title: Bande dessinée

text: Even though "Les Pieds Nickelés", "Bécassine" and "Zig et Puce" managed to survive the war for a little while longer, modernized in all three cases and all of them continued by artists (the most notable one being "Belgian" Greg for the latter in the 1960s) other than the original creators, none of them succeeded to find a readership outside France itself and are consequently remembered in their native country only.


title: Bande dessinée

text: One of the earliest proper Belgian comics was Hergé's "The Adventures of Tintin", with the story "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets", which was published in "Le Petit Vingtième" in 1929. It was quite different from future versions of Tintin, the style being very naïve and simple, even childish, compared to the later stories. The early "Tintin" stories often featured racist and political stereotypes, which caused controversies after the war, and which Hergé later regretted. After "Tintin"'s early massive success, that the magazine decided to release the stories in hardcover book format as well, directly after they had run their respective courses in the magazine, in the process introducing something new in the Belgian comic world, the speech balloon comic album. The 1930 "Tintin au pays des Soviets" title is generally considered the very first of its kind – even though there are three similar "Zig et Puce" titles from French publisher Hachette, known to predate the "Tintin" title by one to two years, but which failed to find an audience outside France however. The magazine continued to do so for the subsequent three stories until 1934 when the magazine, as such not particularly well-suited as book publisher, turned album publication over to Belgian specialized book publisher Casterman, who has been the "Tintin" album publisher ever since.


title: Bande dessinée

text: The criticisms regarding the early stories notwithstanding and even though the format still had a long way to go, "Tintin" is widely considered the starting point and archetype of the modern Franco-Belgian comic as currently understood, and as amply demonstrated in the vast majority of treatises and reference works written on the subject since the 1960s, and the first to find a readership outside its originating country. As such the "Tintin" series went on to become one of the greatest post-war successes of the Franco-Belgian comic world, having seen translations in dozens of languages, including English, as well as becoming one of the relatively few European comics to have seen a major, successful, Hollywood movie adaptation as late as 2011, nearly thirty years after the death of its creator.


title: Bande dessinée

text: A further step towards modern comic books happened in 1934 when Hungarian Paul Winkler, who had previously been distributing comics to the monthly magazines via his Opera Mundi bureau, made a deal with King Features Syndicate to create the "Journal de Mickey", a weekly 8-page early "comic-book". The success was immediate, and soon other publishers started publishing periodicals with American series, which enjoyed considerable popularity in both France and Belgium. This continued during the remainder of the decade, with hundreds of magazines publishing mostly imported material. The most important ones in France were "Robinson", "Hurrah", and the (on behalf of the "aka" Cœurs Vaillants et Âmes Vaillantes de France) publications "Cœurs Vaillants" ("Valiant Hearts", 1929, for adolescent boys), ' ("Valiant Souls", 1937, for adolescent girls) and ' (1945, for pre-adolescents), while Belgian examples included "Wrill" and "Bravo".


title: Bande dessinée

text: "Coeurs Vaillants" started to publish "The Adventures of Tintin" in syndication from 1930 onward, constituting one of the earliest known French-Belgian comic world cross-fertilizations, only reinforced when Abbot Courtois, editor-in-chief of "Coeurs Vaillants", asked Hergé to create a series about real children with a real family as opposed to "Tintin"s ambiguous age and family (and thus more in line with the Catholic norms and values on which the magazine was founded), which resulted in the 1936 comic "The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko". Incidentally, as Hergé created his comics in the increasingly popular speech balloon format, it initially led to a conflict with "Cœurs Vaillants", which utilized the text comic format its editors considered more appropriate from an educational point-of-view. Hergé won the argument, and speech balloon comics were henceforth featured "alongside" text comics in the magazine (and that of its spin-offs) until the mid-1960s, when speech balloon comics were all but abandoned by the magazine(s), the general trend notwithstanding.


title: Bande dessinée

text: In 1938, the Belgian "Spirou" magazine was launched. Conceived in response to the immense popularity of "Journal de Mickey" and the success of "Tintin" in "Le Petit Vingtième", the black and white/color hybrid magazine featured predominantly comics from an American origin at the time of its launch until the war years, but there were also native comics included. These concerned "Spirou", created by the Frenchman Rob-Vel (and thus another early cross-fertilization example) and who served as the mascot and namesake for the new magazine, and "Tif et Tondu" created by Belgian artist Fernand Dineur. Both series would survive the war and achieve considerable popularity after the war, albeit under the aegis of other artists (see below). Published in a bi-lingual country, "Spirou" simultaneously appeared in a Dutch-language version as well under the name "Robbedoes" for the Flemish market. Export to the Netherlands followed a few years later shortly after the war. The magazine was conceived and published by publisher Éditions Dupuis S.A. (as of 1989, simply: Dupuis), which was established by its founding namesake as a printing business in 1898, but changed to being a publishing house in 1922, publishing non-comic books and magazines. Since the launch of "Spirou" however, Dupuis has increasingly focused on comic productions and is currently, as of 2017, a comics publisher exclusively and one of the two great Belgian Franco-Belgian comic publishing houses still in existence.


title: Bande dessinée

text: As post-war exports to France (like in the Netherlands, the magazine was not available in France until 1945-46), "Spirou" – featuring the (early) creations of Belgian greats like Morris, Franquin and Jijé – became a significant inspiration for future French "bande dessinée" greats such as Jean "Mœbius" Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières, eventually setting them off on their comic careers, but who were schoolboys at the time they became acquainted with the magazine.


title: Bande dessinée

text: When Germany invaded France and Belgium, it became close to impossible to import American comics. The occupying Nazis banned American animated movies and comics they deemed to be of a questionable character. Both were, however, already very popular before the war and the hardships of the war period only seemed to increase the demand. This created an opportunity for many young artists to start working in the comics and animation business. At first, authors like Jijé in "Spirou" and Edgar P. Jacobs in "Bravo" continued unfinished American stories of "Superman" and "Flash Gordon". Simultaneously, by imitating the style and flow of those comics, they improved their knowledge of how to make efficient comics. Soon even those homemade versions of American comics had to stop, and the authors had to create their own heroes and stories, giving new talents a chance to be published. Many of the most famous artists of the Franco-Belgian comics started in this period, including the Belgians André Franquin, Peyo (who started together at the small Belgian animation studio Compagnie Belge d'Animation – CBA), Willy Vandersteen, and the Frenchmen Jacques Martin and Albert Uderzo, who worked for "Bravo".


title: Bande dessinée

text: A lot of the publishers and artists who had managed to continue working during the occupation were accused of being collaborators and were imprisoned after the liberation by the reinstated national authorities on the insistence of the former French resistance, although most were released soon afterwards without charges being pressed. For example, this happened to one of the famous magazines, "Coeurs Vaillants". It was founded by Abbot Courtois (under the alias Jacques Coeur) in 1929. As he had the backing of the church, he managed to publish the magazine throughout the war, and was charged with being a collaborator. After he was forced out, his successor Pihan (as Jean Vaillant) took up the publishing, moving the magazine in a more humorous direction. Likewise, Hergé was another artist who also found himself on the receiving end of similar accusations of the former Belgian resistance. He managed to clear his name and went on to create Studio Hergé in 1950, where he acted as a sort of mentor for the assistants that it attracted. Among the people who worked there were Bob de Moor, Jacques Martin and Roger Leloup, all of whom exhibit the easily recognizable Belgian Ligne claire (clean line style), often opposed to the "Marcinelle school"-style (named for the seat of "Spirou" publisher Dupuis), mostly proposed by authors from "Spirou" magazine such as Franquin, Peyo and Morris. In 1946, Hergé also founded the weekly "Tintin" magazine, which quickly gained enormous popularity, like the weekly "Spirou" appearing in a Dutch version under the name "Kuifje" for the Flemish and Dutch markets. Notable Belgian comic artists who at a later point in time achieved fame while working for "Tintin" magazine included among others William Vance, the aforementioned Greg, Tibet and Hermann Huppen.


