Studios Hergé: R.I.P. Jacques Martin

The death of Jacques Martin, one-time member of the Studios Hergé, has just been announced. He was 88.
[Broken link removed]

That's very sad; I've read some his Lefranc books in French, and have one of his Alix books in English, and think that the quality of his work was exceptionally good - more animated and lively than say, Blake & Mortimer.

The Lefranc stories are certainly closer to Tintin in appearance than B&M, and I mean that as a compliment to M. Martin, without suggesting that he was derivative.

He had a long life, and hopefully a happy one, but this does mark the end of an era.

There's a tiny English-language obituary online at The Independent and ABC (Australia). Given the near identical wording I imagine these are wire pieces rather than anything in house. Maybe filed by an intrepid boy reporter somewhere?

There's a longer piece at The Comics Reporter.

I've always liked the look of his work, and indeed have the two Ward Lock books from the 1970s, and agree they seem more animated than B&M, but I didn't really enjoy either book as I have done with B&M and, of course, Tintin. Maybe it is time to dig them out and give them another go.

Still, a good innings, as they say, and great to see a creator still active to the end, even if in a reduced capacity.

George

The following site is worth exploring:

http://alixintrepide.chez.com/

and this link especially:

http://alixblog2archive.canalblog.com/

I've been reading that Martin is credited with certain humorous scenes in Tintin, most notably the agro Haddock has with the sticky plaster in "Calculus Affair" or when Calculus collides with the doctor, knocking him out of his car, in "Emerald".

It's funny because I never thought of Martin having that kind of humour. The "Lefranc" series in particular is quite serious in tone and hardly contains slapstick humour of this kind.

Still, the sticky plaster incident remains one of my favourites, so good for him.