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Raymond Leblanc was a Belgian comic book producer and publisher, best known for publishing The Adventures of Tintin, by Hergé and the magazine Tintin. He also worked in a variety of other occupations in his lifetime.
Early life[]
Leblanc was born on May 22, 1915, in Neufchâteau, Belgium. During the Nazi occupation of Belgium (1940-1944), Leblanc was a member of the local underground resistance movement as an officer in the “Ardense Jagers” division. He was never caught, due mostly to the fact he spoke German. Immediately following the liberation of Belgium by Allied forces he started his own company publishing romance novels and movie magazines which was very profitable.
Tintin[]
Whilst Tintin first appeared in 1929, Leblanc launched it as a magazine (Tintin in 1946 after he convinced Tintin's artistic creator Hergé to launch a periodical for the young. Also around this time, Leblanc started the Lombard publishing house, aimed at audiences "from seven to 77", which he sold to French buyers in 1986.
The year 1954 saw Leblanc launching two other creative ventures: the advertising agency Publiart, using cartoon characters in its projects; and Belvision studios, with hand-drawn animation produced for television. Belvision rose to become a major animation studio which produced short and full-length animated films, such as Pinocchio in Space, Asterix the Gaul, Tintin and the Temple of the Sun, Tintin and the Lake of Sharks, and Gullivers Travels.
He received the first Alph-Art d'Honneur prize in 2003 at the 30th annual comic book festival at Angoulême, France. Leblanc died aged 92 on March 21, 2008 in Brussels.1