title: Bande dessinée

text: "Tintin" magazine publisher Les Éditions du Lombard (as of 1989 simply: Le Lombard) was especially founded by Raymond Leblanc for the magazine's launch in conjuncture with Hergé as the latter could not find a publisher due to the fact that he was at that time still under investigation for alleged collaboration. Remarkably, album publications of the creations from the early group of artists centered around Hergé was, then and now, outsourced to longstanding "Tintin" book publisher Casterman, while Lombard itself only started album publications for those artist who joined the magazine at a later point in time. Nonetheless, with Lombard Francophone Europe had received its first specialized comics publisher actually conceived as such. Le Lombard went on to become one of the three great Belgian publishing houses to produce comics in French (and in Dutch as well for that matter due to the bi-lingual nature of the country), alongside Dupuis and Casterman, and like them as of 2017 still in existence.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Many other magazines did not survive the war: "Le Petit Vingtième" had disappeared, "Le Journal de Mickey" only returned in 1952. In the second half of the 1940s many new magazines appeared, although in most cases they only survived for a few weeks or months. The situation stabilized around 1950 with "Spirou" and the new "Tintin" magazine (with the team focused around Hergé) as the most influential and successful magazines for the next decade.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Yet, 1944 (both France and Belgium were liberated before war's end) had already seen the start of the industry career of the French-Belgian Jean-Michel Charlier, in the process becoming one of its most towering figures. That year and a lawyer by trade, Charlier joined the newly formed comic syndication agency of Georges Troisfontaines, Belgium's answer to King Features Syndicate. Originally hired as an editorial draughtsman, Troisfontaines recognized Charlier's talent for writing and persuaded him to switch from drawing to scripting comics, something Charlier did with great success for the remainder of his life, creating close to three dozen series, several of them becoming classics of the Franco-Belgian "bande dessinée". "Spirou" magazine became the agency's first and foremost client, and the first post-war decade saw the infusion into the magazine with many new series from young, predominantly Belgian talents like Eddy Paape, Victor Hubinon, Mitacq, , instituting an era in which Jijé's career truly took off with his best-known creation, the Western comic series "Jerry Spring", that started its run in "Spirou" in March 1954. Jijé incidentally, had magazine tenure, but closely cooperated with the World Press artists before embarking on his own creation. Successful series Charlier himself created in this period were the educational short series "Les Belles Histoires de l'oncle Paul" (serving as proving ground in order to develop the talents and skills of young aspiring artists like Belgians Mitacq, , Hermann, Dino Attanasio and the Frenchman Jean Graton among others, several of whom switching over to industry competitor Lombard at a later point in their careers, most notably Hermann), "Buck Danny" (with Hubinon), "La Patrouille des Castors" (with Mitacq after his apprenticeship on "L'oncle Paul") and "Jean Valhardi" (with Paape and Jijé). Aside from being a very prolific comic script writer, becoming his trademark henceforth, Charlier also became an editorial driving force and spokesperson for the agency, because of his background in law and his assertive personality. As such, he was responsible for introducing the two Frenchmen René Goscinny (who also starting out "his" comics career at the agency) and former "Bravo" artist Albert Uderzo to each other in 1951 at the in that year opened Paris, France, office of World Press, in the process creating one of Franco-Belgium's most successful "bande dessinée" partnerships. One of the first comics both men created together in the employ of the agency was the in colonial French-Canada era set Western series "Oumpah-pah", which was already conceived as loose gags in 1951, but failed to find a magazine publisher. Reworked into complete stories, the comic became successful in "Tintin" magazine in the period 1958–1962 (and thus, alongside Martin's "The Adventures of Alix", one of the first purely French comics to appear in the Belgian magazine), effectively becoming the "spiritual father" of their later "Asterix" creation.


title: Bande dessinée

text: But it were not just the artists contracted by World Press who infused "Spirou" with its new elan, Dupuis itself had contracted a group of artists who were as much responsible for its success and then some as it was this group that defined the rejuvenated magazine in the post-war era. Upon war's end three artists from the defunct animation studio CBA were hired by Dupuis as staff artists for "Spirou", Eddy Paape (before he switched over to World Press), André Franquin and Maurice "Morris" De Bevere, and it was Morris who created in 1946 the second one of the great Franco-Belgian comic classics, "Lucky Luke", which made it first appearance in the "Almanach" appendix issue of 7 December 1946. Franquin was passed the comic "Spirou et Fantasio" by his mentor Jijé, who himself had taken over the series from original creator Rob-Vel in the war years, and it was Franquin who provided the series with its popularity, before he embarked for the magazine on his most popular creation "Gaston" in 1957. With the addition of artist Willy "Will" Maltaite, who took over the series "Tif et Tondu" from original creator Fernand Dineur, the group that became known as ""La bande des quatre"" (Gang of 4), consisting of Jijé, Franquin, Morris and Will, was complete and constituted the foundation of what was coined the "Marcinelle school"-style. However, such was the success of these artists, that the work of pre-war artists Rob-Vel and Dineur, was eclipsed by that of the younger generation, causing them to slide into oblivion. In 1952, another future great working in the Marcinelle school tradition was added to "Spirou", artist Pierre "Peyo" Culliford upon introduction by Franquin. Peyo was actually a former colleague of Franquin at CBA, but was at the time of the demise of the animation studio not considered by Dupuis because of his young age. For "Spirou" Peyo continued with the series "Johan et Pirlouit", which he had already started in 1947 for the Belgian newspapers "La Dernière Heure" and "Le Soir". It was this series that in 1957 spawned another of the great Franco-Belgian comic classics, "Les Schtroumpfs" ("The Smurfs"). With both magazines firmly in place, it was the success of "Spirou" and "Tintin" that initiated what many fans "and" scholars consider the golden age of the (Franco-)Belgian comic. As a result, the American comics didn't come back in as great a volume as before in both Belgium and France after the war, but in the case of France not for want of popularity, quite the contrary actually.


title: Bande dessinée

text: In France, a 1949 law about publications intended for the youth market was partly written by the French Communist Party, a major political force in France directly after the war (because of their highly successful and effective resistance in the war years), to actually exclude most of the American publications. The law, called "" ("Law of July 16th 1949 on Publications Aimed at the Youth") and passed in response to the post-liberation influx of American comics, was invoked as late as 1969 to prohibit the comic magazine "" —which featured translated versions of Marvel Comics stories — after seven issues. The formal and official justification for the law was the legislative desire to protect the youth of France from the perfidious and corruptive influence perceived to permeate foreign comics, especially in regard to violence and sexuality, the American ones in particular (even though they were not mentioned by name in the law), and in this the French law actually foreshadowed the 1954 publication of the comic condemning treatise "Seduction of the Innocent" by Fredric Wertham in the United States itself. But there was an equally important, but unofficial, reason for the law as well; American comics were doing so well in post-liberation France, that native comic magazines, particularly the Catholic ones, became threatened in their very existence, and the law therefore became concurrently a veiled market protection mechanism. An added sense of urgency was, besides the huge popularity the American magazines enjoyed among France's youth, that the native publications had at that time a distinct disadvantage over their American counterparts as the country still experienced a serious post-war paper shortage (reflected as such in the poor paper quality, relatively low page count "and" lower circulation numbers of the native magazines of that era), something the higher quality American ones did not suffer from, they receiving preferential treatment under the Marshall Plan. The very first targeted American comic for example, "Tarzan", enjoyed a weekly circulation of 300,000 copies, twice the one "Coeurs Vaillants" had and dwarfing the 76,000 copy circulation of "Tintin", and it was but one of the many American comics published in France in the immediate post-war era. It was the very reason for the unlikely French Catholic-Communist alliance in this regard, and a very effective one at that as American comics all but disappeared from the French comic scene for the time being, the "Le Journal de Mickey" excepted, which only reappeared three years later in former occupied western Europe.


title: Bande dessinée

text: It was not just American productions which were prohibited under the law, several Belgian French-language comic creations of the era also fell victim to the scrutiny of the oversight committee charged with upholding the law for varying reasons, as stipulated in its rather sweeping article 2 (presently article 3), which allowed for almost at will prohibition of comics for reasons that suited the policies of any French government in power at any given time. A famous example concerned the two Korean War volumes of the popular aviation comic series "Buck Danny", created by Belgians Charlier (who as spokesperson for World Press/"Spirou" was actually summoned to appear in person for a board of inquiry at the French Ministry of Information to account for himself) and Hubinon, which were prohibited in 1954 as article 2 expressly forbade any mentioning of an actual, current armed conflict in a children's publication – but also because communist members of the commission had issues with the strong anticommunist sentiment expressed in the comic according to writer Charlier. Both volumes remained prohibited in France until 1969, though French fans on holiday in Belgium, Switzerland or Luxembourg could pick up the albums unhindered over there. The law also came in handy to somewhat regulate – though not prohibiting – the availability in France of Belgian magazines like "Spirou" (which actually came close to prohibition however, as the Korean War stories were serialized in the magazine, but which was narrowly averted at the eleventh hour by Charlier) and "Tintin" in favor of the native Catholic magazines, after the conservatives had reasserted their political predominance in the country during the 1950s.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Rigorously enforced by the government oversight committee (Committee in Charge of Surveillance and Control over Publications Aimed at Children and Adolescents), particularly in the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, the law turned out to be a stifling influence on the post-war development of the French comic world until the advent of "Pilote" magazine and more specifically the May 1968 social upheaval. Legally, the Commission had no punitive powers, only advisory ones, but in practice Charlier begged to differ. The all powerful Commission, shielded by the Justice Ministry (which "was" the punitive authority, but who took any and all Commission recommendations at face value, no questions asked), convened on a weekly basis, sifting through publications and weeding out those they felt subject to prohibition under the law, every decision they took being final, under no obligation to ever provide any formal justification whatsoever and without any possibility for appeal, which amounted to "de facto" state censorship according to Charlier.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Yet, it were also the communists who provided the comic scene in France with a single bright-spot; Having its origins in the communist wartime underground resistance publications, the comic magazine "Vaillant" (not to be confused with the two near-similarly named Fleurus publications) was launched in 1945 upon war's end. The secular magazine provided a platform for predominantly native comic talent born between the 1920s and the 1940s, not able or willing to work for the Catholic magazines, to showcase their work. French names of note who started out their career in the magazine were among others Nikita Mandryka, Paul Gillon, Jean-Claude Forest and Marcel Gotlib, and were less beholden to what was then still the Belgian "bande dessinée" tradition, other native contemporaries were – in essence ranking among the first native French artists to provide the "Franco" element in what later would become the "Franco-Belgian comics" expression, with comic artist Marijac having been a trailblazer. Marijac actually started out for "Coeurs Vaillants" in the 1930s, but distanced himself from the magazine directly after the liberation, when he started the secular comics magazine "" (1944–1963), France's first recognizable modern "bande dessinée" magazine. Marijac himself became a prolific figure of note in the French comic scene of the 1950s as co-editor and contributor for a series of native comic magazines other than his own "Coq Hardi", and conceived in the era under the shadow of the all-present Catholic publications to fill the void left by the banned American comics such as "Les Grandes Séries Internationales", "Cricri Journal", "Mireille", "Ouest-Magazine", "Nano et Nanette", "Héros du Far West", "Frimousse", "Cocorico" and "Allez-France", all of which filled with work from French artists, now forgotten save Marijac himself (who was honored for his efforts at the 1979 Angoulême comics festival with its most prestigious award), along with the magazines they created their work for.


