Bob De Moor

Robert Frans Marie De Moor, known as Bob De Moor, is one of the most essential - yet least-known - figures in Franco-Belgian comics. The son of an industrial draftsman, he began drawing at the age of three, fascinated by the sailboats in the port of Antwerp. After studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and working briefly in animation at the Afim studio, he published his first comic strips in 1944 in Dutch-language children’s publications. In 1950, he joined the Hergé Studio, where he quickly became the chief assistant following the departure of Edgar P. Jacobs. For more than 35 years, he was the indispensable driving force behind the adventures of Tintin. He redrew older albums and designed backgrounds with unparalleled attention to detail, such as the scaffolding in Objectif Lune (Destination Moon), the Beefeaters’ costumes in Le Sceptre d'Ottokar (King Ottakar's Sceptre), and the modernized sets in L'Ile Noire (The Black Island), all while managing the brand’s merchandising. At the same time, he pursued his own creative career with Barelli (1954), Cori le Moussaillon (Cori the Cabin Boy)—which won the Best Album Award at Angoulême in 1988—and Oncle Zigomar (Uncle Zigomar). After Edgar P. Jacobs’s death, he completed the second volume of Les trois formules du Professeur Satō (1989). From 1989 until his death, he served as president of the Belgian Comic Strip Center and was artistic director at Éditions du Lombard. His son Johan De Moor, also an artist, carries on his legacy. A definitive biography by Gilles Ratier, Bob De Moor : La ligne claire d'Hergé (Bob De Moor: Hergé’s Clear Line), was published in 2025 by BD Must to mark the centennial of his birth.