Born in Angleur on the 26th of April, 1924, Victor Hubinon goes to the Académie des Beaux-Arts during the years of occupation, and becomes proof reader – retoucher at the newspaper LA WALLONIE, then illustrator for its competitor LA MEUSE.
This is where Georges Troisfontaines steals him away – a journalist and businessman well-known at Éditions Dupuis who dreams of founding an American-style press agency, the future WORLD’S PRESS. He already disposes of the illustrating talent of Jean-Michel Charlier and has no doubt that his two protégés will make an unbeatable team.
After several try-outs in LE MOUSTIQUE, Hubinon and Charlier realise a short authentic history (“L’Agonie du Bismarck”, 1946), while Troisfontaines writes the beginnings of the adventures of “Buck Danny” for him. After some fifteen plates, Charlier joins in and takes on the script of this epic, just like, initially, the more technical illustrations involving aeroplanes and ships for which Hubinon does not feel experienced enough yet.
The American pilot, sculpted to the face and body of Troisfontaines, becomes their absolute bestseller with nearly twenty million books sold at Éditions Dupuis in fifty years.
Hubinon occasionally tries his hand at humoristic comic strips, with the gags of “Rik Junior”, an episode of the “Nouvelles aventures de Blondin et Cirage” after the characters of Jijé in 1947, the practical jokes of “Fifi” in LA LIBRE JUNIOR, the feats of “Pistolin” in the paper of the same name in 1955, and the adventures of “Pathos de Sétungac” illustrated by Paape in RECORD (1963) limiting himself to the script.
He becomes known as a master of aeronautics, however, with realistic comic strips. In the early fifties he takes over all illustrations for “Buck Danny”, realising several impressive authentic stories with his friend the scriptwriter Charlier: “Tarawa, atoll sanglant” (1948), “Surcouf” (1949), “Stanley” (1953, this time with a script by Octave Joly) and “Mermoz” (1955). He works for PILOTE as of its launch in 1959, and illustrates the saga of “Barbe Rouge”, written by Charlier.
In his spare time he paints surrealist works, free from the restrictions imposed by comic strips and surrendering to true explosions of colour. In 1978 he launches his first personal work in SPIROU, “La Mouette”, a female pirate. Death takes him by surprise on the 8th of January, 1979 while he works on the second episode of her adventures.