title: Bande dessinée

text: It has been observed that, unlike the Belgian publications, these mostly secular native magazines were largely left alone by the Commission de Surveillance, save for one notable exception; Pierre Mouchot, creator and editor of American inspired comic magazines in the immediate post-war era, was on recommendation of the Commission persecuted for his likewise American (and Italian) inspired comic series "Big Bill le Casseur" and "P’tit Gars", having to appear in court no less than eight times in the period 1950 - 1954, actually winning most of his cases in the lower courts. While both he and his creations are likewise forgotten, Mouchot became the only French comics artist to be legally persecuted, "and" ultimately convicted by the highest court of appeal (though only receiving symbolic punishment) under article 2 of the 1949 law for real. However, the conviction "did" serve as an effective deterrent for other native artists – and thus firmly establishing the Commission as a force to be reckoned with, even though they had a tough time becoming so as Mouchot kept winning his lower court cases – who continued to create their comics while erring on the side of caution for the next decade. It is in this light that some of the other early French contemporary greats, such as Martin, Graton, Uderzo and his writing partner Goscinny opted to start out their careers for Belgian comic publications, neither wanting to submit themselves to the scrutiny of the Commission de Surveillance directly, nor wanting to work for either the Catholic or communist magazines for personal reasons.


title: Bande dessinée

text: the situation in Belgium was nowhere near as restrictive as it was in France. Catholics, who were the dominant factor in politics in the country as well at the time, did not have to contend with the negligible influence of the communists, contrary to their French counterparts. There was actually no need perceived for regulating measures in Belgium as American productions, contrary to France, were already supplanted in popularity by the native comics (aided by the fact that Belgium had not seen the massive influx of American comics in the same measure France had, as Belgium had been predominantly liberated by British and Canadian forces, whose soldiers did not bring along their comics in the same volume the Americans did), whereas the majority of Belgian comics artists were either Catholics themselves (or at least sympathetic to the faith) such as Jijé (whose early realistic works were deeply steeped in the faith), or had, like Hergé did, strong ties with the as "healthy" considered scouting movement – a significant presence in Belgian society at the time, which also explains the contemporary popularity of Charlier's "La patrouille des Castor" series in Belgium, which was centered around a scouting chapter – and were thus, to use the modern expression, already "politically correct" in the first place, that is from the Belgian perspective at least. However, the incident Charlier had experienced with the Commission shook up the editors of "Spirou" and "Tintin", and as France was a too important market to lose, they too henceforth chose to err on the side of caution by screening the creations of their artists before magazine publication, essentially being forced by the French to exercise self-censorship. Having already embarked on their divergent evolutionary path, Flemish comics escaped this kind of scrutiny, as they were at the time rarely, if at all, translated into French.


title: Bande dessinée

text: In 1959, the influential French weekly "Pilote" launched, already from the start an attempt to be a more mature alternative to "Spirou" and "Pilote", aimed at a teenage audience, with the "Asterix" series as an almost instantaneous success. The audience radicalized at a faster pace than the editors, however, which had trouble keeping up. The French satire magazine "Hara-Kiri" was launched, also aimed at an adult audience.


title: Bande dessinée

text: In the sixties, most of the French Catholic magazines, such as the Fleurus publications, waned in popularity, as they were "re-christianized" and went to a more traditional style with more text and fewer drawings. This meant that in France, magazines like "Pilote" and "Vaillant" (relaunched as "Pif gadget" in 1969), and "Spirou" and "Tintin" for French-speaking Belgium, gained almost the entire market and became the obvious goal for new artists from their respective countries, who took up the styles prevalent in those magazines to break into the business.


title: Bande dessinée

text: With a number of publishers in place, including Dargaud ("Pilote"), Le Lombard ("Tintin") and Dupuis ("Spirou"), three of the biggest influences for over 50 years, the market for domestic comics had reached (commercial) maturity. In the following decades, magazines like "Spirou", "Tintin", "Vaillant" (relaunched as "Pif Gadget" in 1969), "Pilote", and (the first to feature completed stories in each issue, as opposed to the episodic approach of other magazines) would dominate the market. At this time, the French creations had already gained fame throughout Europe, and many countries had started importing the comics in addition to—or as substitute for—their own productions.


title: Bande dessinée

text: The aftermath of the May 1968 social upheaval brought many mature – as in aimed at an adult readership – comic magazines, something that had not been seen previously and virtually all of them of purely French origin, which was also indicative of France rapidly becoming the preeminent force in the (continental) European comics world, eventually usurping the position the Belgians held until then. "L'Écho des Savanes" (from new publisher , founded by "Pilote" defectors Nikita Mandryka, Claire Bretécher and Marcel Gotlib), with Gotlib's pornography watching deities and Bretécher's "Les Frustrés" ("The Frustrated Ones"), and "Le Canard Sauvage" ("The Wild Duck/ Mag"), an art-zine featuring music reviews and comics, were among the earliest. Following suit was "Métal Hurlant" (vol. 1: December 1974 – July 1987 from also new French publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés, founded by likewise "Pilote" defectors, Druillet, Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Mœbius) with the far-reaching science fiction and fantasy of Mœbius, Druillet, and Bilal. Its translated counterpart made an impact in America as "Heavy Metal". This trend continued during the seventies, until the original "Métal Hurlant" folded in the early eighties, living on only in the American edition, which soon had an independent development from its French-language parent. Nonetheless, it were these publications and their artists which are generally credited with the revolutionizing and emancipation of the Franco-Belgian comic world. As indicated, most of these early adult magazines were established by former "Pilote" comic artists, who had left the magazine to break out on their own, after they had staged a revolt in the editorial offices of Dargaud, the publisher of "Pilote", during the 1968 upheaval, demanding and ultimately receiving more creative freedom from then editor-in-chief René Goscinny (see also: ""Jean "Mœbius" Giraud on his part in the uprising at Pilote"").


title: Bande dessinée

text: Essentially, these new magazines along with other contemporaries of their kind, were the French counterparts of the slightly earlier American underground comix, also conceived and popularized as a result of the counterculture of the 1960s, of which the French May 1968 events were only a part. But unlike their American counterparts, the French magazines were mainstream from the start when they eventually burst onto the scene in the early 1970s, as publications of this kind could not escape the scrutiny of the Commission de Surveillance prior to 1968, as editor François Cavanna of the satirical magazine "Hara-Kiri" (launched in 1960) had experienced several times to his detriment, having had to reinvent his magazine on several occasions. Aside from the creative aspects, the 1960s brought in effect another kind of freedom for French comic artists as well - commercial and financial freedom. Until the revolt in the offices of "Pilote", artists worked in a studio system, namely a tenured exclusive working relationship at the magazine or publisher, with artists having little to no control over both commercial and creative aspects of their creations – except for a few artists who also held editorial offices at publishing houses such as Goscinny, Charlier and Greg, the former of which incidentally, having also been a major element for the revolt at "Pilote". That changed as well after 1968, when more and more artists decided to ply their trade as free-lancers, the "L'Écho des Savanes" founders having been early pioneers in that respect, and has as of 2017 become the predominant artist-publisher relationship. And while contracts tend to be long-term for specific series at a particular publisher, it no longer prevents artists, like the below-mentioned François Bourgeon and Hermann Huppen to create other comics for other publishers, sometimes even suspending a series for the one in favor of a series for the other.


title: Bande dessinée

text: The advent of the new adult magazines had a profound effect on France's hitherto most influential comic magazine "Pilote". Editor-in-chief Goscinny had at first refused to implement the changes demanded by its artists during the 1968 revolt in the editorial offices, but he now found himself suddenly confronted with the magazine hemorrhaging its most promising comic talents and diminishing sales. The magazine was eventually turned into a monthly magazine, its artists who had not yet left given more creative freedoms and the Belgian influence terminated definitively with the departure of co-editor Charlier in 1972 and the last Belgian artists Hubinon and Jijé following suit a short time thereafter, transforming the magazine into a purely French one. However, while the magazine was now targeted at an older adolescent readership with stories featuring more mature themes, Goscinny stopped short of letting the magazine become a truly adult magazine. Yet, the magazine was unable to regain the dominant position it had held in the previous one-and-a-half decade, due to the flooding of the market with alternatives.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Lagging behind the French for the first time in regard to the more mature comics, the Belgians made good on their arrear when publisher Casterman launched the magazine "(À Suivre)" ("Wordt Vervolgd" for its Dutch-language counterpart, both of which translating into English as "To Be Continued") in October 1977. Until then the old venerable publisher (est. in 1780 as a printing and publishing company) had somewhat limited itself as the album publisher of Hergé's "Tintin" since 1934, slightly expanded upon after the war with a couple of Hergé inspired creations by closely affiliated artists such as Jacques Martin, François Craenhals and the Danish C. & V. Hansen couple. It was with the specific intent to expand beyond the somewhat limited Hergé boundaries with other, more diverse high quality work, that the publisher launched "(À Suivre)", which printed comic creations by Ted Benoît, Jacques Tardi, Hugo Pratt, François Schuiten, Paul Teng and many others from French, Italian and/or Dutch origins, but relatively few from Belgian artist as there were not that many active in the adult field at that time, with Schuiten, Didier Comès – as already stated, one of the very few "BD" artists of German-Belgian descent, alongside Hermann Huppen – and being three of the few exceptions. It was "(À Suivre)" that popularized the concept of the graphic novel – in French abbreviated as "Roman BD", "roman" being the translation for "novel" – as a longer, more adult, more literate and artistic comic in Europe. Unlike its Dupuis counterpart, and while their comic catalog has expanded considerably since then, Casterman has never evolved into a purely comics publisher by completely abandoning its book publishing roots, as it is currently also a prolific publisher of children's books.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Yet, it remained French publications and French artists who would continue to dominate the field from the late-1970s onward to this day, with such (sometimes short-lived) magazines as "Bananas", "Virus", "Mormoil", the feminist "", "Casablanca" and "Fluide Glacial". It were in these such magazines that a younger, post-war generation of French comic artists like Yves Chaland, Édika and debuted, whereas veterans like Gotlib and Franquin found a home for their later, darker and more cynical work.


