The designer, trained at the Hergé studios school, had notably given birth to the character of Taka Takata. He died at 85 years old in the Gers, where he had withdrawn.
by Daniel Hourquebie (auch, correspondent)
The publisher Le Lombard, who saw him begin, praised his “impressive career”. The
Belgian comic book designer Jo-El Azara, his real name Joseph Franz Hedwig Loeckx, died Tuesday, February 7 in the Gers of a stroke, at the age of 85. This illustrator and comic book author, historic collaborator of Hergé in Brussels before flying on his own two feet, was the creator, with the screenwriter Vicq, of the series of Taka Takata albums, improbable Japanese military hero, myopic and pacifist. In 1979, this original Flemish had settled in Gascogne with his partner, Josette Baujot, chief colorist of Hergé, and he had continued his editorial activity, becoming “a real Belgo-Gascon”, according to his own expression .
Originally, of course, he was Hergé, or rather the Hergé studio in Brussels. When he returned there in 1954, Joseph Franz Hedwig Loeckx is still a great teenager, barely 17 years old. He will work there for seven years under the master’s eye, a founding experience for his professional training, but also human. Within this very demanding studio where the “clear line” reigns, the young designer learns the profession – including the frustration of this sector – behind the scenes of the most famous reporter in the world. He will contribute in particular to some of the biggest albums of the adventures of Tintin: the Tournesol, Coke in stock and the jewelry of the Castafiore. “Hergé made the scenario and reserved the main characters, Bob de Moor drew the decorations in pencil then in ink and I worked from 1954 under his orders, he said in 2019. But I had a little enough To draw phones … “He will therefore end up, encouraged by Hergé himself.
one of the star designers of the newspaper” Tintin “
In the creative cauldron that was then the Brussels studio, he learns the precision of the details and the clarity of the drawing, which will remain his trademark. But, the second founding element, he also meets a woman, the chief colorist of Hergé, Josette Baujot, died in 2009, with a strong personality, (“she was the only one in the studio who could stand up to Hergé on work, “said Jo-El Azara). He will follow it to the heart of the Gers, where he left to settle in 1979.
Jo-El Azara remained inexhaustible on this golden age of comics, of which he had been one of the craftsmen before moving away from the heart of a Brussels reactor. He had worked there with the biggest names in Franco-Belgian comics: Vandersteen, Will, Peyo, Jijé, Jacques Martin, Bob de Moor, Derib, Hermann, establishing himself as one of the star designers of the Tintin newspaper. In 1965, with the screenwriter Vicq, he gave birth to one of the most unlikely heroes of the Franco-Belgian comic strip: Taka Takata, a Japanese myopic and pacifist aviator with the eternal khaki uniform, a kind of humanist antihero , flanked by recurring characters equally crazy, like Colonel Rata Hôsoja – a character inspired by a rank which he rubs shoulders during his military service.
In 1994, in order to continue his series, Jo-El Azara decided to create his own publishing house, Azeko. To boil the pot, the designer engages in an astonishing career as an advertising illustrator, where his fine and direct line will have seduced advertisers, but also the Angoulême International Comic Strip Festival which will award him for his prize “Original use of comics language in advertising”.
But beyond his talent, her many friends recall today that “Jo” was a chic guy. Eloi of the Brussels cauldron, he never regretted having chosen less glory – perhaps – but more happiness.