Buth

Leo de Budt, who often signed his work Buth, studied art at the St.-Lucas Institute in Gent. He worked for the newspaper Vooruit from 1936, where he continued the work of his teacher Frits van den Berghe in 1939. He also came up with his own comics, such as 'Mijnheer Dinges' (Vooruit, 1941), 'Gawain de Dappere' (Balming, 1943), 'De Blauwe Wolk: De Wereldramp van 6491' (Taptoe, 1946) and 'De Wereldreis van Flip en Flop' (Volk & Staat, 1941). In De Post, he illustrated several comics biographies and 'De Leeuw van Vlaanderen' in the early 1950s. In addition, he drew 'De Avonturen van Joke en Maaike' in Tam-Tam from 1948.

His most important comic character was 'Thomas Pips', which started as a stop comic in the newspaper Het Volk in February 1946. This detective comic, which was initially written by John Flanders and later L. Lavki, consists of about 40 adventures, that have appeared in several publications, such as Zonneland and 't Kapoentje.

Buth had a large production. After the War, he became a versatile artist for Zonneland, where he illustrated among others 'Op Zoek naar de Zonne-Eilanden' with a script by John Flanders, 'Het Leven van Jezus', 'De Moeraskerels', 'De Zwijgende Parelvissers' 'Vacantie aan de Grens', and 'Het Gezin van Marc Trenters'.

Buth is also known for his 'Tour de France' gags and his fantastic version of the Flemish folktale 'Tijl Uilenspiegel', that appeared in 't Kapoentje in 1950. Other adaptations include 'De Baron van Münchhausen' and 'Reinaert de Vos'.