Evany

'Zim et Boum'.

Eugène van Nijverseel - AKA Evany - was a Belgian graphic artist, painter and cartoonist. He was most notable as the first assistant of 'Tintin' creator Hergé. Between 1929 and 1931, Evany continued Hergé's earliest comic series 'Totor' in Le Boy-Scout Belge. He additionally inked both 'Tintin' and 'Quick and Flupke', before creating his own comic strip, 'Zim et Boum' (1931), which ran in the magazine Petits Belges/Zonneland. After World War II, Evany was the art director of Tintin magazine.

Working for Hergé
Born in 1910, Eugène Van Nijverseel was eighteen years old when he joined Hergé's team at Le Petit Vingtième, the juvenile supplement of the conservative Catholic newpaper Le Vingtième Siècle. Starting out in January 1929 as an errand boy, he quickly became Hergé's assistant. Between 1929 and 1931, Van Nijverseel inked the installments of the serials 'Tintin au Pays des Soviets'  ('Tintin in the Land of the Soviets', 1929) and 'Tintin Au Congo' ('Tintin in Congo', 1930), as well as gags with the two rascals 'Quick et Flupke'. Van Nijverseel additionally made cover illustrations and provided layouts for issues of Le Petit Vingtième. He often rummaged the Brussels flee markets, in search of old French cartoon magazines. Useful cartoons were then traced and reprinted in Le Petit Vingtième as free filler material. In addition, Evany took over Hergé's Totor character in Le Boy-Scout Belge, with whom he made a new set of six gag pages under the title 'Les Mémoires de Totor, C. P. des Hannetons' between February and July 1930. In 1931, Evany left Le Petit Vingtième to fulfill his military service. By then, Paul Jamin was already active as Hergé's other assistant.

Evany covers for Le Petit Vingtième of 9 October and 18 December 1930.

Bonne Presse
While in the military, Evany created a short-lived balloon strip of his own. A serial of 52 pages, 'Zim et Boum' (1931) appeared in the Catholic children's magazine Petits Belges and its Flemish edition Zonneland, both published by Bonne Presse in Averbode. He continued to make gag pages and traditional picture stories for both these magazines until 1937. In 1936, a 'Zim et Boum' book collection was published by Bonne Presse.

Capelle-aux-Champs
Van Nijverseel was also affilliated with the art group Capelle-aux-Champs in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, which had among its prime members woodcut artist Bonaventure Fieullien, the novelist Franz Weyergans and the poets Jean Libert and Maurice Carême. Among the other members were the journalist and poet Marcel Dehaye and the graphic artist Guy Dessicy, who both, like Evany, had their post-war career with Hergé and Tintin magazine. Evany also introduced Hergé to the group. Its members were linked by a common association with scouting and Catholic circles, the same artistic ideals, and a desire to replace a too rigid religion with a more mystical spirituality. In 1943, Evany provided illustrations for two books by group member Jean Libert (AKA Jean de la Lune), including 'Sainte Beauté' (Éditions Les Écrits) and 'Billets' (Éditions de la Toison d'Or).

Tintin magazine
When in September 1946 Hergé and publisher Raymond Leblanc launched Tintin magazine, Evany returned to work for his old friend. Until at least the early 1970s, he was art director of Studio Lombard, the publisher's art studio in charge of the magazine's layouts, editorial illustrations and production art. New talents trained under his supervision were Bob De Moor, Tibet, François Craenhals, Fred Funcken and Raymond Macherot.

Final years and death
In 1981, Evany also provided the layout for the autobiography 'Un Opéra de Papier' of his friend Edgar P. Jacobs. Throughout most of his career, Eugène Van Nijverseel was also active as an oil painter. He notably made a portrait of Tania Vandesande from the Pepperland bookstore, which he gave to Raymond Macherot. He died in 1989.

At the occasion of Tintin/Kuifje magazine's 20th anniversary, celebrated in issue #39 (27 September 1966), Evany had a starring role in a promotional stunt. In a special story created by Mazel, the magazine's art director fell between one of the rotary presses. Readers were asked to check if the flattened Mr. Evany was perhaps somewhere between the pages of their copy. In issue #48 it was announced that the art director was found and returned to the offices! For the occasion, artist Mazel and art director Evany posed in front of a blow-up of the 2D comic version of Evany.