Marcel Gottlieb (14 July 1934 – 4 December 2016), known professionally as Gotlib, was a French
comics artist/writer and publisher. Through his own work and the magazines he co-founded, ''
L'Écho des savanes
''L’Écho des Savanes'' is a Franco-Belgian comics magazine founded in May 1972 by Claire Bretécher, Marcel Gotlib and Nikita Mandryka. It featured the work of French and international authors and graphic artists in mature-oriented comics ov ...
'' and ''
Fluide Glacial
''Fluide Glacial'' () is a monthly Franco-Belgian comics magazine and a publishing house founded on 1 April 1975 by Gotlib, Alexis (comics), Alexis and . It's one of the most successful comics magazine in France, along with Métal Hurlant.
Since ...
'', he was a key figure in the switch in French-language comics from their children's entertainment roots to an adult tone and readership. His series include ''
Rubrique-à-Brac'', ''
Gai-Luron'', and ''
Superdupont''.
Biography
Youth
Marcel Gottlieb was born on 14 July 1934 in Paris to parents of Romanian and Hungarian Jewish descent.
His father, Ervin, was a house painter and his mother, Regine, a seamstress. In 1942 his father was deported and died at
Buchenwald
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...
after their building's concierge obligingly helped policemen to find him, a scene which made a strong impression on young Marcel. His mother sent him to hide for the rest of the war on a farm, where he was poorly treated.
Vaillant and Pilote
At 17, he left school to work for a pharmaceutical agency while taking art classes in the evening. This led to a job as a
letterer
A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comi ...
at Opera Mundi, a French publisher which translated and published US strips. After his 28-month military service, Gotlib settled as a freelance letterer and illustrator. His first comics were accepted by ''
Vaillant'', a magazine for children later renamed ''
Pif-Gadget''. His one long-running series at Vaillant started as ''Nanar, Jujube et Piette'', which was renamed ''Nanar et Jujube'' then ''
Gai-Luron'' for the supporting character who had by then taken centre stage. Gai-Luron is a dog heavily influenced by
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His mo ...
's
Droopy
Droopy is an animated character from the golden age of American animation. He is an anthropomorphic white Basset Hound with a droopy face; hence his name. He was created in 1943 by Tex Avery for theatrical cartoon shorts produced by the Metro- ...
, who almost never laughs or displays any emotions and is incorrigibly somnolent.
In 1965 Gotlib submitted strips to ''
Pilote
Cover of the first ''Pilote'' issue #0
''Pilote'' () was a French comic magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as ''Astérix'', '' ...
'' magazine and was greeted with open arms by its influential co-founder and editor,
René Goscinny
René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...
of ''
Astérix
''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight the Roman Republic, wi ...
'' fame. Together they created ''
Les Dingodossiers'', a series of mock lectures on random subjects which Goscinny wrote and Gotlib drew. In 1967, Goscinny, who worked on many strips simultaneously while editing the magazine, asked Gotlib to continue the series alone. Gotlib instead launched a new one, ''
Rubrique-à-Brac'', which was similar to the Dingodossiers in format but progressively acquired a more adult and less formal tone. Leftover pages from both series were later published in album form as ''Trucs-en-vrac''.
''Rubrique-à-Brac'' was a hit with ''Pilotes readers and made Gotlib famous. It introduced several signature Gotlib gimmicks, such as the extensive use of random running gags (
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
getting hit on the head by random objects being the omnipresent one) and the presence of a miniature character, a ladybug mimicking the action, to make up for the absence of settings, which Gotlib disliked drawing.
In 1971, Gotlib gave up the ''Gai-Luron'' series to his collaborator
Henri Dufranne
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry.
People with this given name
; French noblemen
:'' See the ' List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.''
* Henri I de Mon ...
. He participated in a radio program with Goscinny,
Fred
Fred may refer to:
People
* Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Mononym
* Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French
* Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Rod ...
and
Gébé
Georges Blondeaux, known as Gébé (July 9, 1929 – April 4, 2004) was a French cartoonist.
Biography
He began his career as an industrial designer at the SNCF in 1947, and published his first cartoons in La Vie du Rail magazine. In the 1960s ...
, and collaborated with film director
Patrice Leconte, who made a documentary about him in 1974. Gotlib created another character, ''
Hamster Jovial'', for music monthly ''Rock & Folk''. ''Hamster Jovial'' ("Genial Hamster") is an incurably naff boy-scout troop leader desperate to catch up with pop culture and impress his charges, two cubs and a girl guide.
''L'Écho des savanes'' and ''Fluide Glacial''
In 1972, Gotlib launched the comics magazine ''
l'Écho des savanes
''L’Écho des Savanes'' is a Franco-Belgian comics magazine founded in May 1972 by Claire Bretécher, Marcel Gotlib and Nikita Mandryka. It featured the work of French and international authors and graphic artists in mature-oriented comics ov ...
'' with
Claire Bretecher
Clair or Claire may refer to:
*Claire (given name), a list of people with the name Claire
* Clair (surname)
Places
Canada
* Clair, New Brunswick, a former village, now part of Haut-Madawaska
* Clair Parish, New Brunswick
* Pointe-Claire, Q ...
and
Nikita Mandryka
Nikita Mandryka (20 October 1940 – 13 June 2021) was a French cartoonist.
