Marie-Louis-Georges Colomb (

Lure, Haute-Saône Lure () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. At 8,207 inhabitants (2017), Lure is the third most populous town in the département, smaller than Vesoul and Héricourt, but lar ...

, 25 May 1856 –

Nyons Nyons (; See mistralian norm, and classical norm of Provençal.) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. History Nyons was settled in the 6th century BC as ''Nyrax'' by a Gallic tribe, probably the Segusiavi or the Se ...

, 3 January 1945) was a French botanist, science populariser, and a pioneer of French comics, known as '' bandes dessinées ''. Under the pseudonym Christophe (playing on "Christophe Colomb", the French name for

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

), Colomb created comics that were popular among the French intelligentsia, yet were published in ''

Le Petit Français illustré ''Le Petit Français illustré'' was a French newspaper for schoolchildren established in 1889, consisting mainly of soap-opera-like stories ("feuilletons"). From its beginnings through 1904, it featured a number of bandes dessinées (comic str ...

'', a children's paper. His popular ''L'idée fixe du savant Cosinus'' (1893–1899) featured a brilliant, absent-minded scientist. His other comics included ''La Famille Fenouillard'' (probably the first French comic, 1889); ''Le Sapeur Camember'' (1890–1896); ''Les Malices de Plick et Plock'' (1893–1904); and ''Le Baron de Cramoisy'' (1899). Colomb's works were comic sketches exploring the quirks of his title characters. Images to him were more vital than words in communicating with children (the dialogue and Colomb's editorial remarks were always outside the picture frame). His frames have been said to anticipate the "visual grammar" of movies and television. Colomb retired as Deputy Director of the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

's botanical laboratory. Novelist Marcel Proust was a student of Colomb in his youth, and seems to have taken an interest in botany from him—Proust's ''

À la recherche du temps perdu ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'' (''In Search of Lost Time'') presents botanical knowledge and speculation to such an extent that botany "constitutes an alternative lens through which the human world of the novel can be viewed."Luckhurst, 58

Notes

References

* Coward, David (2003). ''A history of French literature: from chanson de geste to cinéma''. Wiley-Blackwell. . * Luckhurst, Nicola (2000). ''Science and structure in Proust's'' À la recherche du temps perdu. Oxford modern languages and literature monographs. Oxford University Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Colomb, Georges 1856 births 1945 deaths People from Lure, Haute-Saône French comics artists 19th-century French botanists Academic staff of the University of Paris Lycée Condorcet teachers 20th-century French botanists