Raymond Leblanc was a resistance fighter during the Second World War in the Mouvement National Royaliste (MNR) group.[1][2][3]
When the war ended in 1945, Leblanc set up new offices at 55, Rue du Lombard, establishing his publishing house, Le Lombard. Years later after Leblanc's retirement, he explained in an interview the beginnings of the Tintin legacy. On the subject of creating a new magazine for young people, he said, "We thought this was an interesting idea, and started looking for a name. We ended up eventually with Tintin, Hergé’s comic book hero. Literally everyone knew that character at that moment. The question however was, where was Hergé?"[3]
The Adventures of Tintin creator Hergé, having worked for the collaborationist newspaper Le Soir, was out of a job and even denied the right to work.[1][a]
Leblanc arranged a meeting with Hergé, understood his dilemma, and saw an opportunity. Leblanc offered to clear Hergé's name and, that settled, offered him a new publishing venue for The Adventures of Tintin: the opportunity to continue to serialise his title in Leblanc's new weekly 12-page, comics journal, Le journal de Tintin (Tintin magazine), the first project of Le Lombard.[1] Hergé accepted, and in 1946, Belgian comics fans were treated, not only to the return of Tintin, but to the debut of many new Franco-Belgian comics on a weekly basis, some appearing in Hergé's signature ligne claire style.[1]
The years 1954 and 1956 saw Leblanc launching two other creative ventures: the advertising agency PubliArt, a publicity division of Le Lombard using comics characters in its projects, and Belvision Studios, which produced short and full-length animated films for television and cinema.[4]
Leblanc continued to helm new projects at Belvision until his retirement. He sold the company to French buyers in 1986.[3][4]
Eventually, Dupuis, former rival of Leblanc's Le Lombard publishing house, acquired Belvision and restructured it as a unit under it.
Belvision Studios, now mostly dormant, currently exists nominally, i.e. in name.
Leblanc received the Alph-Art d'Honneur prize in 2003 at the 30th annual Angoulême International Comics Festival, in Angoulême, France, for his contribution to the Franco-Belgian comics industry. (See photo of Leblanc accepting the honour, age 87.)[6]
Leblanc died aged 92 on 21 March 2008 in Brussels, Belgium.[2][3][4]
^Hergé had been sacked, arrested, cleared of charges, released, and then denied the right to work. The Adventures of Tintin serial had been interrupted near the end of The Seven Crystal Balls, on page 49; page 50 would be the first page published in Tintin magazine, eighteen months later.[1]
