''Rubrique-à-Brac'' is a humorous

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

series created in 1968-1972 by

Gotlib Marcel Gottlieb (14 July 1934 – 4 December 2016), known professionally as Gotlib, was a French comics creator and publisher. Through his own work and the magazines he co-founded, '' L'Écho des savanes'' and '' Fluide Glacial'', he was a key ...

. The title is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

words ''rubrique'' (section) and ''bric-à-brac''. Initially published in ''

Pilote ''Pilote'' (), for a while subtitled ''the magazine of Asterix and Obelix'' (French: ''Le Journal D’Astérix et D’Obélix'' ) was a French comics magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major Franco-Belgian comics, French ...

'' 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, and again in 2002 as one volume, which also included previously unpublished content.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, sometimes

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

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 Comedy, comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant t ...

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 tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

, foreign countries and cultures, sport, the making of comics (in strips in which the author is often involved), movie and television

cliché A cliché ( or ; ) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or literal and figurative language, figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being b ...

s, 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 Brassicaceae, cabbage family (family Brassicaceae, genus ''Brassica'') whose large Pseudanthium, flowering head, plant stem, stalk and small associated leafy gre ...

: 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 () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

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 Newton's law of universal gravitation describes gravity as a force by stating that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the s ...

. * The unnamed

ladybug Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles. They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in the United Kingdom; "lady" refers to mother Mary. Entomologists use the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles ...

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 ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

who occasionally presents absurd

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

expositions on various animals and animal life (giraffe, hippopotamus, stag, pig, chameleon, kangaroo, hyena among the most outstanding and eccentric interpretations). * Charolles (a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

of Gotlib himself) and Bougret (a caricature of

Gébé Georges Blondeaux (9 July 1929 – 4 April 2004), known as Gébé, was a French cartoonist. Gébé 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 he ...

) are two criminal bureau

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...

s. 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 or 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), Fred ...

. 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 dramatic convention, 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. ...

), or as an actual character. Various other French comic artists also make appearances at one point or another.

References

''Rubrique-à-Brac'' publications in ''Pilote''
BDoubliées Footnotes

External links

Gotlib official site

Gotlib official art gallery

R.A.B. profile
on Hyphen-comics.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Rubrique-a-Brac French comic strips Humor comics Satirical comics Parody comics 1968 comics debuts 1972 comics endings Metafictional comics Surreal comedy comics Dargaud titles Pilote titles Cultural depictions of Isaac Newton