Roger Leloup
Encyclopedia
Roger Leloup is a Belgian comic strip
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, novelist, and a former collaborator of Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...

. He is most famous for the Yoko Tsuno
Yoko Tsuno
Yoko Tsuno is a comic book series created by the Belgian writer Roger Leloup published by Dupuis and in Spirou since its debut in 1970. Through twenty-five volumes, the series tell the adventures of Yoko Tsuno, a female electrical engineer of Japanese origin surrounded by her close friends, Vic...

 comic series.

Biography

Roger Leloup was born in Verviers
Verviers
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...

, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 in 1933. Fascinated by trains and planes since his youth, he studied Decoration and Publicity at the Institut Saint-Luc in Liège. By accident, he came into contact with the Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...

 scene when his neighbour, Jacques Martin, told him that he desperately needed a colourist. Leloup got the job and started colouring the Alix
Alix
Alix, or The Adventures of Alix, is a popular Franco-Belgian comics series drawn in the ligne claire style by one its masters, Jacques Martin. The stories revolve around a young Gallo-Roman man named Alix in the late Roman Republic...

album L'ïle maudite in 1950.

Jacques Martin was one of the main artists of the comics magazine
Franco-Belgian comics magazines
Belgium and France have a long tradition in comics. They have a common history for comics and magazines.In the early years of its history, magazines had a large place on the comics market and were often the only place where comics were published. Most of them were kids-targeted.In the 1970s,...

 Tintin
Tintin (magazine)
Le journal de Tintin or Kuifje , was a weekly Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century...

, and when Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...

 was looking for someone to help him with the drawings of vehicles for a series, Martin brought him in contact with Leloup. From 15 February 1953 on, Leloup worked for several years at the Hergé studios, where he drew detailed backgrounds and vehicles for the comics series The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...

. His work is seen in a wide variety of drawings, such as the Genève-Cointrin
Geneva Cointrin International Airport
Geneva International Airport , commonly known as Cointrin Airport, is an airport serving Geneva, Switzerland. It is located northwest of the city centre and has direct connections to motorways, bus lines and railways . Its northern limit runs along the Swiss-French border and the airport can be...

 airport in The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....

and the design of the impressive Carreidas swing-wing supersonic business jet
Supersonic business jet
A supersonic business jet would be a small business jet, intended to travel at speeds above Mach 1.0. Typically intended to transport about ten passengers, SSBJs are about the same size as traditional subsonic business jets...

 in Flight 714
Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...

.

Leloup worked for both Jacques Martin, with Alix and Lefranc, and for Hergé, but as the production at the Studios Hergé
Studios Hergé
The Studios Hergé were, between 1950 and 1986, a SARL grouping comics author Hergé and his collaborators, who assisted him with the creation of The Adventures of Tintin and derived products...

 slowed down, and Leloup came into contact with other artists. He worked for a period with Francis, and also collaborated with Peyo
Peyo
Pierre Culliford , known as Peyo, was a Belgian comics artist, perhaps best known for the creation of The Smurfs comic strip.-Biography:...

 on his less well-known series Jacky and Célestin. Here, he created a Japanese female character that would later become the inspiration for his own series.

On 31 December 1969, Leloup left Studios Hergé to work fulltime on his own series, Yoko Tsuno
Yoko Tsuno
Yoko Tsuno is a comic book series created by the Belgian writer Roger Leloup published by Dupuis and in Spirou since its debut in 1970. Through twenty-five volumes, the series tell the adventures of Yoko Tsuno, a female electrical engineer of Japanese origin surrounded by her close friends, Vic...

, with a focus on technology and science fiction. The character Yoko Tsuno, a Japanese woman living in Brussels, is one of the leading examples of the female-fronted comics that appeared in the European juvenile magazines during this period. All Yoko Tsuno stories first appeared in Spirou
Spirou (magazine)
Spirou magazine is a weekly Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company...

and later as an album series published by editions Dupuis
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...

.

Roger Leloup has also written two novels, including one featuring Yoko Tsuno:
  • Le pic des ténèbres
    Le Pic des ténèbres
    Le Pic des ténèbres is a Belgian novel by Roger Leloup. It was first published in 1989....

    (1989)
  • L'Écume de l'aube
    L'Écume de l'aube
    L'écume de l'aube is a novel written by Roger Leloup published in 1991 at Casterman, which relates the childhood and youth of Yoko Tsuno, main character of the Yoko Tsuno comic book series....

    (1991)


He has an adopted Korean daughter, who inspired him to draw the character Morning Dew, the little Chinese girl from Le Dragon de Hong Kong
Le Dragon de Hong Kong
Le Dragon de Hong Kong is the sixtheenth book from Yoko Tsuno comic book series written by Roger Leloup and published in 1986. -Story:...

, who was adopted by Yoko Tsuno.

Awards

  • 1972, European SF special award for Belgian comics for Yoko Tsuno at the first Eurocon
    Eurocon
    Eurocon is an annual science fiction convention held in Europe. The organising committee of each Eurocon is selected by vote of the participants of the previous event. The procedure is coordinated by the European Science Fiction Society. The first Eurocon was held in Trieste, Italy, in 1972. Unlike...

     in Trieste
    Trieste
    Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

    , Italy
    Italy
    Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

  • 1974: Prix Saint-Michel
    Prix Saint-Michel
    The Prix Saint-Michel is a series of comic awards presented by the city of Brussels, with a focus on Franco-Belgian comics. They were first awarded in 1971, and are the second oldest comics award in Europe still presented, behind the Adamson Awards...

    , Brussels
    Brussels
    Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

    , Belgium, for Best Comic
  • 1990: Grand Prix de la Science Fiction Française, category "Youth", for his novel Le pic des ténèbres, France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...


External links

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