Denis Lebrun
Encyclopedia
Denis Lebrun is a comic strip
artist best known for his collaboration with Dean Young
on the Blondie
comic strip.
comic strip Blondie
as early as 1977, furnishing the strip's owner Dean Young
with gag scripts.
In 1982, Lebrun became Blondies assistant illustrator to head artist Mike Gersher
. In this capacity, Lebrun inked the lettering, backgrounds and incidental and secondary characters of the strip. Gersher left the strip in 1984 and was replaced that same year with veteran comic strip illustrator Stan Drake
. Drake was the head artist of the strip until his death in 1997. Cartoonist Jeff Parker
assisted with the production of the daily strip from 1996 until Lebrun's departure.
In May 1997, Lebrun took over full artistic responsibilities of the strip and was the lead artist until 2005. His final illustrations appeared in the Sunday, July 31, 2005 edition of the strip. According to comics historian R. C. Harvey
, Lebrun was succeeded by John Marshall
, although Marshall remained uncredited until Sunday, January 7, 2007. Marshall had been assisting Lebrun and Jeff Parker on the daily Blondie since December 2002.
.
As early as 1985, Lebrun began to use the computer as a means to streamline and modernize production. Originally, he employed the conventional tools and materials used by earlier Blondie artists: steel pen points (originally Gillot 1290s, later Hunt 103 or 104s for the line work and filed-down Speedball A-2s for lettering), Strathmore two-ply plate finish paper and Pelikan drawing ink. By January 2002, Lebrun made the strip's production fully digital, abandoning paper, pencil and ink in favor of the PowerPC G4.
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
artist best known for his collaboration with Dean Young
Dean Young (cartoonist)
Dean Wayne Young is the head writer of the popular comic strip Blondie, which he inherited from his father Chic Young, who died in 1973....
on the Blondie
Blondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
comic strip.
Comic strips
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Lebrun entered the comic strip field in 1975 with Rolling with Roger in the Tampa Neighbor newspaper. In 1976, Lebrun had a daily strip, Aw Heck, in the Tampa Times until 1979. Aw Heck then appeared in the Clearwater Sun from 1979 until 1980.Blondie
Lebrun originally assisted on the King Features SyndicateKing Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
comic strip Blondie
Blondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
as early as 1977, furnishing the strip's owner Dean Young
Dean Young (cartoonist)
Dean Wayne Young is the head writer of the popular comic strip Blondie, which he inherited from his father Chic Young, who died in 1973....
with gag scripts.
In 1982, Lebrun became Blondies assistant illustrator to head artist Mike Gersher
Mike Gersher
Mike Gersher was formerly an artist on the Blondie comic strip. He started being credited as the head artist in late December 1981, after the death of the long serving Jim Raymond. Gersher had assisted Raymond for about seventeen years, although it is not known what exactly contributions he made...
. In this capacity, Lebrun inked the lettering, backgrounds and incidental and secondary characters of the strip. Gersher left the strip in 1984 and was replaced that same year with veteran comic strip illustrator Stan Drake
Stan Drake
Stanley Albert Drake was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip The Heart of Juliet Jones....
. Drake was the head artist of the strip until his death in 1997. Cartoonist Jeff Parker
Jeff Parker (editorial cartoonist)
Jeff Parker has been editorial cartoonist for Florida Today which serves Florida's Space Coast, since 1992. He also assists Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Mike Peters with his comic strip, Mother Goose & Grimm and worked with Denis Lebrun on the daily Blondie comic strip from 1996 until 2005...
assisted with the production of the daily strip from 1996 until Lebrun's departure.
In May 1997, Lebrun took over full artistic responsibilities of the strip and was the lead artist until 2005. His final illustrations appeared in the Sunday, July 31, 2005 edition of the strip. According to comics historian R. C. Harvey
R. C. Harvey
Robert C. Harvey , popularly known as R. C. Harvey, is an author, critic and cartoonist. He has written a number of books on the history of the medium, with special focus on the history of the comic strip, and he has also worked as a freelance cartoonist.Harvey describes himself as having created...
, Lebrun was succeeded by John Marshall
John Marshall (cartoonist)
John Marshall is an American cartoonist, best known as the artist of the Blondie comic strip since 2005. He works closely with scripter Dean Young, son of the strip's creator, Chic Young....
, although Marshall remained uncredited until Sunday, January 7, 2007. Marshall had been assisting Lebrun and Jeff Parker on the daily Blondie since December 2002.
Digital Dagwood
During his tenure with Blondie, Lebrun introduced changes to the appearance and production of the strip. Almost immediately after taking the helm, Lebrun began to modernize it by updating Dagwood's wardrobe, replacing dial-tone phones with touch-tone phones, adding computer terminals to Dagwood's place of work and replacing paper charts with digital presentations. In spite of these changes, Lebrun kept the appearance of the strip close to the style of previous Blondie veteran artist Jim RaymondJim Raymond
Jim Raymond was a comic strip artist and the younger brother of Flash Gordon artist Alex Raymond.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Raymond's first cartoons were published in his high school newspaper...
.
As early as 1985, Lebrun began to use the computer as a means to streamline and modernize production. Originally, he employed the conventional tools and materials used by earlier Blondie artists: steel pen points (originally Gillot 1290s, later Hunt 103 or 104s for the line work and filed-down Speedball A-2s for lettering), Strathmore two-ply plate finish paper and Pelikan drawing ink. By January 2002, Lebrun made the strip's production fully digital, abandoning paper, pencil and ink in favor of the PowerPC G4.