Edgar P. Jacobs

Belgian comics artist

Edgar P. Jacobs

Born| Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs
(1904-03-30)30 March 1904
Brussels, Belgium
Died| 20 February 1987(1987-02-20) (aged 82)
Lasne-Chapelle-Saint-Lambert, Belgium
Nationality| Belgian
Area(s)| artist, writer, colourist

Notable works

| Blake and Mortimer
Le Rayon U
Awards| full list

Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs (30 March 1904 – 20 February 1987), better known under his pen name Edgar P. Jacobs, was a Belgian comic book creator (writer and artist), born in Brussels, Belgium. He was one of the founding fathers of the Franco-Belgian comics movement, through his collaborations with Hergé and the graphic novel series that made him famous, Blake and Mortimer.

## Biography[edit]

Edgar Félix Pierre Jacobs was born in Brussels in 1904.[1] Jacobs remembered having drawn for as far back as his memory would go. His real love though was for the dramatic arts and the opera in particular. In 1919 he graduated from the commercial school where his parents had sent him, and privately swore he would never work in an office. He kept on drawing in his spare time, focusing his greatest attention on musical and dramatic training. He took on odd jobs at the opera, including decoration, scenography, and painting, and sometimes got to work as an extra.[1] In 1929 he received the annual Belgian government medal for excellence in classical singing. Financial good fortune did not follow, since the Great Depression hit the Brussels artistic community very hard.

After a career as extra and baritone singer in opera productions between 1919 and 1940 in Brussels and Lille, punctuated by small drawing commissions, Jacobs turned permanently to illustration, drawing commercial illustrations and collaborating in the children's weekly comic magazine Bravo until 1946, after he was introduced there by Jacques Laudy.[2] This review or periodical was a smashing success, hitting a circulation of 300,000 at times.

When the American comic strip Flash Gordon was prohibited in Belgium by the German occupation authorities during World War II, he was asked to write an end to the comic in order to provide a denouement to the readers. German censorship banned this continuation after only a couple of weeks. Jacobs subsequently published his first comic strip in Bravo, Le Rayon U (The U Ray), largely in the same Flash Gordon style.[2]

Around this time, he became a stage painter for a theatre adaptation for Hergé's Cigars of the Pharaoh. Although the play was only a modest success, it brought him into contact with Hergé and the two quickly become friends. As a direct result, he assisted Hergé in coloring the black and white strips of The Shooting Star from Le Soir in preparation for book publication in 1942, and from 1944 on he helped him in the recasting of his earlier albums Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America, King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Blue Lotus for color book publication. After the project, he continued to contribute directly in the drawing as well as the storyline for the new Tintin double-albums The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun. Jacobs, as a fan of opera, decided to take Hergé with him to a concert. Hergé did not like opera, however, and for decades he would gently lampoon his friend Jacobs through the device of opera singer Bianca Castafiore, a supporting character in The Adventures of Tintin. Hergé also gave him tiny cameo roles in Tintin adventures, sometimes under the name Jacobini, for example in The Calculus Affair where Jacobini is the name of an opera singer advertised as starring alongside La Castafiore in Gounod's Faust, and as a mummified egyptologist on the cover of Cigars of the Pharaoh, as well as in the rewritten version. In a 1977 interview with the BBC (excerpted in 2016 on the Witness radio program/podcast), Hergé stated that Jacobs was part of his inspiration for the major character of Captain Haddock: "He [Jacobs] is just like Captain Haddock, full of movement...bursting into...invective."[3]

In 1946, Jacobs was part of the team gathered by Raymond Leblanc around the new Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin, where his story Le secret de l’Espadon (The Secret of the Swordfish) was published on 26 September, the first of the Blake and Mortimer series.[4]

In 1947, Jacobs asked to share the credit with Hergé on The Adventures of Tintin. When Hergé refused, their collaboration suffered a bit of a setback. Hergé still remained a friend however, and as before Blake et Mortimer continued to be serialised in Tintin magazine. In 1950, Jacobs published The Mystery of the Great Pyramid. Many others soon followed. Jacobs finally published in 1970 the first volume of The Three formulas of Professor Sato, which was staged in Japan.

In 1973 he restyled his first full-length album, Le Rayon U, and wrote his autobiography under the title Un opéra de papier: Les mémoires de Blake et Mortimer. He then wrote the scenario for the second episode of Les Trois Formules du Professeur Sato, but the artwork remained unfinished at the time of his death. Bob de Moor was drafted in to complete the album, which was published in 1990.