title: Bande dessinée

text: A major player in the field became French publisher and newcomer Glénat Editions (founded in 1972, and who actually started out publishing graphic novels directly as albums before the launch of "Circus") with their two main magazine publications ' (1975–1989) and ' (1985–1994, with emphasis on mature stories of an accurate historical nature), featuring predominantly the work of French comic talents, but who did so with a twist; Glénat targeted their magazines at a readership positioned between the adolescent readership of "Pilote", "Tintin" and "Spirou" and the mature readership of such magazines as "(À Suivre)", "Métal Hurlant" and others. French comic artists of note who were nurtured into greatness in the Glénat publications were among others Mayko and Patrick Cothias, but most conspicuously François Bourgeon and André Juillard. Exemplary of the different, older target audience Glénat was aiming at, became the two finite, historical series Bourgeon created; "Les Passagers du vent" (1979–2009, "The Passengers of the Wind", seven volumes, set in 18th-century seafaring and slave trading Europe, becoming one of the first comic series to deal realistically in considerable detail with the dark slavery chapter in human history) and "Les Compagnons du crépuscule" (1983–1989, "Companions of the Dusk", three volumes, set in 13th-century Europe and published by Casterman incidentally). Both series made short work of any romantic notion about the two historic eras still lingering in anyone's subconscious because of imagery imbued upon them by 1940s–1960s Hollywood movie productions or Franco-Belgian "bandes dessinées" as published in "Coeurs Vaillants", "Tintin" or "Spirou" in the same era for that matter. Renowned for his meticulous research into the subject matter of the comic series he was creating, not seldom taking as long as it took him to create the series in question, Bourgeon depicted an historical reality devoid of any so-called "heroes", only featuring common people who were as often victimized as they were heroic, living in a world which was brutally hard while living a live which was therefore all too often very short for the common man, being habitually subjugated to the will of the powerful without any recourse whatsoever to objective justice, especially the women. Bourgeon however, made his harsh message to his readership palatable by his relatively soft art style and his optimistic view regarding human resilience. No such respite was afforded the reader however with Hermann's 11th-century epos "Les Tours de Bois-Maury" (1984–1994, "The Towers of Bois-Maury"), whose original ten-volume series was serialized in "Vécu" in the same era Bourgeon's "Passagers" was in "Circus"; Not only did Hermann's stark and uncompromising art style served to reinforce the grim atmosphere of his medieval settings, any and all redeeming optimistic commentary on human nature was also lacking in his narrative, quite the contrary actually, making his Middle Ages truly the Dark Ages where the vast majority of humanity was living short, violent lives in abject squalor, with not a single so-called "hero" in sight anywhere in his series. To hammer home the point, both artists had their medieval knights, around whom both narratives were centered – Bourgeon's knight seeking redemption, whereas Hermann's knight sought to reclaim his birthright – die violent deaths nowhere near the fulfillment of their respective quests, thereby reinforcing the futility of such endeavors. With such series driving home the point that real history is made by mere humans and not "super-humans", the Franco-Belgian historical comic had come a long way since their first romanticized and/or idealized appearances in the 1940s–1970s, particularly in "Tintin" and "Pilote" as portrayed by such artists as the ("Le Chevalier blanc", "Harald le Viking"), William Vance ("Howard Flynn", "Rodric", "Ramiro"), François Craenhals ("Chevalier Ardent") or Victor Hubinon ("Barbe Rouge"), to name but a few.


title: Bande dessinée

text: It was not just the comic scene these new publications and their artists changed, the perception of the medium in French society also changed radically in the 1970s–1980s, in stark contrast to the one it held in the 1940s–1950s. Recognizing that the medium-advanced France's cultural status in the world, the cultural authorities of the nation started to aid the advancement of the medium as a bonafide art form, especially under the patronage of Minister of Culture Jack Lang, who had formulated his long-term "Quinze mesures nouvelles en faveur de la Bande dessinée" ("15 new measures in favor of the comic") ministry policy plan in 1982, which was updated and reaffirmed by a latter-day successor of Lang in 1997. It was consequently in the 1980s–1990s era that the medium achieved its formal status in France's "Classification des arts" ("Classifications of the arts") as "Le Neuvième Art" ("the 9th art"), aside from becoming accepted as a mature part of French culture by Francophone society at large (in France and French-speaking Belgium it is as common to encounter grownup people reading comics in public places, such as cafe terraces or public transportation, as it is people reading books, newspapers or magazines). Since then more than one comic artist have received "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" civilian knighthoods, and these were not restricted to French nationals alone, as Japanese artist Jiro Taniguchi has also received one in 2011 for his efforts to merge the Franco-Belgian comic with the Japanese manga format (see "below").


title: Bande dessinée

text: But it is however Jean "Mœbius" Giraud, coined "the most influential "bandes dessinées" artist after Hergé" by several academic comic scholars, who is considered the premier French standard bearer of "Le Neuvième Art", as he has received two different civilian knighthoods with a posthumous rank elevation of his Arts and Letters knighthood to boot, an unicum for a comic artist and something the "de facto" inventor of the Franco-Belgian comics, Hergé, has never achieved even once, not even from his own native country Belgium (presumably because of the lingering impressions left by either the criticisms regarding his early "Tintin" stories, the post-war collaboration allegations, or both and neither of which he had ever managed to fully free himself from in his lifetime). Exemplary of Mœbius' standing in French culture, was the high-status, high-profile «Mœbius transe forme» exposition the prestigious Parisian Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain art museum organized from 2 October 2010 – 13 March 2011. As of 2017, it stands out as one of the largest exhibitions ever dedicated to the work of an individual comic artist by an official, state-sanctioned art museum – art as in art with a capital "A" – alongside the 20 December 2006 - 19 February 2007 Hergé exposition in the even more prestigious Centre Georges Pompidou modern art museum (likewise located in Paris and incidentally one of President Mitterrand's below-mentioned "Great Works") on the occasion of the centenary of that artist's birth. Giraud's funeral services in March 2012 was attended by a representative of the French nation in the person of Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand, who also spoke on behalf of the nation at the services, and who was incidentally also the nephew of former President of France François Mitterrand, who had personally awarded Giraud with his first civilian knighthood in 1985, thereby becoming one of the first comic artists to be bestowed the honor. Giraud's death was a considerable media event in France, but ample attention was also given to his demise in press releases all around the world in even as faraway places like Indonesia ("Jakarta Globe", 11 March 2012), a country not particularly known for a thriving comic culture. Yet, and despite the nation having embraced the "bande dessinée", it should also be noted that both the law of 1949 and its oversight committee are as of 2017 still in existence, their legitimacy remaining as intact as it was in 1949. And while their impact and influence have significantly diminished in the wake of the events of 1968, their continued legal existence in the fringes does constitute the proverbial "Sword of Damocles" for the French comic world, despite artists, publishers, politicians and academics having questioned the relevance of both manifestations in a modern world in a public debate during a 1999 national conference organized on the subject by the (CNBDI), France's largest and most important comics organization.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Belgium, where the modern Franco-Belgian comic format was conceived after all, was somewhat slower in advancing the format as a bonafide art form, but has strongly followed suit in considering the Franco-Belgian comic as a "key aspect of Belgium's cultural heritage". While the expression "the 9th art" has been popularized in other countries as well, Belgium and France remain as of 2017, the only countries where the medium has been accorded the formal status (when discounting the manga, which has achieved a near-similar status in native Japan), with its resultant strong backing from cultural authorities.


title: Bande dessinée

text: A visible manifestation of the latter has become the prestigious "Centre belge de la Bande dessinée" (Dutch: "Belgisch Centrum voor het Beeldverhaal", English: "Belgian Comic Strip Center") established in 1989 in the Belgian capital Brussels, and which, as one of the largest comic museum in Europe, draws in 200,000 visitors annually. The museum is housed in a state-owned 1905 building designed by architect Victor Horta in the Art Nouveau style, the same style French female artist Annie Goetzinger has employed for her comics. Belgium possesses two other, smaller, museums dedicated to individual comic artists, the Marc Sleen Museum (est. 2009), located across the street of the Comic Center and dedicated to the work of the namesake Flemish comics creator, and, unsurprisingly, the especially built Musée Hergé (est. 2009) located in Louvain-la-Neuve, its interiors designed by Dutch comic artist Joost Swarte, who had worked in the Hergé tradition.


title: Bande dessinée

text: In France, Minister Jack Lang – who hit upon the idea after he had visited the permanent "bande dessinée" exhibition in the town's art museum in 1982, incidentally inspiring his long-term fifteen points policy plan for the medium that year, which included the establishment of a national comics museum – announced in 1984 the advent of a major national "bande dessinée" museum as part of President Mitterrand's grand scheme of providing the nation with major public works of a cultural nature (in France coined as "Grandes Operations d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme"), to be housed in the historical town of Angoulême, already the locus of France's biggest annual comics festival since 1974. A major project in the making, involving the renovation of several ancient buildings and the designing of a new one spread over the grounds of the town's former brewery by renowned architect Roland Castro, the museum, , only opened its doors in June 2009 (though two smaller sub-museums, eventually incorporated in the larger final one, were already open to the public as early as 1991) in the process becoming the largest comic museum in Europe. The museum is administered by the CNBDI, established in 1985 for upcoming museum, but which has since then expanded its work on behalf of the "bande dessinée" beyond the confines of the museum alone, as already indicated above. On 11 December 2012, one of the buildings on the museum grounds, the futuristic building finished at the end of the 1980s housing the museum and CNBDI administrations, cinema, conference rooms, library and the other facilities for comics studies, was rechristened "Le Vaisseau Mœbius" (English: "The Ship Mœbius"), in honor of the in that year deceased comics artist. When Lang had presented his plans, he was faced with opposition from some politicians who had rather seen such a museum in the capital of France, Paris. These politicians did have a point however, as Angoulême is somewhat located off the beaten tourist track, resulting in that the museum only draws in about roughly half the visitor numbers its smaller Belgian counterpart does annually, and most of them visiting the museum during the festival season, whereas the Belgian museum draws in a steady stream of visitors all year round.


