Bob de Groot

(b. 26/10/1941, Belgium)


Robin Dubois, by Bob de Groot and Turk
(artwork by Turk)

Although mainly known for his work as a scriptwriter, Bob De Groot began his career as an artist. He was seventeen years old when he commenced his studies at the Art Academy. During this period, he met Maurice Tillieux, whom he assisted on 'Félix', and who proved a major influence for De Groot. In the following years, De Groot produced up to 300 pages for weekly supplements of newspapers, and made short stories for Pilote in cooperation with Hubuc, Reiser and Fred. With the latter, he created the funny espionage serial 'L'Agent Caméléon 4 x 8 = 32'. Soon afterwards, the artist Turk came to cooperate on the artwork of this series.

De Groot began a longtime collaboration with Turk, starting with 'Archimède' in the mini-books section of Spirou in 1968, and soon afterwards, the 'Robin Dubois' series in Tintin. Also for Tintin, they took over the secret agent series 'Clifton' from Jo-El Azara (created originally by Raymond Macherot). Along the way, De Groot focused more and more on scriptwriting. In 1975, he created 'Léonard' in Achille Talon Magazine, again with Turk.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, De Groot expanded his scriptwriting activities, and wrote scenarios for 'Le Club des Peur-de-Rien' (art by Tibet, assisted by Turk), 'Chlorophylle' (art by Dupa and Walli), 'Digitaline' (by Jacques Landrain, the first comic created entirely on a computer, 1989), 'Des Villes et des Hommes' (art by Francq) and short stories with Tibet, Greg, Géri, and Dany. In 1981, he wrote one episode of 'Lucky Luke' ('Le Bandit Manchot') with art by Morris. Between 1995 and 2001, he cooperated with Morris again on the 'Ran-tan-plan' spin-off series, drawn by Vittorio Leonardo, as well as two new 'Lucky Luke' episodes ('Marcel Dalton', 1998 and 'L'Artiste Peintre', 2001).

In 1993, he teamed up with artist André Taymans and fellow writer Jean-François di Giorgio to work on the series 'Sam Griffith, published by Éditions Alpen. In 1999 and 2000, he made 'Doggyguard' with the artist Rodrigue at Lombard. Also with Rodrigue, he took over the 'Clifton' series again in 2003.

Robin Dubois, by Bob de Groot and Turk
(artwork by Turk)