Bob Morane (comics)

Bob Morane is an international French spy/reporter who is an expert in various martial arts and use of weapons . Robert "Bob" Morane is 33 years old. An adventurer who spies occasionally and does not shy away from an underworld, he has secret service relationships (such as the American spy CIA's Herbert Gains or the golden-toothed agent Roman Orgonetz ), among the most colorful representatives of the demobilized military and in all the fathers of the world. Bob Morane also cultivates, with a gallantry blue flower and a fairly meritorious fidelity, a number of female friendships. Among them, the most remarkable are the journalist Sophia Paramount, Tania Orloff, niece of the Yellow Shadow, and the head of Miss Ylang-Ylang, omnipotent leader of the Smog Organization. The nature of these relations is, as the case may be, gruff, tender or condescending, but always platonic. The great love of his life is Tania Orloff, but they love each other like Romeo and Juliet, resigned representatives of two rival clans.

Bill Ballantine, a red haired giant, he is the tireless friend of Bob Morane. Ballantine is 34 years old, he is a chicken farmer in Scotland and a big fan of whiskey ZAT 77. This faithful second, strong, grouchy and tonic, nicknamed his illustrious companion "commander" in reference to a common mission at of the Second World War, to which it is less and less alluded as the years go by, despite what the nickname continues.

Sworn enemy of Bob Morane, he makes himself known under the identity of Mr. Ming. He is also the descendant of the Ming Dynasty. He nicknamed himself "Yellow Shadow" because, in his relentless battle in the shadows, the yellow of light will follow. Extremely rich, he is at the head of a sprawling organization, the Shin-tan, made up of fanatical and terrifying mercenaries, dacoits (gifted aboriginal killers) and thugs (Indian stranglers of great talent). The Yellow Shadow has created many clones of himself, successively to succeed him, in case of violent death, through a device of conservation and regeneration called the Duplicator.

Miss Ylang-Ylang is the leader of SMOG, an international organization of mercenaries and bandits. With a beauty that is both perfect and disturbing, no one knows her real name and has been nicknamed "Ylang-Ylang" because of her favorite fragrance. She is fascinated by Bob Morane, which will give him some trouble. Conversely, Bob Morane is secretly attracted to her.

Tania Orloff is the niece of L'Ombre Jaune who secretly double crosses her uncle to help Bob Morane stop her Uncle's evil schemes of world domination.

A British Journalist who works for the London Chronicle and friend of Bob Morane battle against the forces of evil

Bob Morane is a series of novels created in 1953 by the Belgian novelist Henri Vernes. In 1959, the Belgian women's weekly, Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, which publishes a few pages of comics every week, asks Henri Vernes a comic strip story by Bob Morane: "It was Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, a women's weekly, who asked me to do. I said: Why not? And I did it, that's all. "[4][5]

Vernes then wrote the scenario of the Firebird, whose design is naturally entrusted to Dino Attanasio, who had already since 1953 produced the interior illustrations of the novels published in the Marabout editions (the covers being designed by Pierre Joubert) that he will realize until 1962.[6]

Cartoonist with a humorous style, Attanasio struggles to establish himself as a realistic draftsman, which generates growing tensions with Henri Vernes, who has declared that Attanasio is the only drawer of Bob Morane with whom he has encountered difficulties: "J send my scripts to the designers and I discover their work at the exit of the album. Except with Attanasio, I never had anything to say ".[7] The two men decided to put an end to their collaboration in 1962 after the realization of the episode The Necklace of Çiva.

Gérald Forton, who also produced some interior illustrations of the novels, continues the drawing of the series in 1962 with the episode La Piste de l'ivoire.

