Ligne claire
Encyclopedia
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
pioneered by 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...
, the Belgian creator of 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...
. It uses clear strong lines of uniform importance. Artists working in it do not use hatching
Hatching
Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines...
, while contrast is downplayed as well. Cast shadows are often illuminated while a uniformity of line is used throughout, paying equal attention to every element depicted. Additionally, the style often features strong colours and a combination of cartoonish characters against a realistic background. All these elements together can result in giving strips drawn this way a flat aspect. The name was coined by Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte is a Dutch comic artist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, and in fact coined the term....
in 1977.
Origins: Hergé
Hergé started out drawing in a much looser, rougher style which was influenced partially by famous American comic stripComic 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....
artists of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was only after World War II that his drawing style evolved into ligne claire. For Hergé, it was not limited to the drawings but extended to the story: the plot must be straightforward.
The Brussels school
Much of the "Brussels school" started to use this style, notably Edgar P. JacobsEdgar Pierre Jacobs
Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs, , better known under his pen name Edgar P. Jacobs, was a Belgian comic book creator , born in Brussels, Belgium...
, Bob de Moor
Bob de Moor
Bob de Moor is the pen name of Robert Frans Marie De Moor , a Belgian comics creator. Chiefly noted as an artist, he is considered an early master of the Ligne claire style. He wrote and drew several comics series on his own, but also collaborated with Hergé on several volumes of The Adventures of...
, Roger Leloup
Roger Leloup
Roger Leloup is a Belgian comic strip artist, novelist, and a former collaborator of Hergé. He is most famous for the Yoko Tsuno comic series.- Biography :...
, and Jacques Martin, many of whom also worked for Tintin magazine
Tintin (magazine)
Le journal de Tintin or Kuifje , was a weekly Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century...
.
The ligne claire style achieved its highest popularity in the 1950s, but its influence started to wane in the 1960s and was seen as old-fashioned by the new generation of comic book artists.
1970s and 1980s resurgence
In the late 1970s however it experienced a resurgence of interest, largely due to DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
artists like Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte is a Dutch comic artist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, and in fact coined the term....
and Theo van den Boogaard, who had come up through the Dutch underground comics scene, as well as the French artist Jacques Tardi
Jacques Tardi
Jacques Tardi is a French comics artist, born 30 August 1946 in Valence, Drôme. He is often credited solely as Tardi.-Biography:After graduating from the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he started writing comics in 1969, at the...
. Henk Kuijpers
Henk Kuijpers
Henk Kuijpers is a comics artist most famous for his Franka series.-Comics:*Franka, 21 comic albums*Bars, 2 albums...
was also successful in his application of the style.
In the 1980s, Yves Chaland
Yves Chaland
Yves Chaland was a French cartoonist.During the 1980s, together with Ted Benoît, Serge Clerc and Floc'h, he relaunched the Ligne claire style in French comics.-Biography:Chaland published his first strips in the fanzine Biblipop when he...
, Ted Benoît
Ted Benoît
Ted Benoît is a prominent figure in the stylish Franco-Belgian ligne claire comics scene in the 1980s. Among his works are Bingo Bongo et son Combo Congolais, a series about aspiring novelist Bingo B. Bongo and his travails, and Ray Banana, a film noir pastiche...
, Serge Clerc
Serge Clerc
Serge Clerc is a French comic book artist and illustrator.Serge Clerc began his professional career in 1975 in the monthly magazine Métal Hurlant, after having created his own fanzine, Absolutely Live...
and Floc'h
Floc'h
Jean-Claude Floch , known as Floc'h, is a French illustrator, comics artist, and writer. He is known for his use of the style known as ligne claire...
relaunched the Ligne claire style in France. This incarnation was a very stylistic and artistic variation, which the artists also utilized for illustrating posters and LP covers etc. Swarte dubbed this variant "atoomstijl" ("atomic style").
Contemporary use
Contemporary use of the ligne claire is often ironic. For example, van den Boogaard used the simple, clear style to set up a conflict with the amorality of his characters, while Tardi used it in his Adèle Blanc-sec series to create a nostalgic atmosphere which is then ruthlessly undercut by the story. A recent serious clear line artist is the DutchmanNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Peter van Dongen, who created the Rampokan series about the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
.
Ligne claire is not confined to 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...
. British artists such as Martin Handford
Martin Handford
Martin Handford is an English children's author and illustrator who gained worldwide fame in the mid-1980s with his Where's Wally? creation ....
; Norwegian artists like Jason; American artists like Geof Darrow
Geof Darrow
Geofrey "Geof" Darrow is a comic artist known for his work on books such as Hard Boiled and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, which was adapted into an animated TV series of the same name.-Character design and Moebius collaborations:...
, Jason Lutes
Jason Lutes
Jason Lutes is an American comics creator. His work is mainly historical fiction, but he also works in traditional fiction...
, and Jason Little
Jason Little (cartoonist)
Jason Palmer Little is an American cartoonist.He grew up in Binghamton, New York, studied photography at Oberlin College, and now lives in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their two daughters....
; and Spanish artists such as Francesc Capdevila Gisbert ("Max") have also used it.
Hergé
- The Adventures of TintinThe Adventures of TintinThe Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
- Jo, Zette and JockoJo, Zette and JockoThe Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko is a comic book series created by Hergé, the Belgian writer-artist who was best known for The Adventures of Tintin...
- Quick and Flupke
Others
- The Adventures of Freddy LombardThe Adventures of Freddy LombardThe Adventures of Freddy Lombard is a comic book series created by Yves Chaland. Five albums were released, all during the 1980s, before Chaland's untimely death. They were originally written in French, though have since received publication into English...
