Jacques Martin

Jacques Martin is one of the classic artists of Tintin magazine, along with Hergé and E. P. Jacobs. When he was young, Jacques Martin had three passions: classical art, comics and history. In 1942, using the pseudonym Jam, he created 'Les Aventures du Jeune Toddy' in Je Maintiendray. During the rest of the War, he was put to work in the Messerschmitt factory in Augsburg. In 1946, after the war had ended, he roamed Belgium in search of an editor. He met Henri Leblicq, with whom he started a collaboration that lasted about a year. They used the pseudonym Marleb, and after their association ended, Martin went on using it for himself until 1950.

Marleb alternatively created humorous and realistic comics, such as 'Le Hibou Gris' and 'Le Sept de Trèfle' in L'Indépendance, La Wallonie and Story, as well as 'La Cité Fantastique' in Wrill. For the magazine Bravo! he came up with titles like 'Monsieur Barbichou', 'Lamar l'Homme Invisible' and 'Oeuil-de-Perdrix'.

In 1948, he joined the magazine Tintin and created 'Alix', a series set in ancient Egypt. This historic comic soon became one of the most popular of the genre - by now it has been published in countries worldwide. Four years later, 'Alix' was followed by yet another famous series: 'Lefranc'. Martin additionally illustrated sections like 'Les Chroniques de l'Automobiliste' and 'Les Chroniques de l'Aviation' and worked on 'Jo, Zette et Jocko' and 'Tintin et Milou' through Studio Hergé.

After a while, Martin focused on writing scripts and left the artwork of 'Lefranc' to other artists, subsequently Bob De Moor, Gilles Chaillet, Christophe Simon and Francis Carin. In 1978, together with artist Jean Pleyers, he launched a third successful series, 'Xan', which was retitled to 'Jhen' after two episodes. In 2004, the artwork was handed over to Bernard Capo.

In 1983, Martin started 'Arno', together with artwork by André Juillard (later by Jacques Denoël) at Glénat and, in 1990, he started 'Orion' under his own label Orix. The educational side-series 'Les Voyages d'Orion' was illustrated by Rafael Morales. In 1998, because of failing eyesight, Jacques Martin also engaged young artists to do the artwork of his other series. He left the drawing of 'Alix' to Rafael Morales, while 'Orion' was continued by Christophe Simon.

A new educational series, 'Les Voyages d'Alix', was illustrated by artists like Marc Henniquiau, Vincent Henin, Laurent Bouhy, Jacques Denoël and Cédric Hervan. Jacques Martin continued to launch new projects, such as 'Kéos' with Jean Pleyers (1991), 'Histoire d'Alsace' with Georges Bischoff and Christophe Simon (2001) and 'Loïs' with Olivier Paques (2003).

Jacques Martin and other artists of the 'Franco-Belgian school'
from left to right: Rosinski, Will, Roba, Rafael Morales,
Jacques Martin, Paul Roux, Batem