title: Bande dessinée

text: A further revival and expansion came in the 1990s with several small independent publishers emerging, such as L'Association (established in 1990), Le Dernier Cri, Amok, Fréon (the latter two later merging into Frémok), and Ego comme X. Known as "la nouvelle bande dessinée" (similar to the North American alternative comics), these books are often more artistic, graphically and narratively, than the usual products of the big companies.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Dupuy and Berberian, Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, Marjane Satrapi ("Persepolis"), Christophe Blain, Stéphane Blanquet, Edmond Baudoin, David B, and Emmanuel Larcenet all started their careers with these publishers, and would later gain fame with comics such as "Donjon" (Trondheim & Sfar), "Isaac the Pirate" (Blain), "Professeur Bell" (Sfar). Léo Quievreux, a key artist in the 1990s scene, founded and ran his own publication house, Gotoproduction, which he ran along with Jean Kristau and Anne-Fred Maurer from 1991 to 2000 or 2001, and which published over 60 books.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Before the Second World War, comics were almost exclusively published in tabloid newspapers. Since 1945, the "comic album" (or "comics album", in French "album BD" for short) format gained popularity, a book-like format about half the former size. The albums, usually colored all the way through, are almost always hardcover for the French editions and softcover for the Dutch editions—though the hardcover format has steadily gained ground from the late-1980s onward as customer option alongside the softcover format, contrary to Francophone Europe, where the hardcover format is the norm. When compared to American comic books and trade paperbacks (such as the later American graphic novel format), the European albums are rather large (roughly A4 standard). Comic albums started to receive their own individual ISBNs from the mid-1970s onward all over Europe (with some countries like Portugal and Italy lagging behind for a decade or so), solidifying their status as books.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Conceived as a format as currently understood in Belgium with the first "Tintin" albums in the early 1930s—incidentally the second reason for considering "Tintin" the starting point of the modern Franco-Belgian comic, besides the art style and format—albums were usually published as a collected book "after" a story or a convenient number of short stories had finished their run in serialized magazine (pre-)publication, usually with a one to two year lag. Since the inception of the format, it has been common for these albums to contain either 46 (for decades "the" standard) or, to a lesser degree, 62 pages (discounting the two disclaimer, and title pages) for print and binding technical reasons as printers traditionally printed eight double-sided pages on one sheet of print paper, though albums with a larger page count—provided the total page count is a multiple of eight—are not that uncommon, the graphic novel album publications of "À Suivre" publisher Casterman in particular.


title: Bande dessinée

text: It is in this field that Jean-Michel Charlier again turned out to be a seminal influence for the cultural phenomenon . As publishing co-editor of "Pilote", it was he who initiated a line of comic albums, for Dargaud, collecting the stories as serialized in the magazine until then, becoming in effect Dargaud's very first comic album releases. The first July 1961 title in the series, coined "La Collection Pilote", was the first adventure of "Asterix" from Uderzo and Goscinny, a runaway success right from the bat, followed by sixteen further titles from the magazine, with the first "Blueberry" adventure, "Fort Navajo", becoming the last to be released in July 1965. After that, the collection was suspended and each comic hero(s) hitherto featured therein, spun off in album series of their own. In order to give these releases a more "mature" book-like image, the albums were from the very start executed as hardcover editions for France, while being executed in softcover by licensee Le Lombard for Charlier's own native Belgium, somewhat reflecting the status comic albums still had in that country, as it had in other European countries. Charlier's initiative was not entirely devoid of a healthy dose of self-interest, as over half the releases in the collection were titles form comic series he had (co-)created. While Charlier did not conceive the format as such—since Casterman already released such albums since the early 1930s ("Tintin"), as did Dupuis sometime thereafter with some of its releases, but certainly not all as most of its albums like the "Buck Danny" series were released in softcover at the time – "his" albums were more than favorably received however, and the collection has attained a mythical status in the world of Franco-Belgian comics, especially in France where such releases had until then been rarities at best – excepting the "recuil" magazine series releases, album-like hard/softcover editions, chronologically collecting several magazine issues into one volume like "Coeurs Vaillants", "Spirou" etc. and for decades a staple in Francophone Europe (and after the War, in Dutch-Europe as well).


title: Bande dessinée

text: It was only after the runaway success of the "Collection" that the hardcover became the norm for album releases in France. Even though the success of the collection prompted Le Lombard to speed up its hitherto lackluster album releases, they did so initially in the predominant soft cover format until the mid-1970s like Dupuis was already doing, while maintaining the softcover format as standard for the Dutch-language editions for decades thereafter, as did Dargaud. Being a relative newcomer in the field Dargaud entered into a joint venture for the album releases with Le Lombard for nearly two decades. This meant that Dargaud album titles were released by Lombard for French-speaking Belgium (initially as soft covers in the first decade) and with a couple of years lag, for Dutch-Belgium as well (for the Netherlands and likewise with a lag, Dargaud sought out cooperation with other, local publishers for their releases), whereas Lombard album titles were released in France by Dargaud, invariably as hardcovers for their own releases, but in softcover for the first five years or so for the Lombard releases before permanently switching to hardcover, even before Lombard did for its Belgian home market. By the late 1970s, Dargaud had its own international distribution system in place, and the cooperation with Le Lombard was dissolved, that is until both were merged into a single publisher in 1992 – though maintaining their respective imprints – after they were absorbed in 1988 and 1986 respectively into the French holding company Média-Participations. Incidentally, Dupuis was in June 2004 bought by Média-Participations as well, though it has retained its separate status within the holding group because of its traditional focus on a somewhat younger readership than Dargaud/Le Lombard.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Since the mid-1980s, many comics are published directly as albums and do not appear in the magazines at all, as many comic magazines have disappeared since then for socio-economic reasons, including greats like "Tintin", "À Suivre", "Métal Hurlant", and "Pilote". The album format has also been adopted for native comics in most other European countries (the United Kingdom having until recently been one of the most manifest exceptions), as well as being maintained in foreign translations, in the process becoming the preeminent publication format of comics on the European continent, including the former Eastern Bloc after the fall of the wall in 1989. As with the Dutch-language editions, the soft cover format was initially the predominant format in which the foreign editions were released, but like the Dutch editions, the hard cover format has steadily gained ground in the other European countries as well, with Spain and Portugal having been early adopters as several volumes from "La Collection Pilote" were already released as such in the second half of the 1960s by local Dargaud/Lombard affiliated publishers, albeit as separate series contrary to the "Collection" source publication.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Since the mid-1980s, many of the popular, longer-lasting album series, and also several long out-of-print classic series, also get their own hardcover collected "omnibus" album editions, or "intégrales", with each intégrale book generally containing between two and four original albums, and from the mid-1990s onward increasingly including several "inédits" habitually – material that hasn't been published in albums before, such as magazine covers not used for albums – as well, alongside detailed illustrated editorials providing background information on the series in question and its creator(s), predominantly written by native comics scholars of which , , and are the most prolific ones (see "below"). A practical reason for publishers to proceed in this manner, is the more recent fact that these older series have to some extent ran their courses in decades-long reprint runs of the individual volumes, and that it has commercially become more expedient to re-issue sold out volumes in this format, instead of continuing to reprint the individual volumes, aside from tapping into a new replacement market by targeting the nostalgia of now grown-up and more affluent readers who want to upgrade their worn-out individual copies they had bought and read as youths. Initially only released in French and, to a lesser degree, Dutch, these editions have after the late-1990s surged in popularity, becoming increasingly popular in other European countries as well in (hardcover) translation, where the "intégrale" format is in some cases also employed for native comics, particularly in Spain, The Netherlands and Germany, a few of them reciprocally translated into French. All of the great Franco-Belgian comic publishing houses, still in existence, are as of 2017 engaged in releasing "intégrales", either by themselves, or by licensing them out to local publishers for other European countries – or both, as is the case for Dutch language editions.


title: Bande dessinée

text: While more recent comics can no longer be easily categorized into one art style anymore (due to the increasing blurring of the boundaries between the styles in more recent comic creations – aside from the introduction of new and/or other art styles), and the old artists who pioneered the market are retiring, there were initially three basic, distinct styles within the field prior to the mid-1970s, featured in those comics with Belgian pedigree in particular.


title: Bande dessinée

text: One of the early greats, Belgian Joseph "Jijé" Gilian, was noted for creating comics in all three styles, the schematic style for his early work, "comic-dynamic" style for his later humoristic comics, as well as creating comics in the realistic style. The latter style he acquired during World War II when he had to complete realistic comics such as Fred Harman's "Red Ryder" after the occupying Germans prohibited the import of these American comics. At first influenced by the style of such American artists like Harman, Jijé developed a realistic style distinctively his own (and thus European), and which became a major source of inspiration for future French/Belgian talents aspiring a career in creating realistic comics, the first and foremost of them having been Jean Giraud. Another of these Jijé-inspired youngsters was Jean-Claude Mézières, who actually started out his famed science-fiction creation "Valérian and Laureline" in the "comic-dynamic" style, but which quickly gravitated towards the realistic style, though traces of the former remain discernible in the depictions of his aliens, which therefore constituted an early example of the mixing of the three basic art styles. Another ambiguous, even earlier, example concerned the creations of Victor Hubinon ("Buck Danny", "Redbeard"), who created comics in his own distinct style that had the characteristics of both the realistic and schematic styles, but which can not be unambiguously be categorized as either, or at the most be categorized as an "in between" style.