He started drawing in the '' Vaillant'' magazine, before moving to ''Pilote'' in 1967, and then created '' L'Écho des savanes'' along with Claire Bretécher and Marc ...
. The original aim was to get stories unsuitable for ''
Pilote
Cover of the first ''Pilote'' issue #0
''Pilote'' () was a French comic magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as ''Astérix'', '' ...
'' magazine—which was aimed at school-age readers—out of their system, but ''l'Écho des savanes'' was a huge commercial success.
However, the trio's complete lack of business training meant the magazine went deep in the red and they were forced to sell it to a publishing concern. Gotlib's contributions to the magazine were published in album form as ''Rhââ Lovely'' (named after a rapist's line in
Alfred Hitchcock's ''
Frenzy
''Frenzy'' is a 1972 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer was based on the 1966 novel ''Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Squa ...
'') and ''Rha-Gnagna''. Those stories are mostly concerned with smashing taboos and feature much sexuality and other bodily functions, as well as cod-psychoanalysis and pot shots at authority figures of all kinds including divinities. Gotlib, Mandryka and Brétécher stopped working for ''l'Echo des Savanes'' after selling it.
Gotlib saw there was a strong market for adult comics and decided to start a new publication and have it run more professionally. To do this, he enrolled childhood friend, Jacques Diament, as administrator and another ''Pilote'' veteran,
Alexis Alexis may refer to:
People Mononym
* Alexis (poet) ( – ), a Greek comic poet
* Alexis (sculptor), an ancient Greek artist who lived around the 3rd or 4th century BC
* Alexis (singer) (born 1968), German pop singer
* Alexis (comics) (1946–1977 ...
to help with the creative direction, and founded ''
Fluide Glacial
''Fluide Glacial'' () is a monthly Franco-Belgian comics magazine and a publishing house founded on 1 April 1975 by Gotlib, Alexis (comics), Alexis and . It's one of the most successful comics magazine in France, along with Métal Hurlant.
Since ...
'' and parent publishing company 'Audie', a comically misspelled acronym of "Amusement, Umour, Derision, Ilarité Et toutes ces sortes de choses". ''Fluide Glacial'' launched the career of a number of unknown or little-known cartoonists, most of whom were influenced by Gotlib in the first place:
Édika
Édika is the pen name of Édouard Karali (born 17 December 1940 in Heliopolis, Egypt), a French comics artist, who is renowned for his distinctively absurd style. A number of his comic strips have been translated into several European languag ...
,
Goossens and
Dupuy & Berberian. Belgian veteran
André Franquin
André Franquin (; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are '' Gaston'' and ''Marsupilami''. He also produced the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' comic strip from 1946 to 1968, a period s ...
contributed his ''Idées Noires'' strip. Alexis died of aneurysm rupture in 1977, leaving Gotlib and Diament in charge, though he is credited to this day as "Director of conscience" of ''Fluide Glacial''.
Gotlib created two characters in ''Fluide Glacial'':
Superdupont with
Jacques Lob
Jacques Lob (19 August 1932 – 24 May 1990) was a French comic book creator, known for several comics creations, including '' Superdupont''.
Biography
Jacques Lob began his career as an illustrator of humorous cartoons that were published in va ...
and Pervers Pépère. Superdupont is a French, highly patriotic answer to US super-heroes who wears a vest and beret and fights a secret organisation called Anti-France. Gotlib mostly wrote or co-wrote Superdupont stories, though he drew a handful of them. The strip was successful enough to be made into a stage show by
Jérôme Savary
Jérôme Savary (27 June 1942 – 4 March 2013) was an Argentinian-French theater director and actor. His work has democratized and widened the appeal of musical theater in France, drawing together and blending such genres as opera, operetta, and ...
. Pervers Pépère is a stereotypical mac-sporting dirty old man who appeared in one-page stories. In the 1980s, he increasingly focused on running ''Fluide Glacial'' — in which he also wrote a column — and gradually withdrew from cartooning. However, he resuscitated ''Gai-Luron'' in 1986 when the back-catalogue was re-published by Audie and needed promoting; he drew enough new stories for a final album, ''La Bataille Navale''.
Later years
In 1991, Gotlib received the
Angoulême Festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
and, as per tradition, chaired the jury of the next year's festival. In 1993, he wrote an autobiography, ''J'existe, je me suis rencontré'', focusing on his youth, and in 2006 a more thorough one with journalist Gilles Verlant: ''Ma Vie-en-Vrac''.
In 1995, having taken a back seat for a couple of years, Diament and Gotlib sold ''Fluide Glacial'' and ''Audie'' to publisher
Flammarion and relinquished responsibilities, though Gotlib continued his column for some time. ''Fluide Glacial'' remains profitable and has outlived all its competitors such as ''Vaillant/Pif'', ''Pilote'' and the ''Hara-Kiri'' stable.
