Guest of Anne Roumanoff's show for her new album "Chat", the Belgian designer Philippe Geluck explains why his country is so represented in the world of comics, and this since the beginning of this graphic art.
Everything goes back to "Tintin" but everything is not only linked to the designers.
INTERVIEW
If there is one area where Belgium does not have “the seum”, it is comics.
The flat country was widely represented there from the beginning of the 20th century, from
Tintin
d'Hergé to
Lucky Luke
by Morris, including the
Smurfs
by Peyo.
The designer and father of the
Cat
Philippe Geluck gives his version of the success of his compatriots, at the microphone of Anne Roumanoff.
>> Find all of Anne Roumanoff's shows in replay and podcast here
Founding fathers with character
According to Philippe Geluck, Belgium owes the birth of its breeding ground for designers to
Tintin's
father
.
"It all started with the impetus given by the father of all, Hergé, who was a giant of comics," he explains.
"And all the future cartoonists have gathered around him."
But the father of the
Cat
also recalls that a comic book is not the only business of a designer.
"There was also the key role played by Castermann and Dupuis, two publishers with very strong personalities who brought with them magnificent artists," he says.
And the publishing houses launched by these two men still occupy a preponderant place in popular comics today.
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A country that has become a benchmark
If this melting pot of comics has not dried up after the first generation, it is because there is a real spirit of emulation around comics, as Philippe Geluck points out.
"A great artist always has followers, and these people then work in his wake," he recalls.
All the more so as Belgium cultivates its link with this art, in particular thanks to its Belgian Comic Strip Center, which houses the largest bédéthèque in the world and has given rise to many vocations among new generations.