André LeBlanc (January 16, 1921 – December 21, 1998) was a

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

an artist who worked on

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

s and

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s of the 1940s and 1950s. He was an instructor at New York's

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

Early life

André LeBlanc was born in

, but moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the 1920s after his father was killed in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Career

LeBlanc worked as an assistant with

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...

on ''

The Spirit The Spirit is a fictional masked crimefighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940, as the main feature of a 16-page, tabloid (paper size), tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book insert distributed in the Sunday editio ...

'' and with

Sy Barry Seymour "Sy" Barry (born March 12, 1928)
at the

The Phantom ''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The charact ...

''. He also contributed to the ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

'', ''

Apartment 3-G ''Apartment 3-G'' is an American newspaper soap opera comic strip about a trio of career women who share an apartment in Manhattan. Created by Nicholas P. Dallis with art by Alex Kotzky, the strip began May 8, 1961, initially distributed by t ...

'' and '' Rex Morgan, M.D.'' newspaper strips."Andre LeBlanc"
Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved November 15, 2013. LeBlanc is also known as the illustrator of the 1979 epic ''

The Picture Bible ''The Picture Bible'' is a comic strip telling of the Bible edited by Iva Hoth with illustrations by Andre LeBlanc. It was first published in full colour form by David C. Cook in 1978. LeBlanc's ''The Picture Bible'' was an influence on ''The ...

'' published by

David C. Cook David C. Cook is an American nonprofit Christian publisher based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded as a provider of Sunday school curriculum and remains a major publisher of such materials. It also publishes fiction and nonfiction ...

. He drew for King Comics' ''Mandrake the Magician'' comic book. His various features for comic books included ''Dr. E.Z. Duzit'', ''Intellectual Amos.'' In the Brazilian market, he created the

jungle girl A jungle girl (so-called, but usually adult woman) is an archetype or stock character, often used in popular fiction, of a female adventurer, superhero or even a damsel in distress living in a jungle or rainforest setting. An alternate depiction i ...

''Morena Flor'', published in

daily strips A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. Bud Fisher's ''Mutt and Jeff'' is commonly regarded as the first daily c ...

and in the comic book ''Capitão Atlas''. ''Edicão Maravilhosa'', the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian version of ''

Classics Illustrated ''Classics Illustrated'' is an American comic book/magazine series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as ''Les Misérables'', ''Moby-Dick'', ''Hamlet'', and ''The Iliad''. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1 ...

'', where he adapted classics of

Brazilian literature Brazilian literature is the literature written in the Portuguese language by Brazilians or in Brazil, including works written prior to the country's independence in 1822. Throughout its early years, literature from Brazil followed the literary t ...

. He also illustrated books by the Brazilian writer

Monteiro Lobato José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato (18 April 1882 – 4 July 1948) was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo (Yellow Woodpecker Farm) but he had been previously ...

Personal life

In 1944, he moved to

and married a Brazilian woman named Elvira.

Awards

LeBlanc's illustrations brought him the Southern Cross Award, the highest honor that can be given to a Brazilian citizen.

References

1921 births American comics creators Comics inkers Comic strip cartoonists Haitian artists 1998 deaths Haitian emigrants to the United States European Haitian Prêmio Angelo Agostini winners Golden Age comics creators {{comics-artist-stub