Jacobs has two stone sphinxes to commemorate him. One of them is in the Bois des Pauvres near Brussels, where his home used to stand, and the other one is over his tomb at the Lasne cemetery, also near Brussels. The cemetery sphinx has a "collar" beard, and his face looks a lot like Philip Mortimer, the protagonist of most of the Jacobs albums.

Jacobs' style varies greatly from one album to another. There are however many common threads, such as the theme of subterranean descent and the consistent Ligne claire drawing style.

## Bibliography[edit]

1. Le Rayon U (The U Ray), in 1943
2. Le Secret de l'Espadon (The Secret of the Swordfish), in 1947 (3 volumes)
3. Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide, (The Mystery of the Great Pyramid), in 1950 (2 volumes)
4. La Marque Jaune (The Yellow "M"), in 1953
5. L'Énigme de l'Atlantide (Atlantis Mystery), in 1955
6. S.O.S. Météores: Mortimer à Paris (S.O.S. Meteors), in 1958
7. Le Piège diabolique (The Time Trap) in 1960
8. L'Affaire du Collier (The Necklace Affair) in 1965
9. Les trois Formules du Professeur Sato: Mortimer à Tokyo (Mortimer in Tokyo) in 1970 (vol. 1). Vol. 2 Mortimer contre Mortimer (Mortimer versus Mortimer) completed by Bob De Moor, 1990

## Awards[edit]

* 1971: Grand Prix Saint-Michel, Belgium[5]

## Sources[edit]

* Guyard, Jean-Marc. Le Baryton du neuvième art. Bruxelles: Éditions Blake et Mortimer, 1996. ISBN 2-87328-000-X
* Jacobs, Edgar P. Un opéra de papier: Les mémoires de Blake et Mortimer. Paris: Gallimard, 1981. ISBN 2-07-056090-2
* Lenne, Gérard. L'Affaire Jacobs. Paris: Megawave, 1990. ISBN 2-908910-00-4
* Mouchart, Benoit. A l'ombre de la ligne claire: Jacques Van Melkebeke, le clandestin de la B.D. Paris: Vertige Graphic, 2002. ISBN 2-908981-71-8
* Mouchart, Benoît and Rivière, François La Damnation d'Edgar P. Jacobs, Seuil-Archimbaud, 2003. ISBN 2-02-085505-4
* Tzorken, Yann Le mystère Edgar P. Jacobs, Thebookedition, 2019. ISBN 9780244195830
* Edgar P. Jacobs publications in Belgian Tintin and French Tintin BDoubliées (in French)

Footnotes

1. ^ a b De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Edgar Pierre Jacobs". In België gestript, pp. 129–131. Tielt: Lannoo.
2. ^ a b de Grand Ry, Michel; Nizette, André; Lechat, Jean-Louis (1986). "E.P. Jacobs". Le livre d'or de la bande dessinée. Brussels: Centre de la bande dessinée Belge. pp. 16–17.
3. ^ Lucy Burns (18 January 2016). "BBC Witness: The Adventures of Tintin". bbc.co.uk (Podcast). BBC World Service. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
4. ^ BDoubliées. "Tintin année 1946" (in French).
5. ^ ActuaBD. "Quatrième Festival de la BD de la région de Bruxelles Capitale" (in French).

* Further reading: Valentinitsch,Bernhard, Ein Sich-Lösen von und Brechen mit Traditionen - der Comic-Klassiker 'Blake und Mortimer', der 'Ketzer'-Pharao Echnaton und andere ägyptische 'Ketzer'. In: Denken und Glauben. Nr. 201. Graz 2022, S. 22-24.

## External links[edit]

* E.P. Jacobs 2004 centenary memorial site (in French)
* Blake et Mortimer official site on Dargaud (in French)
* Edgar Pierre Jacobs biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia

* v
* t
* e

Blake and Mortimer by Edgar P. Jacobs

Authors and
draughtsmen|

* Edgar P. Jacobs
* Bob de Moor
* Jean Van Hamme
* Ted Benoît
* Yves Sente
* André Juillard
* René Sterne
* Chantal De Spiegeleer
* Aubin Frechon
* Jean Dufaux
* Antoine Aubin
* Étienne Schréder

