Léonard (comics)
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Léonard in French, and Leonardo in the Dutch translation, is a Belgian comic series about an eponymous inventor and his assistant. It was created by artist Philippe Liegeois and writer Bob de Groot, better known under their pennames “Turk & De Groot”.
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[edit] Publication history
Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, the character first appeared in Achille Talon magazine in 1976 and, when that ended, he moved to EPPO for the Dutch version and Pif gadget for the French. He later appeared in book form and has been drawn by the same duo for over 30 years with a similar number of books.
All the albums have been published by Lombard Editions in Brussels, Belgium, and by Dargaud in Paris, France. At least four albums have been translated into English, but all are currently out-of-print.
[edit] Premise
Léonard is set in the early Renaissance period (with some aspects of the 20th century thrown in). He is an inventor and self-proclaimed genius who lives in a small town where he comes up with all sorts of inventions. Most of these are based on more recent, real-life achievements including television, fire extinguishers, cars and planes. He has also made more fanciful inventions like time machines and robots.
Léonard is flanked by Basile, his long-suffering (and often quite reluctant) assistant. Léonard refers to his younger helper as “Disciple” (“Lackey” in the English version), while Basile calls him “Master”.
Basile shows, and not without good cause, little of the respect that Léonard feels due to him and their relationship is more one of squabbling worker and employer than that of pupil and mentor. One cannot really blame the Disciple given the Master’s arrogance and over-sized ego.
In fact, far from teaching his Disciple the ways of science, Léonard looks upon him as a convenient guinea-pig for his inventions and shows little sympathy when they go wrong, which they almost always do.
[edit] Storyline
The most common storyline is that Léonard comes up with the idea for an invention. He then proceeds to wake up his late-sleeping Disciple using various means which range from loudspeakers to explosives. After being blown to bits or suffering similar injuries, the Disciple gets himself together and grudgingly proceeds to help build and test Léonard’s latest idea. This invariably results in more damage to his body and soul, but failure to co-operate will result in him being on the receiving end of Léonard’s anvil or blunderbuss which the Master keeps conveniently tucked up in his beard. The story often ends with the Disciple covered in plaster and bandages and even having to go to hospital.
[edit] Other characters
Looking on are Raoul the cat, Bernadette the mouse, and Mathurine the housekeeper. The cat and the mouse are friends and often appear in on-the-side gags: while the main action is being played out by Léonard and his Disciple, the cat and the mouse are involved in action of their own.
Another running gag is Crâne, a talking skull who comments on the scene.
