Buck Danny - a reminder that there is more than Tintin to Belgian comics
29 décembre 2025
An article by Leo Cendrowicz for The Brussels Times
It's easy to think Belgian comic art begins and ends with the usual passport stamps: Tintin, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke. But step into a new retrospective on Buck Danny, the fictional US fighter pilot, and you're suddenly in a different tradition – one that is bolder, more technical and quietly innovative in how it treats the modern world.
The exhibition, Victor Hubinon: Rétrospective Buck Danny, now on at the Huberty & Breyne gallery's Châtelain space, runs until 14 February 2026. It presents original artwork from the 40 albums produced by comic artist maestro Hubinon, along with his Buck Danny writer Jean-Michel Charlier
Seen at full size – far larger than the printed page – Hubinon's images read less like vintage strip pages and more like storyboards for a film that never existed.
Hubinon began drawing Buck Danny at 22, just out of Liège Arts Academy, and continued until his death at 55. "Buck Danny was his first series and his last," says Michèle Hubinon, the artist's daughter.
The exhibition follows his albums over the years and his evolving style. "From the first pages, you see a drawing style that's still a little clumsy: he's young, heavily influenced by American comics of the time – especially Milton Caniff," she says. "And then, very quickly, he finds his own style, asserts it, and develops it over the years."
What made Buck Danny distinctive – and, in its way, daring – was its commitment to realism as a narrative engine. The series debuted in Spirou magazine in January 1947, in an era when weekly Franco-Belgian comics were still defining their identities.
An article by Leo Cendrowicz for The Brussels Times
It's easy to think Belgian comic art begins and ends with the usual passport stamps: Tintin, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke. But step into a new retrospective on Buck Danny, the fictional US fighter pilot, and you're suddenly in a different tradition – one that is bolder, more technical and quietly innovative in how it treats the modern world.
The exhibition, Victor Hubinon: Rétrospective Buck Danny, now on at the Huberty & Breyne gallery's Châtelain space, runs until 14 February 2026. It presents original artwork from the 40 albums produced by comic artist maestro Hubinon, along with his Buck Danny writer Jean-Michel Charlier
Seen at full size – far larger than the printed page – Hubinon's images read less like vintage strip pages and more like storyboards for a film that never existed.
Hubinon began drawing Buck Danny at 22, just out of Liège Arts Academy, and continued until his death at 55. "Buck Danny was his first series and his last," says Michèle Hubinon, the artist's daughter.
The exhibition follows his albums over the years and his evolving style. "From the first pages, you see a drawing style that's still a little clumsy: he's young, heavily influenced by American comics of the time – especially Milton Caniff," she says. "And then, very quickly, he finds his own style, asserts it, and develops it over the years."
What made Buck Danny distinctive – and, in its way, daring – was its commitment to realism as a narrative engine. The series debuted in Spirou magazine in January 1947, in an era when weekly Franco-Belgian comics were still defining their identities.