Gotlib

Early life Youth Marcel Gottlieb was born on 14 July 1934 in Paris to parents of Romanian and Hungarian Ashkenazi 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 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 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's Droopy, who almost never laughs or displays any emotions and is incorrigibly somnolent.

In 1965 Gotlib submitted strips to Pilote magazine and was greeted with open arms by its influential co-founder and editor, René Goscinny of Astérix 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 Pilote'''s readers and made Gotlib famous. It introduced several signature Gotlib gimmicks, such as the extensive use of random running gags (Isaac Newton 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. He participated in a radio program with Goscinny, Fred and Gébé, 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 with Claire Bretecher and Nikita Mandryka. The original aim was to get stories unsuitable for Pilote magazine—which was aimed at school-age readers—out of their system, but l'Écho des savanes was a huge commercial success. Nominated for the Prix Saint-Michel Press Prize for Gotlib 1: Ma vie en vrac Asteroid 184878 Gotlib is named after Marcel Gotlib.

BibliographyLes Dingodossiers with Goscinny (Dargaud, 3 volumes, 1967, 1972, 1975)Rubrique-à-Brac (Dargaud, 5 volumes, 1970 to 1974)Clopinettes with Mandryka (Audie - Fluide Glacial, 1974)Cinémastock with Alexis (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, Alexis and Solé (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)