title: Bande dessinée

text: The realistic comics are often laboriously detailed. An effort is made to make the comics look as convincing, as natural as possible, while still being drawings. No speed lines or exaggerations are used. This effect is often reinforced by the coloring, which is less even, less primary than schematic or comic-dynamic comics.


title: Bande dessinée

text: This is the almost Barksian line of Franquin and Uderzo. The humoristic comics in "Pilote" were almost exclusively comic-dynamic, and so were the ones in "Spirou" and "l'Écho des savanes". These comics have very agitated drawings, often using lines of varying thickness to accent the drawings. The artists working in this style for Spirou, including Franquin, Morris, Jean Roba and Peyo, are often grouped as the Marcinelle school.


title: Bande dessinée

text: The major factor in schematic drawings is a reduction of reality to easy, clear lines. Typical is the lack of shadows, the geometrical features, and the realistic proportions. Another trait is the often "slow" drawings, with little to no speed-lines, and strokes that are almost completely even. It is also known as the Belgian clean line style or "ligne claire". "The Adventures of Tintin" is not only a very good example of this, it is currently also considered as "the" original template for the style as used in modern European comics. Other works in this style are the early comics of Jijé, who not only worked in the style, but also expanded upon it by adding Art Déco elements resulting in what several scholars came to consider a separate spin-off style, coined the "Atom style". This Jijé specific comics style enjoyed a revival in later works from French, Flemish and Dutch artists like Yves Chaland, Ever Meulen and Joost Swarte respectively, the latter of whom incidentally, having actually coined the alternative ""ligne clair"" designation in 1977.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Even though Jijé has somewhat receded in oblivion outside his own native Belgium, he is held in high esteem by many of his peers, both those he tutored like Franquin and Moebius, and others, and his versatility was such that it solicited an accolade of high praise from fellow artist Tibet, author of "Ric Hochet" and "Chick Bill", who has stated that "If Hergé is considered as God the Father, then Jijé undoubtedly is the Godfather". After Jijé, it were predominantly French (Philippe Druillet, Jean Giraud as "Mœbius", Jacques Tardi, Annie Goetzinger, Fred) and Italian (Guido Crepax, Hugo Pratt, Lorenzo Mattotti, Attilio Micheluzzi) comics artists who increasingly introduced alternative art styles – sometimes extensive innovations/modernizations/expansions of the three existing basic styles, sometimes entirely new – in the medium from the mid-1970s onward, either by creating them directly for native publications, or by becoming major influences through translations which in Francophone Europe was especially the case for the Italians.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Despite the large number of local publications, the French and Belgian editors release numerous adaptations of comics from all over the world. In particular these include other European publications, from countries such as, most conspicuously, Italy with Guido Crepax, Hugo Pratt and Milo Manara among many others, and to a somewhat lesser degree Spain, with Daniel Torres, and Argentina, with Alberto Breccia, Héctor Germán Oesterheld and José Antonio Muñoz. Some well-known German (Andreas, Matthias Schultheiss), Swiss (Derib, , Zep, Enrico Marini) and Polish (Grzegorz Rosinski) authors work almost exclusively for the Franco-Belgian market and their publishers such as Glénat and, most conspicuously, Le Lombard. Likewise, the French naturalized Yugoslav Enki Bilal worked exclusively for French publishers Dargaud and subsequently Les Humanoïdes Associés, whereas Dutch graphic novelist Paul Teng has, after his career failed to take off in his native country, first worked for Casterman before switching to Le Lombard and subsequently to Dargaud.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Classic American and British comic books, those of the traditional superhero genres in particular, are not as well represented in the French and Belgian comics market, for the reasons as explored above, although the graphic novel work of Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman (first published in French in "À Suivre") is respected to such a high extent that it has actually led to the adoption of the English expression in mainland Europe as well, particularly for such mature works as published by Casterman or Les Humanoïdes Associés. Nonetheless, a few comic strips like "Peanuts" and "Calvin and Hobbes" have had considerable success in France and Belgium. Yet, it was in the field of the graphic novels that American and British creations "did" attract attention from the Franco-Belgian comic world, the early ones having been Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson, the former of which having started out in the American underground comix scene, where artists created comics with the express intent to distance themselves from the classic American comics as produced by the big studios. Both men were published in the "Métal Hurlant" American spin-off "Heavy Metal" and reciprocally translated for the French mother magazine. As mentioned, "Heavy Metal" made a deep artistic impact on an entire young generation of English-speaking comic creators, such as Neil Gaiman and Mike Mignola, who started to create more modern, more mature comics henceforth. It were these comics that were given attention by publisher Glénat, when they established the subsidiary Comics USA in 1988. Actually starting out with (hardcover!) comic book sized publications in the classic superhero genre, but created by a young generation of artists, the classic American comic failed to make a convincing come-back and the subsidiary folded in 1991 after 48 issues. Subsequently, Glénat focused solely on its concurrent imprint which concentrated on album releases of modern American graphic novels from such publishers as Image Comics, Dark Horse, and Oni Press, and as such still in existence as of 2017. Glénat was actually preceded in 1986 by Delcourt, a newcomer presently specialized in American/British graphic novels (and Japanese manga). Of the post-classic superhero era, Mike Mignola has become one of the most in French translated American comic artists. Recently, Eaglemoss Collections and DC Comics have embarked on yet another attempt to re-introduce Francophone readership to the classic American superhero genre with their DC Comics: Le Meilleur des Super-Héros collection, launched in French in 2015, following in the wake of publisher Hachette who launched their Marvel Comics: La collection the year previously in an attempt to capitalize on the break-out success of the 21st-century Marvel Comics film adaptions.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Japanese manga started to receive more attention from the early to mid-1990s onward. Recently, more manga has been translated and published, with a particular emphasis on independent authors like Jiro Taniguchi. Manga now represents more than one fourth of comics sales in France. French comics that draw inspiration from Japanese manga are called "manfra" (or also "franga", "manga français" or "global manga"). In addition, in an attempt to unify the Franco-Belgian and Japanese schools, cartoonist Frédéric Boilet started the movement "La nouvelle manga". Illustrative of the market share the manga has conquered is that Dargaud has in 1996 spun off their manga French-language publications into a specialized publisher of it own, Kana, currently co-existing alongside the already established specialist Delcourt, and since 2000 joined by specialists Pika Édition, , Kazé and Ki-oon. In 2014, Delcourt acquired the earliest known such specialist Tonkam, which had already been established in 1993.


title: Bande dessinée

text: There are many comics conventions in Belgium and France. The most famous, prestigious and largest one is the "Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême" (English: "Angoulême International Comics Festival"), an annual festival begun in 1974, in Angoulême, France, and the format has been adopted in other European countries as well, unsurprisingly perhaps considering the popularity the Franco-Belgian comics enjoy in these countries, though they are typically of a more modest size, the Italian "Lucca Comics & Games" festival (est. 1965) excepted – though, as the name already suggest, that festival extents beyond comics alone, whereas the Angoulême festival is comics specific. During his tenure as culture minister, Jack Lang was a frequent guest of honor of the festival as part of his endeavors to advance the cultural status of the "bande dessinée", and personally awarded the festival's awards to comic artists, which included Jean Giraud in 1985 when he received the festival's most prestigious award, the year after Lang had announced the advent of the national comics museum on the previous edition of the festival.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Typical for conventions are the expositions of original art, the signing sessions with authors, sale of small press and fanzines, an awards ceremony, and other comics related activities. Also, some artists from other counties travel to Angoulême and other festivals to show their work and meet their fans and editors. The Angoulême festival draws in over 200.000 visitors annually, including between 6,000 and 7,000 professionals and 800 journalists. Contrary to their US Comic Con counterparts, where other pop-culture media manifestations are increasingly taking precedence, movie and television productions in particular, continental European comics conventions remain to this day largely and firmly grounded in its source medium, the printed comics. US-style comic conventions are becoming popular as well though, but are invariably organized separately from the traditional "bande dessinée" festivals under the English denomination, and where the print materials are concerned focused on the US comic book, and Japanese manga publications.


title: Bande dessinée

text: One of the oldest Franco-Belgian comics conventions was the "Convention de la B.D. de Paris" (1969–2003), which was co-founded by the aforementioned Claude Moliterni. Though Moliterni was a "bande dessinée" writer (usually for artist Robert Gigi), he became primarily renowned as a tireless champion for the medium, in the process becoming one of France's very first serious comics scholars by launching one of the very first professional and serious comics journals worldwide, "" (1966–1977), and writing numerous articles, reference books and, later on, (co-)launching specialized websites as well, on the subject matter. In doing so Moliterni became the European counterpart of equally renowned American – but French-born – comics scholar Maurice Horn, a contemporary with whom Moliterni had actually cooperated in the early years of their careers. Aside from this, Moliterni also became a prolific founder of comics conventions. The very first one he co-founded was actually the Lucca one, experience gained on that experience put to good use for the Parisian one. Moliterni went on to co-found seven more conventions and permanent exhibitions in France and Italy, including Angoulême for which he is most renowned. His efforts for the medium gained Moliterni no less than three French civilian knighthoods.


