A legend is gone

Jean-Jacques Sempé died on Friday August 12 at the age of 89 and received many tributes. The designer had become a living legend for his work, which began in the 1950s. Find our selection of the 20 best illustrators in the history of French-speaking comics.

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Sempe

Sempé obviously deserves a place of choice in this selection. ‘Le Petit Nicolas’, whose scenarios were signed René Goscinny, rocked generations of children. The designer then experienced the consecration by making a hundred covers for the prestigious ‘New Yorker’.

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Rodolphe Topffer

You may not be familiar with this name, but Rodolphe Töpffer is considered the inventor of modern comics. This Genevan who lived in the first half of the 19th century is the first author of stories in images articulated in sequences. His drawings are remembered for their satirical character.

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Christophe

Another precursor of the comic strip who lived between the 19th and 20th centuries: Marie-Louis-Georges Colomb, known as Christophe (in reference to the famous navigator Christophe Colomb) was inspired by the images of Épinal and his own observations of the company to create several characters that marked its contemporaries, such as the elves Plick and Plock or the Savant Cosinus.

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Herge

From his real name Georges Rémi, the Belgian author of Tintin is a monument of 20th century comics. The saga has remained famous for the richness of its stories and its illustrations, and for the endearing and wacky character of its characters, from Captain Haddock to Dupondt, passing by Professor Tournesol.

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Albert Uderzo

Died in 2020, Albert Uderzo is famous for having drawn the adventures of Asterix the Gaul, scripted by the illustrious René Goscinny. Uderzo continued the adventure alone for many years following the disappearance of his friend in 1977.

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Edgar P. Jacobs

Born in Brussels in 1904, Edgar P. Jacobs was one of Hergé’s collaborators and he helped to create the newspaper ‘Tintin’. He is best known for being the author of the adventures of Blake and Mortimer, a duo made up of a secret agent and an English scientist whose unfailing courage is matched only by phlegm and British courtesy.

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Morris

The creator of Lucky Luke left a monumental body of work, with 70 volumes of the adventures of the cowboy who shoots faster than his shadow, published between 1949 and 2002. He wrote some alone, others in collaboration with screenwriters such as Rene Goscinny or Vicq. Let’s not forget either the Rantanplan series, derived from the Lucky Luke series and published from 1987.

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André Franquin

Another pope of Belgian comics: André Franquin. The designer who died in 1997 remained famous for Gaston Lagaffe as well as Spirou and Fantasio, but he is also the creator of Marsupilami.

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Tomi Ungerer

Considered one of the most talented draftsmen of his time, the Alsatian created an abundant and original work, made up of numerous satires of his time. His travels to the United States also gave him the opportunity to “crunch” American society and to fight once morest the Vietnam War and segregation. A museum in Strasbourg allows the public to discover his life and work.

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Gotlib

Gotlib, whose real name is Marcel Gottlieb, influenced by his abundant line many illustrators who claim to be him. Co-founder in the 1970s of the comic strip magazines ‘L’Écho des Savanes’ and ‘Fluide glacial’, he drew numerous series with scathing humor such as ‘Les Dingodossiers’ and ‘Rubrique-à-brac’.

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Claire Bretecher

Born in 1940, Claire Brétécher is one of the pioneers of comics for adults in the French-speaking world and the only woman to have collaborated in Franco-Belgian comics magazines. His satires of the Parisian intelligentsia published in ‘Le Nouvel Observateur’ were later released in comics under the title ‘Les Frustrés’. A second series of drawings appeared in 2001 under the title “Agrippine”.

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Gerard Lauzier

Published at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, Gérard Lauzier’s comic strips depict with raw realism and fierce humor the world of culture of his time, with in particular “La Course du rat” and “La Tête dans le sac”. He then became a screenwriter and director for the cinema.

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Late

Born in 1946, Jacques Tardi is one of the big names in contemporary French comics. Author of numerous albums on historical subjects, he is also known for being the author of the “Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec” and for the adaptations of the series of detective novels “Nestor Burma”.

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Philippe Geluck

We no longer need to introduce the creator of “Chat”, a series imagined in 1983 for an order from the Belgian newspaper “Le Soir”. This animal anti-hero is known for his hilarious aphorisms and inimitable simplicity. While the Cat has become a staple of popular culture, Geluck has continued his career in theater and television.

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Chantal Montellier

Originally from Saint-Étienne, designer Chantal Montellier became known in the 1970s for her committed comic strips and press cartoons. She collaborated with many titles such as ‘Charlie Mensuel’, ‘Le Monde’ or ‘L’Humanité’ before giving up comics in the 1990s.

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Marjane Satrapi

Of Iranian origin, Marjane Satrapi met with great success with the publication of the four volumes of her autobiographical work “Persépolis” in the early 2000s. After having published other albums (“Broderies”, “Poulet aux prunes”), she now devotes herself to cinema and painting.

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Riad Sattouf

After growing up between his father’s Middle East and his mother’s Brittany, Riad Sattouf made a name for himself by publishing in ‘Charlie Hebdo’ stories collected in the volume “The Secret Life of Young People”. His work (“Pascal Brutal”, “The Arab of the Future”), both very funny and totally realistic, is unanimous among the public. Sattouf has also directed two feature films, including “Les Beaux gosses” (2009).

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Joanne Sfar

Another famous contemporary French designer, who for a long time shared a studio with Sattouf and other authors. Known for “The Rabbi’s Cat”, Sfar is at the origin of a prolific work of more than 150 albums which reflect an insatiable curiosity for the cultures of the world.

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Catherine Meurisse

Catherine Meurisse was spotted at a very young age by the cartoonists of ‘Charlie Hebdo’, a newspaper for which she worked for a long time. She was one of the survivors of the attack of January 7, 2015 and then participated in the “survivors’ number”. First woman elected to the Academy of Fine Arts, Catherine Meurisse has also published several albums alone, such as “My men of letters” (2008), “Le Pont des arts” (2012) and “La Légèreté” (2016).

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Jul’ Maroh

Born Julie Maroh in 1985, Jul ‘Maroh (on the left in the photo) published her first album “Le Bleu est une couleurs chaud” in 2010. A great success then adapted to the cinema by Abdellatif Kechiche under the title “La Vie d’ Adele”. The commitment once morest sexism is present throughout his still unfinished work.

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