Näsförlusten rene goscinny
René Goscinny
Now in London for the first time, an exhibition at the Jewish Museum that opened on May 10 explores the life and work of René Goscinny, the man behind Asterix, and his quintessentially Jewish. When the scenarist René Goscinny — died at 51, much of the world felt they knew him. With Astérix, he had created a hero who outsold Tintin. Yet Goscinny had also helped to found and run Pilote , a magazine often described as " MAD à la française ".
It was Pilote that won French cartooning back an audience — adults — that it had lost after the 19th century. Forty years after Goscinny's death, two Paris shows are remembering him. Goscinny and Film is a romp about his love for movies, but Goscinny Beyond the Laughter at the mahJ is more.
French and Frisky: The Man Behind Astérix
It looks behind the author's orderly CV and discovers years of isolation and frustration. Two things helped Goscinny surmount his frequent setbacks: the outsize expectations he created for himself and his absolute refusal to surrender. When he began as a scenarist the role was shabby. Those who scripted comics were not mentioned in contracts, they were badly paid and rarely credited. But his enormous talents turned it into a real profession and, eventually, they also made him famous.
Goscinny stuffed his scripts with what the French call "second degree": puns, wordplay, double-entendres, cultural jokes and subversions. The comics expert Jean-Pierre Mercier contends that his use of subtext "has taught generations how to critique the media. Although he employed every kind of stereotype, Goscinny's favourites were French. Most of his fellow countrymen see themselves in his work and, almost always, they get a kick out of doing it.
Astérix may be a global symbol of "Frenchness" but his adventures are far from being nationalistic. What they really mirror is a French conviction — that life is best navigated with wit and sociability. Astérix was not Goscinny's only hit. Between and , he produced three more series that were — and remain — enormously popular. Each of these was created with a different partner. The first, Le Petit Nicolas , is life seen through the eyes of a schoolboy.
Invented by artist Jean-Jacques Sempé, the character name was named after a local wine merchant. From to , Goscinny and Sempé's stories ran as a weekly strip; after that, they became a set of books. By Goscinny was also the writer of Lucky Luke. But once Morris ceded his story to Goscinny, the character became what Pascal Ory calls "a model of sang-froid , quicker with a riposte than a slug or bullet.
Less well-known outside Europe is Iznogoud pronounced, in French, "Eez-no-good" , who was conceived in with Jean Tabary. Pint-size and choleric, Iznogoud is the "Grand Vizier" to Baghdad's Caliph — a superior he is constantly scheming to replace. But he makes people laugh… so he's a hero. Astérix , Nicolas , and Luke are read around the world. Yet, in many ways, Goscinny's greatest achievement was Pilote.
Under him, between and , the magazine transformed Francophone cartooning. As its editor, he helped comics become adult entertainment and consolidated the idea of a BD "auteur. As an editor, Goscinny also revealed the rarest of qualities: he was willing to back work he didn't actually like. It was Pilote "graduates" who, during the s, finalized comics' new status by founding L'Echo des Savannes , Fluide Glacial , and Métal hurlant.
From the age of twelve, however, he wanted to be Walt Disney. Unlike millions of other such dreamers, he achieved something like it. In , with Albert Uderzo, Goscinny resuscitated the French animation industry. The two fathers of Astérix founded their own studio, one whose MGM-like logo featured his cartoon puppy Idéfix " idée fixe ". To help them with staff, the French government founded an animation school.
Forty years later, this same institution — Les Gobelins — is turning out stellar graduates from animator Pierre Coffin Despicable Me to artist Bastien Vivès. René Goscinny's face was famous all over France. A popular guest on radio and television, he created and starred in the sketch show Microchroniques. The writer appeared on magazine covers and dined out at glamour spots. In both Paris exhibitions, whether his photos show a pudgy infant or busy executive, there is a smile on his face.
Yet behind this omnipresent grin lies a troubled story.