title: Bande dessinée

text: The trailblazing journalistic – and subsequent scholastic – approach pioneered by Moliterni, which greatly aided in the acceptance of the medium as a mature part of Francophone culture, served as an inspiration for his successors, such as , Thierry Groensteen, , Numa Sadoul, as well as the already mentioned Bocque, Gaumer and Ratier, who have followed in his footsteps. With Gaumer incidentally, Moliterni revisited his 1964-1967 "Spirou" article series he had co-edited with Morris, which resulted in the edited and greatly enhanced reference work "Dictionnaire mondial de la bande dessinée" (), published in 1994 by Éditions Larousse (a renowned French encyclopedia publisher), and a work very similar to Horn's 1976 "The World Encyclopedia of Comics" () which in turn greatly resembled the older "Spirou" article series.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Likewise, his "Phénix" trade journal has seen a plethora of successors following suit all over western Europe as well. Actually, the second oldest known professional European comics trade journal was the Dutch ', launched in 1968 and coinciding with the definitive breakthrough of the "bande dessinée" in the Netherlands, before a second Francophone comics journal (', launched in 1969 as "Schtroumpf" by and in effect the founding block of his namesake publishing house) had even entered the fray. During its first couple of years of publication, "Stripschrift" was in effect very reliant on "Phénix" for content, before it managed to shake off its French roots and stand on its own, and is, contrary to its French progenitor, still being published as of 2020 and thus the oldest known professional comics journal still in existence worldwide.


title: Bande dessinée

text: Franco-Belgian comics have been translated in most European languages, with some of them enjoying a worldwide success. Some magazines, aside from the Dutch-language editions, have been translated in Greek, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish, while in other cases foreign magazines were filled with the best of the Franco-Belgian comics. In France and Belgium, most magazines have since then disappeared or have a largely reduced circulation for socio-economic reasons (but mostly because modern readership no longer possesses the patience to read their comics in weekly or monthly installments, instead preferring to have a story presented to them wholesale in album format), but the number of published and sold albums stays relatively high – the majority of new titles being currently directly published as albums without prior magazine serialization – with the biggest successes still on the juvenile and adolescent markets. This state of affairs has been mirrored in the other European countries as well. As a format, the Franco-Belgian comic has been near-universally adopted by native comic artists all over Europe, especially in the neighboring countries of Belgium and France (and including Italy, despite that country having had a rich and thriving comics culture of its own and with the Netherlands as an early adopter being one of the very first, if not the first, to do so), solidifying the position of the Franco-Belgian comic as the preeminent force on the European comics scene, Great Britain excepted.


title: Bande dessinée

text: The greatest and most enduring success however was mainly for some series started in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s (including "Lucky Luke", "The Smurfs", and "Asterix"), and the even older "Adventures of Tintin", while many more recent series have not made a significant commercial impact outside mainland Europe and those overseas territories historically beholden to France, despite the critical acclaim for authors like Moebius. One out-of-the-ordinary overseas exception where Franco-Belgian comics are as of 2017 still doing well turned out to be the Indian subcontinent where translations in Tamil (spoken in the south-eastern part of India, Tamil Nadu, and on the island state of Sri Lanka) published by Prakash Publishers under their own "Lion/Muthu Comics" imprints, have proven to be very popular, though their appeal remain somewhat limited to the classic series for an adolescent readership as conceived in the 1960s–1980s, and that more recent, more mature series have yet to make an impression in those territories.


title: Bande dessinée

text: While hundreds of comic series have been produced in the Franco-Belgian group, some are more notable than others. Most of those listed are aimed at the juvenile or adolescent markets:


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Jonathan Neil "Jonty" Rhodes (born 27 July 1969) is a South African professional cricket commentator and former Test and One Day International cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest fielders of all time and was the first South African cricketer to take 100 ODI catches. He played for the South African cricket team between 1992 and 2003. He is currently assistant coach of Punjab Kings in Indian Premier League.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province, South Africa. Whilst being noted for his quick running as a right-handed batsman, he was especially noted for his defensive fielding, particularly catching, ground fielding, and throwing from his most common position of backward point. A report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showed that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the ninth-highest number of run outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the third-highest success rate.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: During his career he also played club cricket for the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg and first-class cricket for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, KwaZulu-Natal, Natal and the Dolphins. Rhodes retired from Test cricket in 2000, and from one day cricket in 2003 after an injury during the 2003 Cricket World Cup.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes also represented South Africa at hockey, and was chosen as part of the 1992 Olympic Games squad to go to Barcelona; however, the squad did not qualify to go to the tournament. He was also called up for trials to play in the 1996 Olympics but was ruled out by a hamstring injury.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes made his Test début against India in the first Test of the "Friendship Tour" at his home ground in Kingsmead, Durban on 13 November 1992, scoring 41 in the first innings and 26 not out in the second.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes scored his first Test century during the first Test of a three match series against Sri Lanka at Moratuwa during the 1993–1994 season. Batting on the last day, Rhodes scored 101 not out and along with Clive Eksteen salvaged a draw. South Africa went on to win the series 1–0 by winning the second match and drawing the third.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes announced his retirement from Test match cricket in 2001 in order to allow him to continue playing until the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. His last Test match was on 6 August 2000 at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo against Sri Lanka. Rhodes made scores of 21 and 54 in the two innings. Sri Lanka went on to win the match by six wickets.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: He was also well known for hitting reverse sweep and has also hit the first reverse sweep shot which had gone for a six.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes made his One Day International début against Australia in South Africa's opening match of the 1992 Cricket World Cup at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 26 February 1992. Australia batted first, scoring 170, and Rhodes dismissed Craig McDermott via a run out. South Africa scored 171 to win the match by nine wickets; Rhodes was not required to bat.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes shot to fame after South Africa's fifth game of the World Cup, against Pakistan on 8 March 1992 at the Brisbane Cricket Ground. South Africa batted first, scoring 211 off 50 overs. Pakistan's innings was reduced to 36 overs because of rain interruptions, with the target revised from 212 to 194 runs. Inzamam-ul-Haq and Pakistan captain Imran Khan resumed the innings when play was restarted. With the score at 135/2 Inzamam, who was at the time on 48, set off for a run but was turned back by Khan. The ball had rolled out towards Rhodes who ran in from backward point, gathered the ball and raced the retreating Inzamam to the wicket. Rhodes, with ball in hand, dived full length to break the stumps and effect the run out. The run out, the subject of a famous photograph by Jim Fenwick, is still considered one of the more spectacular feats of that World Cup and the defining moment of Rhodes' career. Pakistan's innings faltered from then on, eventually finishing on 173/8 with South Africa winning by twenty runs.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: On 14 November 1993 Rhodes took a world record of five catches, to achieve the most dismissals by a fielder (other than a wicketkeeper) against the West Indies at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: Rhodes announced that he planned to retire from One-Day International cricket after the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. However, his tournament was cut short when he got injured in a match against Kenya. In Kenya's innings, Maurice Odumbe hit the ball in the air toward Rhodes. Rhodes dropped the catch and in the process broke his hand. The South African team's medical staff concluded that it would take four to five weeks to heal, effectively ruling Rhodes out of the rest of the tournament. Rhodes was withdrawn from the squad and replaced by Graeme Smith.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: After retiring from playing cricket Rhodes was employed Standard Bank as an account executive and is also involved with the bank's cricket sponsorship in South Africa. Rhodes then worked as a fielding coach in the South African national cricket team. He was the fielding coach for IPL Team Mumbai Indians, followed by the fielding coach for Kings XI Punjab at the 13th season of Indian Premier League. The Kenyan cricket team announced that Rhodes had been hired as the team's assistant coach, assisting Kenya with fielding and batting until the 2011 Cricket World Cup.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: In April 2013 South African Tourism appointed Rhodes as their brand ambassador for India. During Cricket World Cup, he will give his expert opinion at PTV Sports and Yahoo.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: He was appointed as fielding coach for Kings XI Punjab. In September 2020, Rhodes signed a contract with the Swedish Cricket Federation, ahead of moving to Sweden on a permanent basis. In Feb 2022 he was also named as batting coach for Punjab Kings for IPL 2022 in addition to his responsibilities as fielding coach for the side.


title: Jonty Rhodes

text: He married Kate McCarthy, a niece of Cuan McCarthy, on 16 April 1994 in Pietermaritzburg. The couple have two children: a girl, Danellia Rhodes, and a boy, Ross Rhodes. The couple has split up since. In 2015, Rhodes' second wife Melanie gave birth to their daughter in Mumbai. He named his daughter India Jeanne Rhodes. This inspiration came from India's rich mix of culture, heritage, and tradition. Finding India to be very spiritual and forward-thinking, Rhodes has found his bond with the country has led to spiritual awakening within him. With a special affiliation to the river Ganga the cricketer shared his dip in the river on social media. In 2017, Jonty performed a puja for his daughter at Pejawar mutt at Mumbai. A regular visitor to India, Jonty and Melanie's second child Nathan, was born in India in 2017.


title: Ski jumping

text: Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the final score. Ski jumping was first contested in Norway in the late 19th century, and later spread through Europe and North America in the early 20th century. Along with cross-country skiing, it constitutes the traditional group of Nordic skiing disciplines.


title: Ski jumping

text: The ski jumping venue, commonly referred to as a "hill", consists of the jumping ramp ("in-run"), take-off table, and a landing hill. Each jump is evaluated according to the distance traveled and the style performed. The distance score is related to the construction point (also known as the "K-point"), which is a line drawn in the landing area and serves as a "target" for the competitors to reach.


title: Ski jumping

text: The score of each judge evaluating the style can reach a maximum of 20 points. The jumping technique has evolved over the years, from jumps with the parallel skis with both arms pointing forwards, to the "V-style", which is widely used today.


title: Ski jumping

text: Ski jumping has been included at the Winter Olympics since 1924 and at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships since 1925. Women's participation in the sport began in the 1990s, while the first women's event at the Olympics has been held in 2014. All major ski jumping competitions are organised by the International Ski Federation. Stefan Kraft holds the official record for the world's longest ski jump with , set on the ski flying hill in Vikersund in 2017. Ski jumping can also be performed in the summer on an in-run where the tracks are made from porcelain and the grass on the slope is covered with water-soaked plastic. The highest level summer competition is the FIS Ski Jumping Grand Prix, contested since 1994.


