Initially heavily influenced by the work of French comics authors Alain Saint-Ogan and Pinchon[7] and the American George McManus,[6] Hergé soon developed his own style.

George Van Raemdonck, the first major Flemish comics artist, worked almost exclusively in the Netherlands until after World War II.

[10] More situated in the classic arts than in the mainstream comics publishing was Frans Masereel, a Flemish wood engraver whose 1926 "Passionate Journey", a wordless story told in 165 woodcuts, is sometimes considered as the first graphic novel.

[14] French artist Robert Velter, a former assistant of Martin Branner,[14] was asked to create the title series, and the rest of the magazine was filled with popular American comics such as Superman.

[14] Some Flemish magazines started producing more modern local comics as well, with works by established artists like Frans Van Immerseel in Zonneland and the expressionist painter Frits Van den Berghe in Bravo, or new names like Jan Waterschoot in Zonneland or Eugeen Hermans (aka Pink) in Ons Volkske, a weekly newspaper supplement inspired by Le Petit Vingtième.

[16] During the war, many magazines had to stop publication or scale back their activities due to paper shortage and the limitations imposed by the German occupiers.

In Antwerp, Ray Goossens and Bob de Moor started with AFIM, and in Brussels, André Franquin, Eddy Paape, Peyo and Morris worked for CBA.

The magazine immediately employed mainly Belgian artists, most coming from Bravo: Jacobs (who already had collaborated with Hergé), Laudy, and the young debutant Paul Cuvelier.

The main artists were Tillieux, Fred Funcken, Tibet, François Craenhals, Greg, ...[24] Due to being censored in France, the magazine finally disappeared in 1956.

[22] Due to this success, Vandersteen opened a Studio which produced hundreds of comics and gave many young local artists a steady job.

Their place was taken by Victor Hubinon and Jean-Michel Charlier (Buck Danny), Maurice Tillieux (Gil Jourdan), Eddy Paape, Will, and most importantly André Franquin, Morris, and Peyo.

While the first generation learned much of the art while working with Jijé, many younger artists started their professional career in the Studio Peyo before creating their own series, assuring the continuation of the School of Marcinelle.

Hergé started his Studio to help him with the work on the Tintin comics, and it defined the style of many artists like Bob de Moor and Roger Leloup.

The styles of the two magazines were distinctly different, with the ligne claire and the more serious, didactic tone of Tintin contrasting with the humorous, more caricatural Marcinelle school of Spirou.

But despite the critical acclaim of these authors, the circulation slowly declined from the record high of 270,000 copies a week in France alone, and the different international editions of Tintin disappeared over the next decade, but not before launching a last major series with Thorgal by Rosinski.

Around 1970, Berck (Sammy), Lambil (Les Tuniques Bleues), François Walthéry (Natacha), and Leloup (Yoko Tsuno) were the main new artists and series,[31] with Raoul Cauvin as the most important writer.

[32] In Flanders, the situation was very stable, with the limited local publication possibilities all taken by the established authors of the 1940s and 1950s, leaving no room for new talents after the disappearance of most magazines.

New artists either started working in the large Studio Vandersteen or tried to get into Spirou and Tintin, thereby strengthening the bond between the comics scenes of both language groups.

[33] In Wallonia, it only seriously commenced in 1971, with the first awards (the Prix Saint-Michel in Brussels) and fanzine (Rantanplan), both by André Leborgne, and the first specialized shop and republisher of old material, Michel Deligne.

The Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels created a comics department with teachers like Eddy Paape, and was largely responsible for the new, more adult-oriented authors who came to the fore in the 1980s and 1990s.

[35] It published longer "chapters" of the main European authors of graphic novels, with artists like Hugo Pratt and Jacques Tardi.

[36] In Flanders, a final experiment with a youth comics magazine was started in 1993 with Suske en Wiske Weekblad by Standaard Uitgeverij: with a mix of classic comics and new series and carried by the most popular Dutch language series and a sizable promotional campaign, it got a sizable audience at first, but slowly lost momentum and disappeared in 2003.

[41] The Flemish market is largely monopolized by the giant Standaard Uitgeverij, whose Spike and Suzy are produced with 300,000 to 400,000 copies for each new title, half of which are exported to the Netherlands, and who also publishes Nero, Kiekeboe and Urbanus.

Het Volk, who largely existed due to one title, Jommeke, with a total sales of 50 million copies in 50 years,[42] has sold its comics to Dupuis.

[43] In 2010, four of the ten bestselling comics authors in France were Belgians: Jean Van Hamme, Hergé, Raoul Cauvin, and Stephen Desberg.

Artists like the Dutch Joost Swarte, American Chris Ware,[57] Australian Bill Leak[58] or Norwegian Jason[59] are heavily influenced by the ligne claire of Hergé, while others like the Spanish Daniel Torres, Finnish Pora[60] and French Yves Chaland more closely followed the "Atom Style" of Jijé and Franquin.

[62] More recently, Belgian graphic novels have been translated in English as well, like Jean-Philippe Stassens Deogratias,[63] while many older series are reprinted as well, though often with limited success.

Especially Hergé and Tintin have also had a lot of influence on other artists outside the circle of comics authors, like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

[57] Hergé has also been recognised by a street and a statue in Angoulême, France,[64] and both the French and the Dutch postal offices have issued stamps remembering Tintin.

Video games and animated and live action movies have been made for popular series like XIII,[65] Tintin,[66] Spirou et Fantasio, Spike and Suzy and Lucky Luke,[67] and the long-running Hanna-Barbera series of The Smurfs became a worldwide success with massive merchandising,[68] and the success continues as evidenced by the ratings animated cartoons based on the adventures of Tintin and Lucky Luke had in Germany and Canada in 2005 and 2006.