The series|

* The Secret of the Swordfish, Volume 1: Ruthless Pursuit (1950)
* The Secret of the Swordfish, Volume 2: Mortimer's Escape (1953)
* The Secret of the Swordfish, Volume 3: SX1 Counterattacks (1953)
* The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, Volume 1: Manetho's Papyrus (1954)
* The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, Volume 2: The Chamber of Horus (1955)
* The Yellow "M" (1956)
* Atlantis Mystery (1957)
* S.O.S. Meteors: Mortimer in Paris (1959)
* The Time Trap (1962)
* The Necklace Affair (1967)
* Professor Sató's Three Formulae, Volume 1: Mortimer in Tokyo (1971)
* Professor Sató's Three Formulae, Volume 2: Mortimer vs. Mortimer (1990)
* The Francis Blake Affair (1996)
* The Voronov Plot (2000)
* The Strange Encounter (2001)
* The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Volume 1: The Universal Threat (2003)
* The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Volume 2: Battle of the Minds (2004)
* The Gondwana Shrine (2008)
* The Curse of the Thirty Denarii, Volume 1: The manuscript of Nicodemus (2009)
* The Curse of the Thirty Denarii, Volume 2: The gate of Orpheus (2010)
* The Oath of the Five Lords (2012)
* The Septimus Wave (2013)
* Plutarch's Staff (2014)
* The Testament of William S. (2016)
* The Valley of the Immortals, Volume 1: Threat Over Hong Kong (2018)
* The Valley of the Immortals, Volume 2: The Thousand Arms of the Mekong (2019)
* The Last Pharaoh [fr] (2019)
* The Cry of the Moloch [fr] (2020)
* The Last Swordfish [fr] (2021)
* Eight Hours in Berlin [fr] (2022)

Other|

* Blake and Mortimer (TV series)
* Le Rayon U
* The Adventures of Tintin
* Ligne claire

* v
* t
* e

The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé

The Adventures
of Tintin|

* Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1930)
* Tintin in the Congo (1931)
* Tintin in America (1932)
* Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934)
* The Blue Lotus (1936)
* The Broken Ear (1937)
* The Black Island (1938)
* King Ottokar's Sceptre (1939)
* The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941)
* The Shooting Star (1942)
* The Secret of the Unicorn (1943)
* Red Rackham's Treasure (1944)
* The Seven Crystal Balls (1948)
* Prisoners of the Sun (1949)
* Land of Black Gold (1950)
* Destination Moon (1953)
* Explorers on the Moon (1954)
* The Calculus Affair (1956)
* The Red Sea Sharks (1958)
* Tintin in Tibet (1960)
* The Castafiore Emerald (1963)
* Flight 714 to Sydney (1968)
* Tintin and the Picaros (1976)
* Tintin and Alph-Art (1986, unfinished)
* Le Thermozéro (unfinished, unpublished)

Characters|

* Tintin
* Snowy
* Captain Haddock
* Professor Calculus
* Thomson and Thompson
* Rastapopoulos
* Bianca Castafiore
* Chang Chong-Chen
* Nestor
* Jolyon Wagg

Settings|

* Borduria
* Khemed
* Marlinspike Hall
* San Theodoros
* Syldavia
* The Unicorn
* Other settings

Feature films|

| Animated|

* The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947)
* Tintin and the Temple of the Sun (1969)
* Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (1972)
* The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
* soundtrack

|

Live-action|

* Tintin and the Golden Fleece (1961)
* Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964)

Television series|

* Hergé's Adventures of Tintin (1962–66)
* The Adventures of Tintin (1991–92)

Documentaries|

* I, Tintin (1976)
* Tintin and I (2003)

Stage|

* The Mystery of the Blue Diamond (1941)
* Mr. Boullock's Disappearance (1941)
* Kuifje – De Zonnetempel (De Musical) (2001)
* Tintin – Le Temple du Soleil – Le Spectacle Musical (2002)

Video games|

* Tintin on the Moon (1987)
* Tintin in Tibet (1996)
* Prisoners of the Sun (1997)
* Tintin: Destination Adventure (2001)
* The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

Other media
and memorabilia|

* Tintin media
* Books about Tintin
* Tintin and the World of Hergé
* Tintin magazine
* Tintin postage stamps
* Tintin coins

Collaborators
of Hergé|

* Studios Hergé
* Bob de Moor
* Edgar P. Jacobs
* Jacques Martin
* Greg
* Roger Leloup
* Josette Baujot
* Jacques Van Melkebeke
* Zhang Chongren

Legacy of Hergé|

* Hergé Foundation
* Ligne claire
* Musée Hergé
* Parodies and pastiches
* Breaking Free
* Tintin in Thailand

Publishers|

* Bonnier Group
* Carlsen Verlag
* Casterman
* Egmont
* Golden Press
* Le Lombard
* Methuen Publishing
* Le Petit Vingtième
* Le Soir
* Tintin magazine
* Little, Brown & Co.

Literary critics|

* Michael Farr
* Philippe Goddin
* Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier
* Tom McCarthy
* Benoît Peeters
* Yves Rodier
* Numa Sadoul
* Harry Thompson

* Category

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* United States

Artists|

* RKD Artists

People|

* Trove

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