title: Ski jumping

text: Like most of the Nordic skiing disciplines, the first ski jumping competitions were held in Norway in the 19th century, although there is evidence of ski jumping in the late 18th century. The recorded origins of the first ski jump trace back to 1808, when Olaf Rye reached . Sondre Norheim, who is regarded as the "father" of the modern ski jumping, won the first-ever ski jumping competition with prizes, which was held in Høydalsmo in 1866.


title: Ski jumping

text: The first larger ski jumping competition was held on Husebyrennet hill in Oslo, Norway, in 1875. Due to its poor infrastructure and the weather conditions, in 1892 the event was moved to Holmenkollen, which is today still one of the main ski jumping events in the season.


title: Ski jumping

text: In the late 19th century, Sondre Norheim and Nordic skier Karl Hovelsen immigrated to the United States and started developing the sport in that country. In 1924, ski jumping was featured at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France. The sport has been featured at every Olympics since.


title: Ski jumping

text: Ski jumping was brought to Canada by Norwegian immigrant Nels Nelsen. Starting with his example in 1915 until late 1959, annual ski jumping competitions were held on Mount Revelstoke — the ski hill Nelsen designed — the longest period of any Canadian ski jumping venue. Revelstoke's was the biggest natural ski jump hill in Canada and internationally recognized as one of the best in North America. The length and natural grade of its hill made possible jumps of over —the longest in Canada. It was also the only hill in Canada where world ski jumping records were set, in 1916, 1921, 1925, 1932, and 1933.


title: Ski jumping

text: In 1935, the origins of the ski flying began in Planica, Slovenia, where Josef Bradl became the first competitor in history to jump over . At the same venue, the first official jump over was achieved in 1994, when Toni Nieminen landed at 203 meters.


title: Ski jumping

text: In 1964 in Zakopane, Poland, the large hill event was introduced at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. In the same year, the normal hill event was included on the Olympic programme at the 1964 Winter Olympics. The team event was added later, at the 1988 Winter Olympics.


title: Ski jumping

text: A ski jumping hill is located on a steep slope, and it consists of the jumping ramp ("in-run"), take-off table, and a landing hill. Competitors glide down from a common point at the top of the in-run, achieving considerable speeds at the take-off table, where they take off, carried by their own momentum. While airborne, they maintain an aerodynamic position with their bodies and skis, which allows them to maximize the length of their jump. The landing slope is constructed so that the jumper's trajectory is near-parallel with it, and the athlete's relative height to the ground is gradually lost, allowing for a gentle and safe landing. The landing space is followed by an "out-run", a substantial flat or counter-inclined area that permits the skier to safely slow down. The out-run area is fenced and surrounded by a public auditorium.


title: Ski jumping

text: The slopes are classified according to the distance that the competitors travel in the air, between the end of the table and the landing. Each hill has a construction point ("K-point"), which serves as a "target" that the competitors should reach. The classification of the hills are as follows:


title: Ski jumping

text: Competitors are ranked according to a numerical score obtained by adding up components based on distance, style, inrun length (gate factor) and wind conditions. In the individual event, the scores from each skier's two competition jumps are combined to determine the winner.


title: Ski jumping

text: Distance score depends on the hill's K-point. For K-90 and K-120 competitions, the K-point is set at 90 meters and 120 meters, respectively. Competitors are awarded 60 points (normal and large hills) and 120 points (flying hills) if they land on the K-point. For every meter beyond or below the K-point, extra points are awarded or deducted; the typical value is 2 points per meter in small hills, 1.8 points in large hills and 1.2 points in ski flying hills. A competitor's distance is measured between the takeoff and the point where the feet came in full contact with the landing slope (for abnormal landings, touchpoint of one foot, or another body part is considered). Jumps are measured with accuracy of 0.5 meters for all competitions.


title: Ski jumping

text: During the competition, five judges are based in a tower to the side of the expected landing point. They can award up to 20 points each for jumping style, based on keeping the skis steady during flight, balance, optimal body position, and landing. The highest and lowest style scores are disregarded, with the remaining three scores added to the distance score.


title: Ski jumping

text: Gate and wind factors were introduced by the 2009 rules, to allow fairer comparison of results for a scoring compensation for variable outdoor conditions. Aerodynamics and take-off speed are important variables that affect the jump length, and if weather conditions change during a competition, the conditions will not be the same for all competitors. Gate factor is an adjustment made when the inrun (or start gate) length is adjusted from the initial position in order to provide optimal take-off speed. Since higher gates result in higher take-off speeds, and therefore present an advantage to competitors, points are subtracted when the starting gate is moved up, and added when the gate is lowered. An advanced calculation also determines compensation points for the actual unequal wind conditions at the time of the jump; when there is back wind, points are added, and when there is front wind, points are subtracted. Wind speed and direction are measured at five different points based on average value, which is determined before every competition.


title: Ski jumping

text: If two or more competitors finish the competition with the same number of points, they are given the same placing and receive same prizes.


title: Ski jumping

text: Ski jumpers below the minimum safe body mass index are penalized with a shorter maximum ski length, reducing the aerodynamic lift they can achieve. These rules have been credited with stopping the most severe cases of underweight athletes, but some competitors still lose weight to maximize the distance they can achieve. In order to prevent an unfair advantage due to a "sailing" effect of the ski jumping suit, material, thickness and relative size of the suit are regulated.


title: Ski jumping

text: By using the V-style, firstly pioneered by Swedish ski jumper Jan Boklöv in the mid-1980s, modern skiers are able to exceed the distance of the take-off hill by about 10% compared to the previous technique with parallel skis. Previous techniques included the Kongsberger technique, the Däescher technique and the Windisch technique. Until the mid-1960s, the ski jumper came down the in-run of the hill with both arms pointing forwards. This changed when the Däscher technique was pioneered by Andreas Däscher in the 1950s, as a modification of the Kongsberger and Windisch techniques. A lesser-used technique as of 2017 is the H-style which is essentially a combination of the parallel and V-styles, in which the skis are spread very wide apart and held parallel in an "H" shape. It is prominently used by Domen Prevc.


title: Ski jumping

text: Skiers are required to touch the ground in the Telemark landing style (), named after the Norwegian county of Telemark. This involves the landing with one foot in front of the other with knees slightly bent, mimicking the style of Telemark skiing. Failure to execute a Telemark landing leads to the deduction of style points, issued by the judges.


title: Ski jumping

text: The large hill ski jumping event was included at the Winter Olympic Games for the first time in 1924, and has been contested at every Winter Olympics since then. The normal hill event was added in 1964. Since 1992, the normal hill event is contested at the K-90 size hill; previously, it was contested at the K-60 hill. Women's debuted at the Winter Olympics in 2014.


title: Ski jumping

text: The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup has been contested since the 1979–80 season. It runs between November and March every season, and consists of 25–30 competitions at most prestigious hills across Europe, United States and Japan. Competitors are awarded a fixed number of points in each event according to their ranking, and the overall winner is the one with most accumulated points. FIS Ski Flying World Cup is contested as a sub-event of the World Cup, and competitors collect only the points scored at ski flying hills from the calendar.


title: Ski jumping

text: The ski jumping at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships was first contested in 1925. The team event was introduced in 1982, while the women's event was first held in 2009.


title: Ski jumping

text: The Four Hills Tournament has been contested since the 1952–53 season. It is contested around the New Year's Day at four venues – two in Germany (Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen) and two in Austria (Innsbruck and Bischofshofen), which are also scored for the World Cup. Those events are traditionally held in a slightly different format than other World Cup events (first round is held as a knockout event between 25 pairs of jumpers), and the overall winner is determined by adding up individual scores from every jump.


title: Ski jumping

text: Other competitions organised by the International Ski Federation include the FIS Ski Jumping Grand Prix (held in summer), Continental Cup, FIS Cup, FIS Race, and Alpen Cup.


title: Ski jumping

text: In January 1863 in Trysil, Norway, at that time 16 years old Norwegian Ingrid Olsdatter Vestby, became the first-ever known female ski jumper, who participated in the competition. Her distance is not recorded.


title: Ski jumping

text: Women began competing at the high level since the 2004–05 Continental Cup season. International Ski Federation organized three women's team events in this competition and so far the only team events in history of women's ski jumping.


title: Ski jumping

text: Women's made a premiere FIS Nordic World Ski Championships performance in 2009 in Liberec. American ski jumper Lindsey Van became the first world champion.


title: Ski jumping

text: In the 2011–12 season, women competed for the first time in the World Cup. The first event was held on 3 December 2011 at Lysgårdsbakken at normal hill in


title: Ski jumping

text: Lillehammer, Norway. The first-ever female World Cup winner was Sarah Hendrickson, who also became the inaugural women's World Cup overall champion. Previously, women had only competed in Continental Cup seasons.


title: Ski jumping

text: In 2006, the International Ski Federation proposed that women could compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics, but the proposal was rejected by the IOC because of the low number of athletes and participating countries at the time.


title: Ski jumping

text: A group of fifteen competitive female ski jumpers later filed a suit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on the grounds that it violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms since men were competing. The suit failed, with the judge ruling that the situation was not governed by the charter.


title: Ski jumping

text: A further milestone was reached when women's ski jumping was included as part of the 2014 Winter Olympics at normal hill event. The first Olympic champion was Carina Vogt.


title: Ski jumping

text: Since 1936, when the first jump beyond was made, all world records in the sport have been made in the discipline of ski flying. As of March 2017, the official world record for the longest ski jump is , set by Stefan Kraft at Vikersundbakken in Vikersund, Norway. Two years prior, also in Vikersund, Dimitry Vassiliev reached but fell upon landing; his jump is unofficially the longest ever made.


title: Ski jumping

text: The lists below show the progression of world records through history at 50-meter milestones. Only official results are listed, invalid jumps are not included.