In 1967, in full publication of the episode Les Loups are on the track in Femmes d’Aujourd’hui Gerald Forton disappears while the weekly waits for the last two boards of the current episode. According to Henri Vernes, a version that has long been officially peddled, the draftsman left Belgium for "personal reasons" overnight. According to Gérald Forton, after fourteen years in Belgium, he wanted to return to France, the Belgian climate does not allow him to raise his horses in good conditions, which he had warned the magazine's editors by asking to interrupt the publication the episode in progress for two weeks, the time to settle in France, which was denied. Forton returns, however, to France to settle in a ranch in Montaigu-de-Quercy and abandons Bob Morane.[8][1]

The writing of Femmes d’Aujourd’hui then make a call to find a replacement able to resume the current episode. An advertising professional will pass on this message to William Vance, to whom he has regularly commissioned illustrations. Vance, who knows the world of Bob Morane well since he was the assistant of Dino Attanasio for which he realized the sketches and inking of the sets of the episode The Necklace of Çiva,[9] agrees to take again the drawing of last two boards of the current episode in the style of Forton. Totally satisfied, the editorial staff of the magazine and Henri Vernes ask William Vance to resume the drawing of the series, which he accepts as long as he can move away from the style of Forton to draw the series according to his own style, which it is granted.[10]

On May 22, 1968, the appearance of the episode The Smugglers of the Atom begins in the weekly, drawn by William Vance who will continue the series until (1979). Eager to devote himself to other works, notably his Bruce J. Hawker series, William Vance abandons Bob Morane after the episode The Emperor of Macao.

The publisher of the series, The Lombard proposes to Coria, brother-in-law of William Vance (he is the brother of his wife Petra) and his assistant on Bob Morane for many years, to take over the design of the series, which Henri Vernes agrees even if he does not really appreciate the trait of it: "At first, it was not good, then it improved a little. But I must admit that his drawing is not very steep ".[11] The first episode drawn by Coria, Operation Wolf is published in Tintin since 1979, shortly after the end of the publication of The Emperor of Macau. Coria will draw the series until 2012, when Arnaud de la Croix, editorial director of the Lombard editions, decides to end the series whose sales "were then insufficient or nonexistent".[12]

Le Lombard decides to restart the series in the form of a reboot. The rights of the series are then held by Claude Lefrancq since Henri Vernes sold them to them in 2010 through the company Bob Morane Inc.,[13] who agrees. The publisher also seeks the agreement of Henri Vernes, holder of moral rights over his characters, who does not seem hostile to the idea: "I was initially happy that something was finally decided to restart this series because it had been a long time since nothing had been done for her ".[11] It is decided to revive the series without Henri Vernes scenario to modernize since Bob Morane becomes a United Nations peacekeeping mission, at the heart of contemporary geopolitical issues. Gauthier Van Meerbeeck, new editorial director of the Lombard predecessor, by Christophe Bec, who withdraws from the project (he will take over this project to make the scenario of the first two volumes of the Lancaster series published in 2013 and 2014 at Glénat). Gauthier Van Meerbeeck started the project with Luc Brunschwig, who had worked on the project with Christophe Bec, who wants to collaborate with Aurélien Ducoudray. The drawing is entrusted to Dimitri Armand, who then works on the Western Sykes for the Lombard. After reading the first volume, Henri Vernes announces his discontent and asks that the album does not come out, which Gauthier Van Meerbeeck refuses.[14]

Henri Vernes was very hard towards this reboot: "I found the result mediocre",[15] "We completely changed the characters (...) As for the scenario, it is written by people who can not write. I do not count the number of sequences where nothing happens ".[13][16]

After the publication of two volumes, constituting a complete story, Le Lombard announces that it ends its collaboration with writers Luc Brunschwig and Aurélien Ducoudray indicating that, despite commercial success, there is no "relationship of trust and mutual respect with the authors "since" no dialogue on the unfolding of the narrative could be initiated "and that the series would continue with Dimitri Armand,[17][16] which the latter confirms by announcing the publication of a new album in 2018,[2] which has not been published.

The comics of Bob Marone are a parody of Bob Morane.