'Hultrasson'.
Vittorio Leonardo is a Belgian comic colorist and artist of Italian origins. He came to Belgium at a young age in 1947, where he soon developed a fascination for the 'Lucky Luke' comic by Morris, of which he copied the drawings in his school books. He attended art school and started out with a focus on model drawing and painting before turning to comics. He began his association with magazine Spirou and its publisher Dupuis in the 1960s, initially as a photographer.
He eventually ended up coloring the pages of Morris' 'Lucky Luke', André Franquin's 'Gaston', Peyo's 'Les Schtroumpfs', Jean Roba's 'Boule et Bill', and a great many other comic series. Since then, there are few Spirou comics to be found that haven't graced by the coloring of Vittorio Leonardo and his studios. In later years, Studio Leonardo has been using computer coloring software developed by Vittorio and his son Jourdan. Vittorio Leonardo and his son, Jourdan. Besides coloring, Vittorio is also skilled in the restoration of old art.
'Barbotine'.
Pushed by Morris, Franquin, Peyo and Remacle, Leonardo first presented himself as an artist with his 'Barbotine' comic in 1968. Between 1973 and 1976 he succeeded Marcel Remacle as the artist of the viking comic 'Hultrasson'. Further creations include 'Superdog' and 'Bardolino'. While his main occupation remained coloring, Vittorio returned to artwork in the 1990s, when he became Morris' assistant at Lucky Productions. His main occupation were the 'Rantanplan' gags that appeared on a weekly base in Télé Star from 1993. He also wrote the scripts for 'Laster et Pépin' for Éric Closter and 'Les Zoumpis' for Jean-Marc Massart, both published by Soleil in 1990.
Leonardo also contributed to 'Les Enquêtes de leurs Amis' (Soleil, 1989), a collective tribute album to Maurice Tillieux' hero detective 'Gil Jourdan'. In 1990 he paid graphic tribute to François Walthéry in the collective homage book 'Natacha. Special 20 Ans' (Marsu Productions, 1990), which celebrated the 20th anniversary of Walthéry's series 'Natacha'.
'Rantanplan'.