Renaat Demoen

Renaat Demoen (11 June 1914 – 22 May 1986) was a Belgian illustrator and comics creator. He is most associated with the children's magazines of De Goede Pers, among them Zonneland.

Biography Renaat Demoen worked for a number of publishers, including Lannoo, when he met Nonkel Fons, editor-in-chief of the youth publications of Averbode, in 1942. Demoen soon became one of the main illustrators for the magazines, and lived at the medieval gate house of the Averbode Abbey until his marriage in 1968, when he moved to the village of Averbode.

Demoen was a self-taught illustrator and layouter. When the magazine Zonneland reappeared after the second World War, he redesigned the magazine, provided most of the illustrations, and created a comic for the front page. He created 15 comics between 1945 and 1959, but only a few of those were published in book format at the time.

He also created the images for the Druivelaar, a daily calendar which was very popular in Flanders. As of 2007, his images are still used here.

For his own pleasure, he also painted, both landscapes and brutally coloured scenes with gnomes.