Spirou et Fantasio - La Boite Noire

Born in Liège, Nicolas Broca attended the Academy of Fine Arts, and subsequently worked in varying occupation. He turned to animation and found employment as assistant decorator at the Belvision Studios in Brussels in 1959. He worked on the animation of the film 'Pinocchio dans l'Espace' and then worked in advertising animation for seveal years. He returned to Belvision in 1966 and participated in the firm's big projects like 'Astérix le Gaulois', 'Astérix et Cléopatre', 'Lucky Luke', 'Tintin et le Lac aux Requins', 'Gulliver' and 'La Flûte à Six Schtroumpfs'. Broca was also hired by Idéfix in Paris to work on 'Douze Travaux d'Astérix' and 'La Balade des Dalton'. For SEPP, the animation department of Dupuis, he designed 'Les Snorky' in 1982, little underwater creatures that were eventually animated by Hanna-Barbera in the USA. He developed famous cartoon series like 'Ovide' and 'Les Snorky'. In 1980, Broca teamed up with scriptwriter Raoul Cauvin to create new stories with 'Spirou et Fantasio' in Spirou, alternating with Yves Chaland and Tome and Janry. After one trilogy, published in albums by Dupuis, Broca returned to animation forgood. He joined the Kid Cartoons studios, where he realized 65 episodes of 'La Bande à Ovide' in cooperation with Godi. One of his final collaborations was on 'Les Tifous', an animation series based on characters created by André Franquin.