Graphic style
Gotlib's first series were made in a very humoristic tone. Each story consisted of two to four strips drawn in white and black. ''Rubrique-à-Brac'' and ''Les Dingodossiers'' consisted of didactic dossiers of short unrelated strips, drawn in black and white. They revisited an extremely wide range of subjects and dealt with stereotypes and clichés in a caricatural way. Gotlib used caricature and parodies to depict the everyday life, and greets it with extreme derision. In ''Cinemastok'' and ''Gai-Luron'', the same technique was used, although these series were presented in a different manner.
Later, from his departure from ''Pilote'' in 1972, Gotlib style changed a lot, the scenario as well as the illustrations. The last tome of Rubrique-à-Brac is already marked by this evolution, but it became more obvious with the series published in ''L'Echo des Savannes'' and ''Fluide Glacial''. These two comics magazine were created by Gotlib for an adult audience exclusively, and made it possible for Gotlib to express himself entirely freely, while censorship was present in Pilote, magazine made for a young public. ''Rhââ Lovely '', ''Rhâ-Gnagna '' and ''Pervers Pépère '' are series exclusively dedicated to sex satire, but sexual matters are also present in ''Hamster Jovial''. Most of Gotlib's strips are background-free, with a large portion of the panels being occupied by elaborate dialogues. Also, the large majority of his series were black-and-white in their original publication.
In 1973 he designed the album cover for French guitarist
Marcel Dadi
Marcel Dadi (; 20 August 1951 – 17 July 1996) was a Tunisian-born Jewish French virtuoso guitarist known for his finger-picking style which faithfully recreated the instrumental styles of American guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis an ...
's record 'La Guitare à Dadi' (1974).
Awards
*1976:
Best French comical work at the
Angoulême International Comics Festival
The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after ...
for ''Gai-Luron''
*1991:
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême
The Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is a lifetime achievement award given annually during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to a comics author. Although not a monetary award, it is considered the most prestigious award in Franco-Be ...
*2007:
Grand Prix Saint-Michel,
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
::-: nominated for the Prix Saint-Michel Press Prize for ''Gotlib 1: Ma vie en vrac''
*Asteroid
184878 Gotlib is named after Marcel Gotlib.
Bibliography
*''
Les Dingodossiers'' with
Goscinny (
Dargaud
Société Dargaud, doing business as Les Éditions Dargaud, is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1936 by Georges Dargaud (), publishing its first comics in 1943.
...
, 3 volumes, 1967, 1972, 1975)
*''
Rubrique-à-Brac'' (Dargaud, 5 volumes, 1970 to 1974)
*''Clopinettes'' with
Mandryka (Audie -
Fluide Glacial
''Fluide Glacial'' () is a monthly Franco-Belgian comics magazine and a publishing house founded on 1 April 1975 by Gotlib, Alexis (comics), Alexis and . It's one of the most successful comics magazine in France, along with Métal Hurlant.
Since ...
, 1974)
*''Cinémastock'' with
Alexis Alexis may refer to:
People Mononym
* Alexis (poet) ( – ), a Greek comic poet
* Alexis (sculptor), an ancient Greek artist who lived around the 3rd or 4th century BC
* Alexis (singer) (born 1968), German pop singer
* Alexis (comics) (1946–1977 ...
(Dargaud, 3 volumes, 1974 and 1976)
*''Trucs En Vrac'' (Dargaud, 2 volumes, 1977 and 1985)
*''
Gai-Luron'' (Audie - Fluide Glacial, 10 volumes, 1975 to 1982)
*''Rhââ Lovely ''(Audie - Fluide Glacial, 3 volumes, 1976 to 1978)
*''
Superdupont'' with
Lob
Lob may refer to:
Sports
* Lob (pickleball)
* Lob (tennis)
* Lob (association football), a lofted pass or shot in association football
* Lob bowling, an archaic bowling style in cricket
People
* Lob Brown, American college football player
* L ...
, Alexis and
Solé
Tonya Michelle Johnston (born July 17, 1973), better known by her stage name Solé, is an American rapper from Kansas City, Missouri.
Biography
Solé was born in 1973 in Kansas City, Missouri, to Phyllis Frazier and James Johnston, Her sibling ...
(Audie - Fluide Glacial, 5 volumes, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1995)
*''
Hamster Jovial'' (Audie - Fluide Glacial, 1977)
*''Rhâ-Gnagna ''(Audie - Fluide Glacial, 2 volumes, 1979 and 1980)
*''Pervers Pépère ''(Audie - Fluide Glacial, 1981)
*''Dans la joie jusqu'au cou'' with Alexis (Audie - Fluide Glacial, 1979)
Further reading
*
*
*
*
* BDoubliées
* Bedetheque
* Coffre-à-bd
References
External links
*
* on
Lambiek Comiclopedia
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotlib
1934 births
2016 deaths
Artists from Paris
French cartoonists
French comics artists
French comics writers
French satirists
French parodists
French caricaturists
French erotic artists
French surrealist artists
Album-cover and concert-poster artists
20th-century French Jews
French people of Romanian-Jewish descent
French people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Jewish artists
Holocaust survivors
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême winners