Ligne claire drawing style.

Bibliography

  1. Le Rayon U (The U Ray), in 1943
  2. Le Secret de l'Espadon (The Secret of the Swordfish), in 1947 (3 volumes)
  3. Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide, (
    The Mystery of the Great Pyramid
    ), in 1950 (2 volumes)
  4. La Marque Jaune (The Yellow "M"), in 1953
  5. L'Énigme de l'Atlantide (Atlantis Mystery), in 1955
  6. S.O.S. Météores: Mortimer à Paris (S.O.S. Meteors), in 1958
  7. Le Piège diabolique (
    The Time Trap
    ) in 1960
  8. L'Affaire du Collier (The Necklace Affair) in 1965
  9. Les trois Formules du Professeur Sato: Mortimer à Tokyo (Mortimer in Tokyo) in 1970 (vol. 1). Vol. 2 Mortimer contre Mortimer (Mortimer versus Mortimer) completed by Bob De Moor, 1990

Awards

Sources

  • Guyard, Jean-Marc. Le Baryton du neuvième art. Bruxelles: Éditions Blake et Mortimer, 1996.
    ISBN 2-87328-000-X
  • Jacobs, Edgar P. Un opéra de papier: Les mémoires de Blake et Mortimer. Paris: Gallimard, 1981.
    ISBN 2-07-056090-2
  • Lenne, Gérard. L'Affaire Jacobs. Paris: Megawave, 1990.
    ISBN 2-908910-00-4
  • Mouchart, Benoit. A l'ombre de la ligne claire: Jacques Van Melkebeke, le clandestin de la B.D. Paris: Vertige Graphic, 2002.
    ISBN 2-908981-71-8
  • Mouchart, Benoît and Rivière, François La Damnation d'Edgar P. Jacobs, Seuil-Archimbaud, 2003.
    ISBN 2-02-085505-4
  • Tzorken, Yann Le mystère Edgar P. Jacobs, Thebookedition, 2019.
    ISBN 9780244195830
  • Edgar P. Jacobs publications in Belgian Tintin and French Tintin BDoubliées (in French)
Footnotes
  1. ^ a b De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Edgar Pierre Jacobs". In België gestript, pp. 129–131. Tielt: Lannoo.
  2. ^ a b de Grand Ry, Michel; Nizette, André; Lechat, Jean-Louis (1986). "E.P. Jacobs". Le livre d'or de la bande dessinée. Brussels: Centre de la bande dessinée Belge. pp. 16–17.
  3. ^ Lucy Burns (18 January 2016). "BBC Witness: The Adventures of Tintin". bbc.co.uk (Podcast). BBC World Service. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  4. ^ BDoubliées. "Tintin année 1946" (in French).
  5. ^ ActuaBD. "Quatrième Festival de la BD de la région de Bruxelles Capitale" (in French).
  • Further reading: Valentinitsch,Bernhard, Ein Sich-Lösen von und Brechen mit Traditionen - der Comic-Klassiker 'Blake und Mortimer', der 'Ketzer'-Pharao Echnaton und andere ägyptische 'Ketzer'. In: Denken und Glauben. Nr. 201. Graz 2022, S. 22-24.

External links

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