Ligne claire

As Ligne claire (French:, clear line ') refers to a style in the comic.

The term was introduced in 1976 by ​​Joost Swarte for the character style of Hergé. Characteristic features are precise contours and the flat monochrome coloring. The Subscriber largely forgo hatching, shading and gradients. In the comics the Ligne claire people like to be represented in simplified, abstract form, whereas decorative and background are usually depicted in a realistic manner.

Besides Hergé especially his former colleague Jacques Martin are ( Alix ) and EP Jacobs ( Blake and Mortimer ) as a representative of classical Ligne claire. The modern representatives can, inter alia, André Juillard, Yves Chaland ( Freddy Lombard ), Frank Le Gall, Jacques Tardi, Theo van den Boogaard and Vittorio Giardino count.

As the pioneers of the Ligne claire found their forum mainly in the comics magazine Tintin, the term was also temporarily differentiating it from the competing magazine Spirou, whose predominant style is summarized under the term École Marcinelle. This stylistic boundary between the publishing houses, however, has become blurred with time, as for example, influential artist of the École Marcinelle like André Franquin and Peyo occasionally also worked for Tintin. Representatives from both schools have taken styling cues of the other camp.

According to the comic book artist and theorist Scott McCloud, it falls to the reader of a Ligne - claire comics easier to identify with the characters as shown because their facial features hardly defined and thus are open to the empathy of the reader.