Bob de Moor

(20/12/1925 - 26/8/1992, Belgium) Bob de Moor, one of the masters of the Belgian Clear Line style, was born in Antwerp. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, De Moor began his career at the Afim animations studios. He made his comics debut with 'Bart, de Scheepsjongen', that appeared in Kleine Zondagsvriend from 1945. De Moor set up the Artec Studio and multiplied his creations for various magazines. He began collaborations with Het Handelsblad, De Nieuwe Gazet, De Volksmacht, Overal, Pum-Pum, Het Wekelijkse Nieuws, De Nieuwe Gids, De Zweep and Ons Volkske. In the latter, he drew stories like 'Oorlog in het Heelal', 'Mieleke en Dolf' and 'Het Wonderschip'. In 1949, he joined Kuifje, the Flemish equivalent of the magazine Tintin. There, he started out with the historical stories 'De Leeuw van Vlaanderen' and 'De Kerels van Vlaanderen'. In late 1949, he also appeared in the Walloon version Tintin, and launched the gag strips 'Bouboule et Noireaud' and 'Professeur Troc' (later renamed to 'Monsieur Tric'). In the following years, he illustrated 'Conrad le Hardi', and he started his series 'Barelli'. He also created 'Cori, le Moussaillon', in which he showed his passion for boats and nautical adventures. The first episode appeared in 1952, and it wasn't until 1977 that the series was continued. In 1950, De Moor ended up committing himself to working at the Hergé studios and very quickly became the first assistant to the Master. He re-styled the first Tintin comics and did backgrounds for various Tintin albums, as well as promotional art. In addition, De Moor drew 'Nonkel Zigomar' and 'Snoe en Snolleke' in Het Nieuws van den Dag and Het Vrije Volksblad from 1951 to 1956. In Tintin, he also drew the humorous comic 'Pirates d'Eau Douce' in 1959, as well as the gag strip 'Balthazar' from 1965. In 1970, he illustrated an episode of Jacques Martin's series 'Lefranc' and in 1989, he completed 'Mortimer contre Mortimer', the second part of 'Les Trois Formules du Professeur Sato' in the series 'Blake and Mortimer' after the death of Edgar P. Jacobs.