Ray Goossens

Ray Goossens
Born 26 October 1914
Merksem, Belgium
Died 10 December 2008 (aged 94)
Deurne, Belgium
Nationality Belgium
Occupation artist, animator, film director

Ray Goossens (26 October 1914 – 10 December 2008) was a Flemish artist, animator and director best known for creating Musti.

Biography

Ray Goossens was born in Merksem, Belgium in 1914. Interested in animation from before World War II, he created the animation studio AFIM in Antwerp in 1939, together with Jules Luyckx and Henri Winkeler. They had 15 employees, including later famous comics artists like Bob de Moor and Jef Nys. They created a number of short animated movies, of which Smidje Smee was the most successful.

After the war, Goossens started working as a comics creator with Kleine Zondagsvriend, a weekly youth magazine. He created a number of series, some based on existing stories like Tijl Uilenspiegel and Reinaert de Vos, some new like Tsjoem (a parrot) and Snops en de bende. He also worked as an illustrator for different newspapers and magazines, including Gazet van Antwerpen.

He worked as an animator mainly for client's publicity purposes, and in 1957 became artistic director of Belvision, the new animation studios of Le Lombard, one of the major Belgian comics publishers. At first, they created series based on existing comics series like Oumpah-pah, Hergé's Adventures of Tintin or Chlorophylle. They also made the full-length movie Pinocchio in Outer Space.

From 1956 to 1969 he worked as an independent animator and director. In 1967 he directed Asterix the Gaul, the first feature film based on this comic, and in 1968 he joined Dupuis, where he created with the animation studios a number of children's series like Tip en Tap, De Pili's and Musti, which was based on a character he had already created in 1945. He also directed a series based on the adventures of Boule et Bill.

From 1976 onwards, Ray Goossens taught animation at the R.I.T.C.S in Brussels. His final success as a director followed in 1977, with Plons de gekke kikker.

Ray Goossens died in 2008 in Deurne.

Filmography

As director

With AFIM:

Indepdendent work:

With Belvision:

With Terrytoons:

With Dupuis:

With Jay Ward Productions:

With Hanna-Barbera

With RAI:

With Rai 1:

With Milkshake!:

With Nippon TV:

With TV Asahi:

With TV Tokyo:

With VRT:

As writer

With Kindernet:

With Mushi Productions:

With Tezuka Productions:

With Sony Pictures Television:

Awards

External links