Who are we ? > The history of Lombard

The history of Lombard

In 1947, Tintin emerged as the number one weekly for the young at heart from 7 to 77 (a slogan that has since become famous). In 1948, Raymond Leblanc persuaded the young Parisian publisher Georges Dargaud to produce and distribute a French edition. From then on, Tintin magazine was an essential purchase for more than 350,000 French youngsters every week. In 1950, les Editions du Lombard started to publish albums of comic strips made popular by its weekly. The initiative now comprises close to 80 series spread over eight collections.

In 1954, Raymond Leblanc founded two Editions du Lombard sister companies: the Publiart advertising agency and the Belvision studios, which started out making animation shorts of comic strips for television, before devoting itself to the production of feature-length animation films like Astérix et Cléopâtre, Tintin et le Temple du Soleil, Lucky Luke, Le Lac aux Requins and La Flûte à six Schtroumpfs. In 1955, R. Leblanc joined up with G. Dargaud again, to publish Line, the comic strip magazine for smart girls.

Now employing some 200 people, in 1958 les Editions du Lombard left rue du Lombard for the building on avenue P.-H. Spaak that it still calls home today. Train passengers arriving at Brussels’s Gare du Midi station are all familiar with this building, which is topped with a giant sign in the image of Tintin and Snowy.

In 1988, confident of having found a successor capable of developing Lombard’s publishing activities, Raymond Leblanc granted himself a well earned retirement, placing the company’s future in the hands of French group Média Participations. At this time he is the Honorary President of Editions du Lombard. Together with Charles Dupuis and Georges Dargaud, he is unquestionably one of the major reasons why the world of comics is now acknowledged as an independent profession and indeed as an art form.