'Les Petites Plumes' #1 - 'Le Rival' (1989).
Manuel Tenret, also known as only Manuel, is a Belgian comic creator and commercial artist. He is best-known as the creator of the humorous children's comics 'Les Petites Plumes', of which two books were published by Soleil Productions in 1989 and 1994. He was also the creator of 'Futé le Furet' for the regional newspaper Le Furet, and a longtime artist of Studio Leonardo, working with Vittorio Leonardo on projects with the Morris creations 'Rantanplan' and 'Lucky Luke'. In his hometown Pont-à-Celles, Tenret has been a teacher in comic creation and the organizer of the local comics festival.
Early life and career
Manuel Tenret was born in 1965 in Chimay, a city in the province of Hainaut. At age sixteen, he showed his first attempts at drawing comics to Marc Wasterlain, a comic artist living nearby. Wasterlain directed him to the Châtelet Academy of Fine Arts, where he enrolled in the section "Comics, Scripts and Illustrations", run by comic colorist and artist Vittorio Leonardo.
Job
Under Leonardo's guidance, Tenret made his professional debut in the pages of the short-lived children's magazine Job, which 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 Tenret's former teacher, 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'). In the pages of Job, Manuel created the characters 'Les Petites Plumes', a group of young Native Americans, appearing in comics and game pages. Much of Job's content was bilingual, so 'Les Petites Plumes' also ran as 'De Veertjes'. He also wrote the script for the 'Désiré Lapaix' strip, drawn by Chenut. Another newcomer in Job's pages was Massart, who drew the feature 'Les Zoumpis'. Both Chenut and Massart were presumably also former students from Vittorio Leonardo's comic classes. However, after a short while, the magazine's publisher suddenly disappeared, meaning the end of Job after only three issues.
'Le Furet Contre L'Effroyable M. Quidam'.
Commercial art
Manuel Tenret subsequently fulfilled his military service, and then switched to commercial art. Since 1986, he has been an artist-for-hire through his own Studio M., initially based in Erquelinnes, and since 1992 in Pont-à-Celles. His activities have included illustration work for the press and book publishers (political, satirical, fashion, technical, etc.), advertisements and communication purposes. For instance, he illustrated Albert Bastin's detective novel 'Fric-Frac à Gilly' (1986), and designed the cover of a Robert Cogoi record. In 2018, he illustrated the children's book 'Loustic à la Ferme' by Joëlle Frydman.
Between 1986 and 1989, Manuel Tenret was the layout artist and illustrator for Le Furet, a weekly newspaper from Anderlues. He also designed the paper's mascot, Futé le Furet, who appeared in the comic strip 'Le Furet contre l'Effroyable M. Quidam'. In 2005, an album collecting the adventures of Futé le Furet was published by Éditions du Furet under the title 'Énigme au Zoo'. In 1992-1993, Tenret also explored the German market and created a series of strips under the title 'Ekki und das Café Cash-Mir' for the publisher K.O. Verlag in Dusseldorf. For the same publisher, he also made strips for Clean Water and drew the characters of 'Jo & Magdalena', who appeared on T-shirts.
'Les Petites Plumes', #2 - 'Géronimo' (1994).
Les Petites Plumes (revival)
In 1988, Tenret began an association with the publisher Soleil Productions, marking his return to mainstream comics. Between 1989 and 1991, he produced new stories with his Native American characters 'Les Petites Plumes', which were first serialized simultaneously in Le Furet and the Flemish newspaper Het Volk (under the title 'De Veertjes'). In 1989, Soleil released a first book collection, 'Le Rival'. Five years later, it was reprinted under the title 'Miss Carolina' in the collection Soleil Junior, after which a second volume followed, 'Géronimo' (1994). Around the same time, Soleil also released an album of Job magazine's other original feature, Massart's 'Les Zoumpis' (1990).
Studio Leonardo/Lucky Productions
In 1992, Tenret had a short trial period drawing 'The Smurfs' at Studio Peyo, but eventually rejoined Vittorio Leonardo and his studio. In Leonardo's team, he was one of the artists for 'Die Scouns', a collective album for the German market. At Lucky Productions/Lucky Comics, he also assisted Vittorio Leonardo with the layouts and sketches for the 'Rantanplan' series (1995-2001), a spin-off of Morris' 'Lucky Luke' comic. Between 1993 and the early 2000s, Tenret provided further Lucky Luke-related artwork for puzzles, magic boxes, coloring books and other licensed products. On occasion he has returned to Studio Leonardo for new projects, like the 2008 'Lucky Luke' advertising album 'L'Arnaque'.
Children's book illustrated by Manuel Tenret (2018).
Comic promotion
In addition to his own art activities, Manuel Tenret has been a regional promoter of the comics medium. Since 1997, he has given workshops in comic creation at a local Pont-à-Celles school, while also organizing his "Ateliers BD" in other locations. In 2000, he was appointed a lecturer in comic art by the Cultural Development Association of Pont-à-Celles, and he has also taught comics at the ESPACE Formations. In later years, he has also provided artwork for several socio-cultural projects. Between 2009 and 2018, Tenret was the driving force behind the FestiBD comics festival in Pont-à-Celles.
Graphic contributions
In 2023, Manuel Tenret was one of the contributors to the book 'StripKookboek II' (Personalia, 2023) by Dutch chef Leon Verhoeven, illustrating one of the fifty cooking recipes.
Flyer for a comic festival.