A Research Blog on Early Comics

This is my research blog on Early Comics published in Belgium before Hergé's Tintin (1929). I've been browsing through Belgian periodicals and popular prints for the last five years and found already scores of examples, but most of them are reprints and translations from abroad. So, this blog will be mainly about early comics from an international perspective. I'm hoping to share parts of my research and foster some dialogue with other researchers. I've lots of plans, various articles are waiting to be published (see under for former and projected publications). By the end of this year I'll put up also a website about my research.

In 1996 I organised for the Belgian comics museum in Brussels a conference on the forerunners of the modern comic strip and I edited Forging A New Medium, The Comic Strip in the 19th Century.
In 2006 I conducted a research project on broadsheets for the folklore museum Het Huis van Alijn in Ghent.
Since 2007 my research is supported by the research council of Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design (Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel). As a researcher I'm also affiliated at the faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven).


Former publications on Early Comics

- Lefèvre, Pascal (90% ed.) & Dierick, Charles (10% ed.), Forging A New Medium, The Comic Strip in the 19th Century, Brussel: VUB University Press, 1998 & 2000, 214 p.

- Lefèvre, Pascal, 'The Battle over the Balloon, The conflictual institutionalization of the speech balloon in various countries, in: Image (&) Narrative, Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative, N° 14, May 2006.

Coming publications

- Lefèvre, Pascal,Not just Black and White. Divergent Colonial Period Representations of Africans in French and Belgian Broadsheets (1880-1914)' in: SIGNs, projected in 2009.
- Lefèvre, Pascal, 'Panorama van het vroege beeldverhaal in België (1870-1929)[Panorama of early comics in Belgium] in Sint-Lukas Galerie Brussel, projected in 2009.
- Lefèvre, Pascal, 'Le Dernier Film van Fernand Wicheler. De eerste Belgische krantenstrip?' [Le Dernier Film by Fernand Wicheler. The very first regular Belgian comic strip?] in Brabant Strip, projected in 2009.


Presentations at conferences

- Untamed Ferocious Children in the Comic Strips of the Belle Époque. 19th Biennial Congress of IRSCL (The International Research Society for Children's Literature), Literature and Cultural Diversity in the Past and the Present, 8-12 August 2009.

- Comics in Belgium before Hergé’s Tintin (1877-1929), IBDS (International Bande Dessinée SocietyInstitut Français London, 19 - 20 June 2009.

- Researching early comics. A case study: Belgium in relation to other countries (1880-1930), paper, ICAF, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 9-11 October 2008.

- Imperialist propaganda for Children ? Representations in French and Belgian Broadsheets (1880-1914), paper. Amsterdam, IAMHIST XXII Media and Imperialism, Press, Photography, Film, Radio and Television in the Era of Modern Imperialism, July 18-21, 2007.

- Shocking News! A case study of two Belgian illustrated periodicals, De Zweep and La Feuille illustrée, at the end of the 19th century, paper, Research Society for Victorian Periodicals-conference, University of Ghent, Image and text, Image in text, July 2004. - De Belgische volksprenten [Belgian popular prints],invited lecture, Het Huis van Allijn, Gent, June 2004.

- The Battle over the Balloon, paper, Universität Hamburg, July 2002.