The Marcinelle School and Artistic Diversity

While Hergé's clear line dominated one strand of BD aesthetics, alternative approaches flourished. The Marcinelle school, named after the Dupuis publishing house's location, developed a more expressive, caricatural style. Artists like André Franquin, who took over Spirou in 1946, brought dynamic line work and exaggerated expressions that conveyed energy and emotion in ways the clear line could not.

Franquin's work on Spirou, particularly after the introduction of the Marsupilami in 1952, showed how BD could balance humor, adventure, and increasingly sophisticated themes. His creation of Gaston Lagaffe in 1957 pushed even further, presenting an anti-hero whose bumbling disrupted every environment he entered. Franquin's evolution as an artist, culminating in the dark "Idées Noires" series, demonstrated BD's capacity for artistic growth and thematic complexity.

The diversity of styles in Golden Age BD reflected the medium's vitality. Artists like Morris (Maurice de Bevere) created Lucky Luke, adapting American Western imagery to European sensibilities. Peyo (Pierre Culliford) developed the Smurfs, showing how BD could create entirely fantastical worlds. Each successful series expanded BD's possibilities, proving the medium could accommodate any genre or style.