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I've just ordered a second-hand copy of a book containing five of the adventures of Bob de Moor's character Barelli.

I know very little of this series, other than that Barelli is an actor who winds up in adventures, and that Bob illustrated them in a ligne claire style very close in appearance to that used by Hergé.

Has anyone read any of the books, or have an opinion of them?

Cheers,
Simon

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Update: Posted: 8 Jun 2004 01:53:48
I have now got the book, and I have to say that after a cursory browse through it, it's a real curiosity...

For a start, the art style changes throughout the adventures, and in a way which suggests it is due to more experimentation than a straightforward improvement of technique seen in "Tintin", so it isn't as uniform a body of work, visually.

I have seen an unused page of inks for "Barelli" in Bernard Tordeur's biography of de Moor, done in an extremely realistic style, more akin to "Alix" if memory serves, so it is interesting to see he flexed his artistic muscles in the published stuff too (although it always remains, for want of a better term, "cartoony").

Anyway, it was interesting to see that it wasn't a slavish Hergé pastiche all the way, but another artist in his own right.

Secondly, he has a problem with being very wordy - leading to speech balloons dominating many of the pages, and some hilariously frantic lettering, getting smaller and smaller as he runs out of space - although that may have been a by-product of the books being written in Flemish, and re-lettered for French?

The story-telling isn't as compelling as Hergé; he sets out a hook right at the start, making Barelli a great actor and a master of disguise, and then uses that aspect very little, or at least takes the character off into situations where that is completely irrelevant.

Anyway, I'll continue reading them, and see how it goes.

There is a Barelli/Herge cross over by Bob de Moor. I have recently translated it and it is about Barelli walking onto the stage to find himself on the moon base. Herge (outside the page) is about to rub him out when Herge draws himself into the story. Barelli invites him to go to see his new show, but Herge insists he must be getting back. Barelli consoles him by telling Herge that Bob de Moor can finish the work.

I am great Tintin fan and love anything that looks like Tintin, so I found this Bob de Moor's comic Barelli. Can you tell me more about it, is it avalible in English not just French?

And are there any othere comics that look so much like Tintin, apart from Blake & Mortimer, they're great, but I already know of them.

Thanks for help.

Moderator Note: Please keep your questions limited to one point at a time, otherwise it becomes very confusing.
You should also do a search before starting a new thread - there is an entire section of the forums devoted to comics influenced by Hergé, as well as one for other comic recommendations, so there is little need to repeat that here.

Likewise, there was already this tread about Barelli, so queries and issues of a general nature about the books should be placed here.

Thanks for your cooperation!
The Tintinologist Team

If you want other comics drawn in the same Ligne claire style favoured by Herge then there is his own "Jo, Zette and Jocko" series. Three books of their adventures are available on Amazon.

There is also Willy Vandersteen's "Spike and Suzy", though as far as I know the only English-language books are those drawn by his successor Paul Geerts. These books can be obtained via Amazon as well.

I'll check those as well, but what about Mr. Barelli?
Are those book translated to English?

No, not the regular series, as far as I know.
However, there is a one-off curiosity, which isn't part of the regular run of books, which did come out in English.
It was called Barelli in Bubbly Brussels (1990) (Bruxelles bouillonne in the original French), published by "The Community Secretary of Public Health and Brussels Affairs", which makes it sound like it is going to feature water purification and sanitation systems, and give you information on how to brush your teeth effectively, but instead it's a book put together as a sort of tourist travelogue of the city, in which our hero takes off on a fairly silly chase through the city, which just happens to allow for depictions of land-marks through the city, with a bit of exposition about them.

It's sort of fun, and nice to see any Barelli in English, but it isn't essential, and doesn't really give a flavour of the series proper.

Barelli never saw a publication in English except for the mentioned "Barelli in Bubbly Brussels". The reason why the albums never made it into english is that de Moor's output was too sporadic (so probably not commercially interesting enough) since he worked so much at the Hergé Studios. Note that BD Must is now re-releasing all the de Moor back catalogue since neither Casterman or Le Lombard were interested in continuing the release of these books.

We'll soon post an interview with the publisher regarding this and other de Moor re-issues on the Bob De Moor Facebook page. All posts are in English on that page btw.

The Bob de Moor Facebook page includes a video dated July 2009 in which Jacques Martin tells of how he and de Moor worked together on one of his albums.

The video is in French and here is an English translation for people interested in de Moor.

Martin begins by explaining how de Moor got involved with Herge. In 1948, E.P. Jacobs, who had done most of the background artwork on "Tintin", split from him and Herge needed to find another artist who was just as talented. The editor of "Kuifje", the Flemish version of the weekly "Tintin magazine", recommended de Moor. De Moor's early work on "Tintin" included the Moon books. Martin especially goes on about de Moor's talent in imitating the drawing of other artists, but stresses that he was not a scriptwriter. He also describes him as very nice and affable.

Martin then tells of how he was looking for a collaborator for his own series "Lefranc" which is about a reporter who travels the world fighting crooks (sounds familiar). De Moor told him that he was interested and since the Studio Herge was not doing much work at the time Herge agreed to let him work with Martin.

Martin himself went to a valley in the Swiss Alps in order to research the area where he was to set the adventure. There he heard of a local story which inspired the plot: about how the local council deceived and ruined some foreign entrepreneurs. The result was "Le Repaire du loup" ("The Wolf's Hide-Out") which is set in a Swiss valley. (As far as I know it is not available in English.)

Martin and de Moor wanted to work on more books together but this was blocked by Herge! Martin is not sure why this was since Tintin stories were only coming out every five years or so and thus Herge could have spared de Moor from time to time. He implies that it may have had something to do with him previously quitting the Studio whereas de Moor was still under contract and needed Herge's permission to work on other projects. Curiously, it seems that Herge did not stop de Moor from working on another series where his talent in imitating the work of other artists came in useful. (Martin says that it was the classic French comic "Becasine" but I cannot find any other indication that de Moor ever worked on that series.)

De Moor was "sacked" (Martin's words) from the Studio Herge in 1985, after Herge's death, and he and Martin considered working together again but then de Moor was asked to finish Jacob's uncompleted Blake and Mortimer story "Professor Sató's Three Formulae" and died soon afterwards.

Martin describes the work de Moor did on "Le Repaire du loup": Martin would draw rough sketches describing the action and then de Moor would draw the actual panels that were published. He even kept a file with detailed drawings of each of the characters in the comic. Martin suggests that this was to avoid confusion, such as drawing a scene featuring Gritz, a friendly character, when he was supposed to put in Valadin, an antagonist.

"Le Repaire du loup" was published in "Tintin magazine" in 1969-70 but was not published in book form until fours years later. Martin explains that this was partly due to him switching to a new publisher, Casterman, which also took his other series "Alix", which is set in Ancient Rome. Apparently he pitched them to Casterman along with Jacobs' "Blake and Mortimer" and Jean Graton's "Michel Vaillant".

He concludes by describing how in about 1991 he was invited to visit the Swiss valley where he set "Le Repaire du loup" and even made a couple of speeches. Apparently the locals did not bear a grudge for him exposing a local scandal.