'Pimmeke', signed by Julux (Kleine Zondagsvriend, 3 October 1946).
Jules Luyckx, AKA Julux, was a Belgian animator and comic artist, mostly active during the 1940s. Together with his creative partner Ray Goossens, he spent the World War II years making animated films through the AFIM studios. Subsequently, he was among the early comic artists of the children's magazine Kleine Zondagsvriend, working with Goossens under the Regulux banner on comic features like 'Pimmeke', 'Tijl Uilenspiegel' and 'Ouwe Taaie'. When his collaboration with Goossens came to an end, he continued on his own, using the pen name Julux, and was presumably also the artist behind the name "Lode Tekenbol".
Early life
Jules Luyckx was born in 1920 into a large Catholic family with four brothers and eight sisters. He has been described as an cheerful man, who maintained the philosophy of the Boy Scouts throughout his life. He studied drawing at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, where he met Ray Goossens (1924-1998), with whom he shared a passion for the animated cartoons of Walt Disney and the Fleischer brothers. After school hours, the two men began working on their own 16 mm animation film.
AFIM
In 1939, Luyckx and Goossens came into contact with the Belgian animation pioneers Henri Winkeler and Edmond Roex, with whom they began their own animation studio, the Antwerpse Filmmaatschappij (AFIM). The quartet's first animated cartoon was 'Metamorfose' (1940). In the period 1940-1943, the company made animated shorts such as 'Rapi Roum', 'Smidje Smee' and 'Hoe Pimmeke ter Wereld Kwam' (sources differ on the exact release dates). They managed to attract several studio workers, many of whom would later become well-known comic artists, such as Bob De Moor, Mon Van Meulenbroeck and Jef Nys. But Nys only stayed for four days because his school principal felt animation was "low art" and forced him to return to the academy. Other artists involved in the AFIM productions were Marcel Colbrant, Gaston Lambert and Andrée Van de Velde.
Regolux
World War II made the working conditions very difficult and anyone who didn't have a proper job was expected to do forced labor in Nazi Germany. By the spring of 1944, the studio closed down and Luyckx and Goossens went into hiding until Belgium was liberated in the fall. The two men found employment as cartoonists at the publisher Hoste. Under the joint pseudonym Regolux, they created the comic strip 'Ouwe Taaie' (1945-1954), a gag comic about an old but feisty bearded man. The title was a reference to Eddy Christiani's popular song 'Ouwe Taaie'. The comic first appeared in De Zweep in February 1945. Between September 1945 and 1954, Goossens continued the series on his own. The Regolux duo also created 'Jantje Pap' (April-August 1945) in the scouts magazine Kampvuur and made cartoons for the newspaper De Zondagsvriend. Luyckx continued 'Jantje Pap' on his own until November 1946.
Episode of Bob De Moor's 'Inspecteur Marks', signed by Julux (Kleine Zondagsvriend #66, 22 August 1946).
Kleine Zondagsvriend
On 17 May 1945, the weekly De Zondagsvriend launched a children's supplement, named Kleine Zondagsvriend (KZV), which became an independent weekly after ten issues and lasted until 18 December 1963 (though after 1956 it became a supplement of Gazet van Antwerpen). Goossens and Luycx were the driving forces behind the publication, and gradually hired additional artists like Bob De Moor, Marc Payot and Tom Payot, followed by Jan Waterschoot, Staf De Bruyne, Rik Clement, Edgar Ley and Karel Verschuere. As Regolux, Goossens and Luyckx drew the gag comic 'Tijl Uilenspiegel' (1945), based on the Flemish folk hero made famous by the similarly titled novel by Charles De Coster. The feature was later retitled 'Tijl en De Lamme' or 'De Lamme', referring to Tijl's friend Lamme Goedzak. The duo also drew 'Pimmeke' for the same magazine, which starred the little boy from their wartime animated short 'Hoe Pimmeke ter wereld kwam'.
Solo comics
When the team broke up in the second half of 1945, Goossens continued 'Tijl en Lamme', while Luyckx drew 'Pimmeke' on his own until 1946, using the pen name Julux. In some 1946 issues of Kleine Zondagsvriend, the signature of Julux also appeared in the panels of Bob De Moor's crime noir serial 'Inspecteur Marks', revealing that Luyckx filled in on a couple of episodes. Jules Luyckx allegedly worked for Kleine Zondagsvriend until 1948, although his signature seems absent from post-1946 issues. Considering the art style, though, he could be the artist behind the pen name "Lode Teekenbol" (or "Lode Tekenbol"), who, between issue #42 of 1946 and issue #52 of 1947, created three imaginative serials with the two boys 'Snippertje Wit en Snippertje Zwart', whose offbeat adventures brought them to Wonderland, to Hell and finally to the American Far West.
Later life and death
In 1948, Jules Luyckx left KZV and began his own advertising agency. He was killed in an accident on 2 June 1962.
Snippertje Wit en Snippertje Zwart - 'Avonturen in de Hel!' (Kleine Zondagsvriend #78, 14 November 1946). This comic was credited to "Lode Teekenbol". Was this a pen name for Jules Luyckx?