Raymond Leblanc, the Belgian publisher behind the massively popular Tintin comic book series, has died at the age of 92.

Leblanc's company, Lombard Editions, announced Saturday that Leblanc died on Friday in Belgium.

A cartoon of Tintin and his dog, Snowy, are displayed at Paris's Pompidou Cultural Centre at a special tribute in 2006.
(Canadian Press)

The company released a statement calling Leblanc a "shrewd publisher."

"In launching the 'Tintin journal' and the innumerable paper heroes it gave rise to, he goes down as one of the essential figures behind the international boom in French-Belgian comic books."

Leblanc, a resistance fighter during the Second World War, convinced the creator of Tintin — Georges Remi, known by his pen name Hergé — to launch a periodical for the young.

Tintin, the boy reporter character, had first appeared in 1929, with 12 books already under Hergé's name. Under Leblanc's guidance, Tintin become the hero of a twice-monthly eponymous magazine, born in 1946, with Hergé as the artistic director and three other writers contributing plots.

Meanwhile, Leblanc was simultaneously launching the Lombard publishing house, aimed at readers "from seven to 77."  Leblanc sold his company to French buyers in 1986.

Tintin to live on in film trilogy

Hergé died in 1983 and five years later, Tintin magazine was officially retired.

A giant statue of Tintin at the company's Brussels base is classed as a national monument.

Translated into 60 languages, the animated books still sell about two million copies per year. A total of 200 million copies have been sold so far.

Last year, directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson announced they would create a trilogy of films about the beloved comic strip journalist. 

In 2004, a commemorative 10-euro coin was minted to mark Tintin's 75th anniversary, while Brussels held its first Tintin festival in 2005.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Leblanc got busy launching other ventures during the 1950s.

In 1954, Leblanc created the advertising agency Publiart, which often used cartoon characters in its projects, and that same year he opened Belvision studios, which produced hand-drawn animation for television.

Belvision would become a major animation studio, producing short and full-length animated films for the big screen, such as Pinocchio dans l'Espace, Astérix le Gaulois, Tintin et le Temple du Soleil, Tintin et le Lac aux Requins and Les Voyages de Gulliver.

Leblanc was named the first recipient of the Alph-Art d'Honneur prize in 2003 at the 30th annual comic book festival in Angouleme, France.