''Rubrique-à-Brac'' is a humorous comic strip series created in 1968 by
Gotlib
Marcel Gottlieb (14 July 1934 – 4 December 2016), known professionally as Gotlib, was a French French comics, comics artist/writer and publisher. Through his own work and the magazines he co-founded, ''L'Écho des savanes'' and ''Fluide Glacial' ...
. The title is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsFrench words ''rubrique'' (section) and ''bric-à-brac''. Initially published in ''
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, the series was republished as five hardbound books between 1970 and 1974 by
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.
...
, and again in 2002 as one volume, which also included previously unpublished content. It is widely regarded as one of the cornerstones of today's humorous ''
bande dessinée
(singular ; literally 'drawn strips'), abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics (), are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition ...
''.
Style
''Rubrique-à-Brac'' is an assortment of short (two to three pages) unrelated strips, drawn in black and white (although the 2002 re-publication was colorized). Its fairly realistic graphics contrast with the
surreal
Surreal may refer to:
*Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art
* "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki
* ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze
*Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor
...
, sometimes satirical humour of its textual content. The result is comparable to a graphical form of
deadpan
Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...
humour.
The backgrounds are almost non-existent, and a large portion of the panels is occupied by elaborate dialogues.
''Rubrique-à-Brac'' revisits an extremely wide range of subjects, such as historical figures, classic fairy tales,
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
, foreign countries and cultures, sport, the making of comics (in strips in which the author is often involved), movie and television clichés, music, youth and infancy (often in strips implicitly telling the author's life), science, or the various uses of everyday items and everyday life. One of the most recurrent subjects is
broccoli
Broccoli (''Brassica oleracea'' var. ''italica'') is an edible green plant in the cabbage family (family Brassicaceae, genus ''Brassica'') whose large flowering head, stalk and small associated leaves are eaten as a vegetable. Broccoli is cla ...
: this vegetable recurs as a
running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...
in many conversations, always unjustifiably mentioned by characters.
Recurring characters
*
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 ...
often appears in otherwise unrelated strips to be hit on the head by an unlikely object (among other things a seagull, a piano, a sloth, a button... not to mention his famous apple). This, of course, causes him to discover the law of universal gravitation.
* The unnamed
ladybug
Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...
owes its existence to Gotlib's dislike of drawing backgrounds. He created this character as a way to fill up the blank space, and it is often seen in the bottom corner of panels, usually commenting on their content.
* Professeur Burp is a
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
who occasionally presents absurd pseudoscientific expositions on various animals and animal life (giraffe, hippopotamus, stag, pig, chameleon, kangaroo, hyena among the most outstanding and eccentric interpretations).
* Charolles, a caricature of Gotlib himself, and Bougret (a caricature of
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 ...
) are two criminal bureau detectives. The suspects in their various investigations are always the same two men: Blondeau Georges Jacques Babylas, a caricature of Goscinny, and Aristidès Othon Frédéric Wilfrid, a caricature of French cartoonist
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 ...
. Although all evidence points to Aristidès, Blondeau is invariably found to be the culprit by Bougret, while Charolles is dumbfounded.
* Gotlib himself appears in a number of his own strips, whether as the artist (thus breaking the
fourth wall
The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...
), or as an actual character. Various other French comic artists also make appearances at one point or another.