Les Zoumpis - 'Coquilles Cocasses' (1990).
Jean-Marc Massart is a Belgian comic artist, who drew the one-shot humorous adventure comic book 'Les Zoumpis' (Soleil Productions, 1990), scripted by Vittorio Leonardo. He should not be confused with Belgian visual artist Jean-Georges Massart (1953-2022).
Les Zoumpis
Nothing is known about the artist generally listed only as Massart, although some sources mention the first name Jean-Marc. In 1984, he was one of the artists appearing in the children's magazine Job. The magazine was launched by a Charleroi business man, with the aim of helping Walloon children learn the Dutch language. Intended to appear every two months, Job was edited by comic book colorist and occasional artist Vittorio Leonardo, and contained comics and editorial art by a host of Leonardo's artist associates, including Berck (the title comic), Peyo ('The Smurfs'), Marc Wasterlain ('Ratapoil'), Frédéric Jannin ('Suske le Cochon') and Kiko ('Foufi'). Newcomers in Job's pages were Manuel Tenret, drawing 'Les Petites Plumes', Chenut, with the character 'Désiré Lapaix', and Massart, with the feature 'Les Zoumpis', the latter written by editor Vittorio Leonardo himself. Since Tenret had attended Vittorio Leonardo's comic classes at the Châtelet Academy of Fine Arts, it is likely that Massart and Chenut were also former students of Leonardo.
Much of Job's content was bilingual, so 'Les Zoumpis' also ran as 'De Zompies'. The Zoumpis are small, big-nosed characters who use snails for transportation. However, after a short while, the magazine's publisher suddenly disappeared, meaning the end of Job after only three issues. It is unknown whether Massart and Leonardo continued 'Les Zoumpis' in another paper or magazine, but by 1990 they had enough material to fill a complete comic album. In August that year, Soleil Productions released 'Coquilles Cocasses', the sole album of the series. Although highly obscure, 'Les Zoumpis' is reminiscent of other children's comics of that time period about dwarf-like beings living in nature, like Peyo's 'The Smurfs', Nic Broca's 'Snorks' and Makyo's 'Les Bogros'.
However, no further appearances of the characters are known, and 'Les Zoumpis' appear to have been Massart's only contribution to the comics industry. Around the same time, Soleil also released two volumes of Job magazine's other original feature, Manuel Tenret's 'Les Petites Plumes' (1989, 1994). Since Massart and Vittorio Leonardo had continued their joint creation five years since the demise of Job, it is possible that Jean-Marc Massart, like Manuel Tenret, was also associated with Studio Leonardo, the company specialized in comic book coloring.
'Les Zoumpis' appearing on the cover of the third issue of Job (1984) and the cover of the feature's sole album (1990).