Victor Hubinon (26 April 1924 – 8 January 1979) was a Belgian

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 oft ...

artist, best known for the series '' Buck Danny'' and ''

Redbeard Redbeard or Red Beard may refer to: People * Frederick Barbarossa (Redbeard), another name for Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor (1122–1190) * Oruç Reis or Redbeard (''Barbarossa'') (1474–1518), Ottoman naval commander * Hayreddin Barbarossa ...

''.

Biography

Victor Hubinon was born in Angleur, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Victor Hubinon". In België gestript, pp. 127-128. Tielt: Lannoo. He studied at the Arts Academy of

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

and fled to England later during World War II, where he served in the Royal Navy. After the war ended, he returned to Belgium and when he was 22, he started working as an illustrator for the newspaper ''La Meuse''. He got a contract with businessman and journalist Georges Troisfontaines, who started the press agency "World Press". There, Hubinon met Jean-Michel Charlier, another illustrator for the agency. They first collaborated on a short comic story, but Troisfontaines created for them a new hero, '' Buck Danny'', about a trio of fictional American pilots in World War II. Troisfontaines dropped out after he had written the first fifteen pages, whereupon Charlier and Hubinon continued it on their own. Quite soon, Charlier quit drawing and specialized in writing the stories, while Hubinon did all the artwork. The strip appeared in '' Spirou'' magazine, the comics weekly of publisher Dupuis, and became over the next thirty years one of the most popular and enduring series of the magazine. After 50 years, more than 20 million albums had been sold. Unusual about the series was that it kept very securely up-to-date, with the heroes always flying in the most recent planes and participating in current events. Hubinon experimented with humoristic, caricatural stories in his early years as a comics artist. He even made one story about ''

Blondin et Cirage Blondin et Cirage (''Blondin and Cirage'', literally ''Blondy'' and ''Shoe polish'') is a Belgian humoristic adventure comic strip by Jijé created in 1939 for the Catholic children's magazine ''Petits Belges''. The comic was also published in it ...

'', two heroes created by

Jijé Joseph Gillain (), better known by his pen name Jijé (; 13 January 1914 – 19 June 1980), was a Belgian comics artist, best known for being a seminal artist on the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' strip (and for having introduced the Fantasio character) a ...

, but thereafter, the series returned to Jijé, and Hubinon mostly stuck to his realistic work, such as ''Buck Danny'', the biographies of '' Surcouf'', '' Stanley'' and '' Jean Mermoz'', and a fictionalized retelling of the ''

Battle of Tarawa The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, an ...

''. When Charlier, together with a few friends like René Goscinny, created the new '' Pilote'' magazine in 1959, he wrote for Hubinon the realistic pirate series ''

'', which would continue for some twenty years. The pirate crew in this series was the inspiration for their comical counterpart in the other main series of ''Pilote'', '' Asterix''. In 1977, Hubinon created a new series, ''La Mouette'', with stories by Gigi Maréchal. He died in 1979 from a heart attack, before the second part of the series was finished.

Bibliography

Awards and honors

* 1971: Best realistic artwork at the Prix Saint-Michel, Brussels, Belgium * Asteroid

301511 Hubinon 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

, discovered by French amateur astronomer

Bernard Christophe This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 nu ...

in 2009, was named in his memory. The official was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

on 12 March 2017 ().

References

* Béra, Michel; Denni, Michel; and Mellot, Philippe (2002): "Trésors de la Bande Dessinée 2003-2004". Paris, Les éditions de l'amateur.
Hubinon publications in ''Spirou''
an

BDoubliées

External links

on Lambiek Comiclopedia
Victor Hubinon biography
on Dupuis {{DEFAULTSORT:Hubinon, Victor 1924 births 1979 deaths Artists from Liège Belgian comics writers Belgian comics artists Buck Danny