Simultaneously, by imitating the style and flow of those comics, they improved their knowledge of how to make efficient comics.[ citation needed] Soon even those homemade versions of American comics had to stop, and the authors had to create their own heroes and stories, giving new talents a chance to be published.
When Germany invaded France and Belgium, it became close to impossible to import American comics. The occupying Nazis banned American animated movies and comics they deemed to be of a questionable character. Both were, however, already very popular before the war and the hardships of the war period only seemed to increase the demand.[ citation needed] This created an opportunity for many young artists to start working in the comics and animation business. At first, authors like Jijé in Spirou and Edgar P. Jacobs in Bravo continued unfinished American stories of Superman and Flash Gordon. Simultaneously, by imitating the style and flow of those comics, they improved their knowledge of how to make efficient comics.[ citation needed] Soon even those homemade versions of American comics had to stop, and the authors had to create their own heroes and stories, giving new talents a chance to be published. Many of the most famous artists of the Franco-Belgian comics started in this period, including André Franquin and Peyo, who started together at an animation studio, and Willy Vandersteen, Jacques Martin "wikipedia:Jacques Martin (comics)") and Albert Uderzo, who worked for Bravo.[ citation needed] After the war, the American comics didn't come back in as great a volume as before. In France, a 1949 law about publications intended for the youth market was partly written by the French Communist Party to exclude most of the American publications.[ citation needed]