— Yves ChalandYves ChalandYves Chaland was a French cartoonist.During the 1980s, together with Ted Benoît, Serge Clerc and Floc'h, he relaunched the Ligne claire style in French comics.-Biography:Chaland published his first strips in the fanzine Biblipop when he... - AlixAlixAlix, 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...
— Jacques Martin - BarelliBarelliBarelli is a comics series featuring an eponymous character, created by Bob de Moor, which first appeared in the comics magazine Tintin on July 27, 1950...
— Bob de MoorBob de MoorBob de Moor is the pen name of Robert Frans Marie De Moor , a Belgian comics creator. Chiefly noted as an artist, he is considered an early master of the Ligne claire style. He wrote and drew several comics series on his own, but also collaborated with Hergé on several volumes of The Adventures of... - BerlinBerlin (comics)Berlin is the title of a comic book series created by Jason Lutes and published by Black Eye Productions and then Drawn and Quarterly. Planned as a series of 24 magazines, it describes life in Berlin from 1928 to 1933, during the decline of the Weimar Republic...
— Jason LutesJason LutesJason Lutes is an American comics creator. His work is mainly historical fiction, but he also works in traditional fiction... - Bingo Bongo et son Combo Congolais — Ted BenoîtTed BenoîtTed Benoît is a prominent figure in the stylish Franco-Belgian ligne claire comics scene in the 1980s. Among his works are Bingo Bongo et son Combo Congolais, a series about aspiring novelist Bingo B. Bongo and his travails, and Ray Banana, a film noir pastiche...
- Blake and MortimerBlake and MortimerBlake and Mortimer is a Belgian comics series created by the Belgian writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Belgian comics magazine Tintin in 1946, and was subsequently published in book form by Les Editions du Lombard.The main protagonists of the...
— Edgar P. Jacobs - FrankaFrankaFranka is a popular Dutch comic book series drawn and written since the mid 1970s by the graphic artist Henk Kuijpers. The principal character is a strong female Dutch sleuth who solves mysteries in exotic locales....
— Henk KuijpersHenk KuijpersHenk Kuijpers is a comics artist most famous for his Franka series.-Comics:*Franka, 21 comic albums*Bars, 2 albums... - Hector and Dexter (a.k.a. Coton et Piston and Katoen en Pinbal) — Joost SwarteJoost SwarteJoost Swarte is a Dutch comic artist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, and in fact coined the term....
- Julian Opie's Portraits — Julian OpieJulian OpieJulian Opie is a visual artist, and one of the New British Sculpture movement.-Life and work:Julian Opie was raised in Oxford, England, where he attended the Dragon School and Magdalen College School. He attended Goldsmith's School of Art in London from 1979-82...
- Kurt DunderKurt DunderKurt Dunder is a Danish cartoon drawn and written by Frank Madsen.The main characters are the pipe smoking adventurer Kurt and his friend Bill, which together with the monkey Attila travel around the world and solve strange mysteries and riddles....
— Frank MadsenFrank MadsenFrank Madsen is a contemporary Danish illustrator and cartoonist. He is the author of Kurt Dunder created in the ligne claire style also known from Hergé's Tintin.Frank Bruun Madsen was born in 1962 in the Danish town of Kalundborg.... - Professor PalmboomProfessor PalmboomProfessor Palmboom is a comic album series written and drawn by Dutch artist Dick Briel. They are illustrated in the ligne claire style. So far, three albums have been released and one book...
— Dick BrielDick BrielDick Briel was a Dutch comic artist living in Amsterdam who follows the Ligne claire style. He is most famous for his Professor Julius Palmboom comics... - The Rainbow OrchidThe Rainbow OrchidThe Rainbow Orchid is a comic written and drawn by Garen Ewing, the first of a series of planned Julius Chancer books. It is set in the 1920s and follows Chancer's expedition to discover the mythical 'Rainbow Orchid'. Starting in England, the adventure takes the characters first to France, then...
— Garen EwingGaren EwingGaren Ewing is an illustrator, designer and most notably a comic creator, being the writer and illustrator of The Adventures of Julius Chancer - The Rainbow Orchid.... - Shutterbug Follies — Jason LittleJason Little (cartoonist)Jason Palmer Little is an American cartoonist.He grew up in Binghamton, New York, studied photography at Oberlin College, and now lives in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their two daughters....
- Spike and SuzySpike and SuzySpike and Suzy, the British title for Suske en Wiske in Dutch, is a comics series created by the Belgian comics author Willy Vandersteen. The strip is known as Bob et Bobette in French and Willy and Wanda in the U.S. It was first published in De Nieuwe Standaard in 1945 and soon became popular...
(a.k.a. Bob and Bobette, Willy and Wanda, and Suske en Wiske) — Willy VandersteenWilly VandersteenWilly Vandersteen was a Belgian creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series, selling more than 200 million copies worldwide.... - Tintin pastiches — Yves RodierYves RodierYves Rodier is a Franco-Québécois comic strip creator known for his many pastiches of The Adventures of Tintin.- Biography :...
- Where's Wally?Where's Wally?Where's Wally?, published in the United States and Canada as Where's Waldo?, is a series of children's books created by British illustrator Martin Handford. The books consist of a series of detailed double-page spread illustrations depicting dozens or more people doing a variety of amusing things...
— Martin HandfordMartin HandfordMartin Handford is an English children's author and illustrator who gained worldwide fame in the mid-1980s with his Where's Wally? creation .... - Yoko TsunoYoko TsunoYoko 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...
— Roger LeloupRoger LeloupRoger Leloup is a Belgian comic strip artist, novelist, and a former collaborator of Hergé. He is most famous for the Yoko Tsuno comic series.- Biography :...
External links
- Klare lijn international — News on ligne claire comics (in French)
- Hergé & The Clear Line: Part 1