Edgar P. Jacobs

Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs (30 March 1904 – 20 February 1987), better known under his pen name Edgar P. Jacobs, was a Belgian comic book writer and artist. Jacobs was one of the founding fathers of the European comics movement. He worked with Hergé on the graphic novel series that made him famous, "Blake and Mortimer".
Biography.
Edgar Pierre Jacobs was born in Brussels in 1904. In 1919 he graduated from school. He took on odd jobs at the opera, including decoration, scenography, and painting. Sometimes he worked as an extra. In 1929 he received the annual Belgian government medal for excellence in classical singing.
In 1940 Jacobs turned permanently to illustration. He drew commercial illustrations and collaborated in the "Bravo" review until 1946.
The American comic strip "Flash Gordon" was not allowed in Belgium by the German forces during World War II. He was asked to write an end to the comic. But German censorship stopped this after only a couple of weeks. Jacobs then published in "Bravo" his first comic strip, "Le Rayon U" ("The U Ray"). This was in the same "Flash Gordon" style.
Around this time, he became a stage painter for a theatre adaptation for Hergé's "Cigars of the Pharaoh". This led to friendship with Hergé. As a direct result, he helped Hergé in colorizing the black and white strips of "The Shooting Star" to be ready for book publication in 1942. From 1944 on he helped in the recasting of his earlier albums "Tintin in the Congo", "Tintin in America", "King Ottokar's Sceptre" and "The Blue Lotus" for color book publication. After the project, he continued to contribute directly in the drawing as well as the storyline for the new Tintin double-albums "The Seven Crystal Balls"/"Prisoners of the Sun".
Jacobs, as a fan of opera, decided to take Hergé with him to a concert. Hergé did not like opera, however, and for decades he would gently joke with his friend Jacobs through opera singer Bianca Castafiore, a supporting character in "The Adventures of Tintin". Hergé also gave him tiny cameo roles in "Tintin" adventures, sometimes under the name Jacobini.
In 1946, he was part of the team gathered by Raymond Leblanc around the new comics magazine "Le Journal de Tintin". His story "Le secret de l’Espadon" ("The Secret of the Swordfish") was published on September 26. This was the first of the "Blake and Mortimer" series.