'Bruxelles Babel'. Pantomime comic based on a real-life medieval legend about a man who was sentenced to execution on the Grand Market of Brussels in the Middle Ages, but the executioner was unable to cut his throat. As the crowd attacked him, the prisoner was able to escape and lived a long life with a crooked neck.
Jean-Louis Lejeune, also known as J.L. Lejeune, is a Belgian graphic artist, active in a variety of media. He has made political cartoons, book illustrations, designs for posters, animations and comics. In addition to comic stories appearing in the magazines Métal Hurlant, À Suivre and Aïe, Lejeune has created the political satire 'Idi Amin Dada 1ier, Empereur de Belgique' with writer Richard Olivier (1979), the crime one-shot 'Victoria Flique' (1985) with Francine Léonard and a couple of commissioned comics. Lejeune notably provided cartoons and comics for the bi-lingual history book 'Bruxelles Babel: Chronique Illustré de Bruxelles'/'Brussel de Sjanzende Stad: Brusselse Conijcken' (1979) by Michel Géoris and Walter Soethoudt, celebrating the 1000th anniversary of the city of Brussels.
Early life and career
Jean-Louis Lejeune was born in 1946 in Andenne in the province of Namur. After reading Calvo's 'La Bête Est Morte', he knew he wanted to become a cartoonist. Between 1964 and 1967, he attended high school at Saint-Luc in Brussels, and subsequently had his secondary education at this Art Institute, graduating in Graphic Communication in 1970. Among his favorite painters and illustrators are Boris Arbtzybasheff, Pierre Bernard, Honoré Daumier, Gustave Doré, Shigeo Fukuda, Edward Gorey, J.J. Grandville, Heinrich Kley, Alfred Kubin, David Merveille, Ever Meulen, Benjamin Rabier, Mario Ramos, Félicien Rops, Teresa Sdralevich, Ronald Searle, Joost Swarte, Tomi Ungerer and Gabrielle Vincent. In the field of animation, Lejeune admires Tex Avery, Ub Iwerks and Picha. His favorite comic artists and cartoonists are Blutch, Gus Bofa, Jean Bosc, Claire Bretécher, Wilhelm Busch, Chaval, Robert Crumb, Jack Davis, Jean Effel, André François, André Franquin, Gébé, Rick Griffin, Louis Joos, Francis Masse, Victor Moscoso, Reiser, Sempé, Art Spiegelman, Saul Steinberg, Roland Topor, Willem, Winshluss and Basil Wolverton.
Animator
While still a student in 1968, Lejeune worked in Bob Vandersteen's animation studio for a while, producing cartoons for the Belgian public channel BRTN/RTBF. In the early 1970s, he established his own studio. Together with Jean-Luc de Reymaeker, he was one of the first to make an animated film dealing with ecology, 'UFO-Noé' ('U.F.O. Noah', 1976). He was also a gag man for the 1987 animated feature film 'Le Big-Bang' by Picha. During the 1980s, Lejeune also animated the opening credits of the consumer's TV program 'Minute Papillon' (1982-1992) on the Walloon public channel RTBF. He also made a new leader for the RTBF consumer information program 'Autant Savior'. In later years, his studio has created digital animations, CD-ROMS and websites.
Cover for Knack about the Belgian elections (6 March 1971) and for L'Instant about the linguistic divide in Belgium (17- 23 October 1991).
Illustrator and designer
Lejeune's art has appeared on covers of magazines like Pourquoi Pas?, Charlie Hebdo, L'Instant, Le Journal de l'Europe, Knack, Le Matin, Media Marketing and Plus Magazine. He has additionally designed posters for Amnesty International, art expos, theatrical shows and the annual Anima Festival. In 1993, he was hired by chief editor Thierry Tinlot to do the restyling of Spirou magazine, which included a new cover and header design. The first issue with Lejeune's new look was issue #2909 of 12 January 1994. For Spirou issues #3281 (28 February 2001) and #3332 (20 February 2002), he also made two illustrations for the column 'Voeux',
In 1987, Magic Strip released Lejeune's artbook 'Dr. Car & Mr. Toon'. Later art collections include 'Quelques Dessins et Quelques Aphorismes Verticaux' (2015) and 'Mes Dessins Généralistes' (museum catalog, 2015). For a younger audience, he illustrated the nursery rhyme collection 'Pincettes: Comptines' by André Igwal (Glénat, 1989) and the picture book 'Sur le Bout de la...' with Pascal Nottet, AKA Rascal (Pastel, 1992).
'Le Titre est la Fin'.
Early comics
Throughout his career, Jean-Louis Lejeune has made a handful of comics, drawn in a petulant, cartoony style. Some appeared in magazines, others were made for commissioned books, which often mixed comic segments with illustrated narratives. In the 1 March 1977 issue of Métal Hurlant (issue #15), Lejeune created the comic story 'La Femme de Ménage'. With scriptwriter Yvan Delporte, he created the gag comic feature 'Les Extrèmes Se Touchent' ("Extremes Meet"), which ran in issues #14-21 of À Suivre (March-October 1979).
