René Brantonne worked as an advertising artist and illustrator from the mid-1920s. Specializing in science fiction, Brantonne illustrated several covers for the Fleuve Noir Anticipation collection of Fiction magazine. From the early 1930s to 1978 he has also created hundreds of comics, which he did for several popular publishers.
In the 1940s he illustrated various stories in the Grandes Aventures collection of Théophraste Renaudot publishers, such as 'L'Homme d'Acier', 'Robinson Crusoë', 'Buffalo Bill', etc. At the same time, he drew several pages of American comics that couldn't reach France because of the War at Moniales publishers. Brantonne also drew for Tarzan magazine, Les Belles Aventures, SEPIA and the magazines of the SAETL.
In the 1950s, he worked for several titles of Le Carquois publishers (Banko, Nagor, Banka, Junior Aventures, Junior Espionnage, Praline). He also produced 'Alain Bombard' in Jocko et Poustiquet, 'Kid Justice' in Sans Peur, 'Vicocq' in Les Loups. From 1958, Brantonne illustrated numerous comic adaptations of films for the daily press, such as 'Les 55 Jours de Pékin', '20.000 Lieues sous les Mers' and '2001: L'Odyssée de l'Espace'. For these comics, he was often assisted by Pierre Leguen, Claude Pascal or his son, who used the pseudonym Jack de Brown.
Text (c) Lambiek
