Raymond Leblanc, RIP

Sad news, which I learned about from The Comics Reporter. Raymond Leblanc, the Belgian publisher who brought us Hergé's "Tintin," died this past Friday. He was 92 years old.

During World War II, Hergé had worked for Le Soir, a Belgian paper that was controlled by the Germans; after the war, he was prosecuted as a collaborator. But Leblanc, who'd been a heroic member of the Resistance, took a chance and hired Tintin's creator to edit Tintin, a 12-page weekly comic strip magazine whose tremendous success in Belgium and France led to the publication of some 1,500 "albums" -- including all the Tintin books.

In June, Forbidden Planet International ran a fascinating interview with Leblanc. (The interview was originally published in Belgium’s Stripgids.) Here are some excerpts:

Leblanc: Now we only had to find enough money to start up the magazine. Our plan was a bold one, especially since Hergé was being prosecuted at that point. His first reaction was "This is impossible." Nevertheless, we presented him a five year contract. "And we as Resistance men will do everything within our powers to return your civil rights to you." You have to remember that Hergé wasn't even allowed to ride a bicycle at that time....

Stripgids: Your relationship with Hergé did change over the years, though.

Leblanc: My relationship with Hergé was always very cordial and friendly, but it was not always very easy. The reason was very simple: Hergé was absent much too often. Sometimes the magazine had to go without Tintin for months at a time, all the while carrying his name. In the end the readers started complaining. It was a very difficult time, which resulted in very heated correspondence.

Stripgids: Was Hergé's absence, in the magazine, as in the offices, also due to his personal problems? His biographies often mention the depressions he had during that period.

Leblanc: It is a bit of a delicate matter, of which I hesitate to speak. But I want to say something about it, because Benoit Peeters especially mentions this in his [Hergé] biography. To the world outside, and to the magazine's staff, we blamed his absence on the depressions he had as a result of the War and the Repression. Now everybody knows that Hergé took the opportunity to have quite a few amorous affairs. But I can’t tell any more about it, because I wasn’t there, obviously.... (Laughs)

At one time, it must have been 1948 or 1949, Hergé even made plans to leave the country for Argentina. During the period of the cleansing, when quite a few Nazi’s went there, Hergé seriously considered emigrating. For a number of reasons he still longed for the presence of some of his Rexist friends who lived over there [the extreme right-wing group who collaborated with the occupying Nazis. Rex's leader Léon Degrelle worked for Le Vingtième Siecle at the time when Hergé was editing its youth supplement. He fled to Franco's fascist Spain after the war and was never extradited to face trial in Belgium). I only found out about this, years later. He planned to move to South America, work on his comics there and send the pages back to Belgium. For the magazine that would have been the end....