Idi Amin
In 1978, Lejeune collaborated with documentary maker Richard Olivier, whose prior experience with comics was making photo comics with Gérald Frydman. Olivier released a satirical play, 'Big Daddy Dada' (1978) about Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, which was adapted into a comic strip by Lejeune, 'Idi Amin Dada, Ier Empereur de Belgique' for the magazine Pourquoi Pas? At the time, Amin's bizarre behavior and cruel abuses of human rights had already made him infamous far beyond his country's borders. Political cartoonists frequently mocked him, and in Belgium, comic artists Marc Sleen and Merho had even made Amin a recurring character in their respective comic series 'Nero' and 'De Kiekeboes'. Still, ridicule of Amin was a touchy subject at the time, since Uganda, much like the previous Belgian colony of Congo, was considered a "friendly nation" in the eyes of the Belgian government. When Sleen mocked Idi Amin in his 'Nero' story 'De Wensring', his newspaper editors forced him to scribble a beard on Amin's face and slightly alter his name. In 'De Kiekeboes', Merho created an expy of Idi Amin Dada, namely "dictator Bibi Pralin Gaga" to avoid trouble with the censors. Serialized in Pourquoi Pas?, Olivier and Lejeune's comic received many angry readers' letters, especially since the duo mocked the Belgian royal family and the narrative featured Amin annexing Belgium. The serial was canceled after only a few weeks. In 1979, 'Idi Amin Dada, Ier Empereur de Belgique' was published in book format by Multipress. By that point, Amin had already been ousted from power in real life.
In 1984, Olivier and Lejeune collaborated again in the pages of the magazine Ice Crim's, where Lejeune livened up Olivier's columns with funny illustrations.
Comic about the Belgian revolution.
Bruxelles Babel/Brussel De Sjanzende Stad
Crossing the line between illustration and comics, Lejeune livened up the pages of the 1979 book 'Bruxelles Babel: Chronique Illustré de Bruxelles', written by Michel Géoris (French edition) and Walter Soethoudt (Dutch translation: 'Brussel, De Sjanzende Stad: Brusselse Cronijcken'). The work was published at the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of Brussels in 1979. It provides a chronological history of the city, focusing on key events, remarkable historical characters and colorful anecdotes. The text is accompanied by Lejeune's witty illustrations, caricatures, one-panel cartoons and occasional gag comics. Speech balloons are used sparingly, often focusing on only one word or a short sentence. The majority of Lejeune's comics in the book are told in pantomime.
Comics in the 1980s
Between 1 February and 1 April 1980, Lejeune's surreal and metafictional comic series 'Le Titre est la Fin' ("The Title is the Ending") ran in the first three issues of the short-lived comic magazine Aïe. It featured a man in a desolate landscape, looking for more meaning in his life, in conversation with a giant smiling Buddha. By commission of Infor Jeunes Bruxelles, Lejeune provided the artwork for 'Love, Love... C'est Vite Dit!' (1983), an instructional comic guide for youngsters about sexuality, made in collaboration with Jean-Claire Lacroix and Claude Oreel. With writer Francine Léonard, Lejeune created the one-shot crime graphic story 'Victoria Flique' (1985) for publisher Ice Grim's.
'Où Sont-Ils?' ('Where Are They?'). Work for Amnesty International, 1980, about the people who "disappeared" under the Argentinian junta.
Graphic contributions
In 1986, Jean-Louis Lejeune contributed to 'Pétition - À La Recherche d'Oesterheld et Tant d'Autres!', a collective book by Amnesty International, calling attention to the mysterious disappearance of the leftist Argentinean scriptwriter Hector Germán Oesterheld. In 1987-1988, the publishing company Brain Factory International released a four-volume comic book series in which songs by singer Jacques Brel are visualized in comic strip form. The first volume, 'Le Plat Pays' (1987), had a contribution by Lejeune. He was also one of many artists to pay tribute to Ever Meulen during the October 2017 'Ever Meulen & Friends' exhibition in Brussels.
Recognition
Between 5 November and 31 December 2015, Jean-Louis Lejeune's artwork was exhibited at the Seed Factory in the Maison de l'Image in Brussels. Lejeune also participated in the Maison de l'Image's collective project 'The Brusseler', a series of Brussels-themed magazine covers designed in the style of The New Yorker.
Artwork for Amnesty International (1977).
Educational career
As a teacher, Lejeune has worked at the École Supérieure de l'Image le 75 in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (Sint-Pieters Woluwe). Between 1999 and 2015, he was active as a Tai Chi instructor at the Société Internationale de Tai Chi Taoïste Fung Loy Kok.
'Bruxelles Babel'.