Gotlib's progress

Screech, Matthew E. J. (2004) Gotlib's progress. Belphégor: Littérature Populaire et Culture Médiatique, 4 (1). ISSN 1499-7185

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Abstract

This article traces the development of the French bande dessinée artist Marcel Gotlib (b.1934). In the following pages, we shall discuss Gotlib's strips Gai-Luron and Rubrique à brac, plus some of his work with Fluide glacial; we shall also draw upon an interview which Gotlib gave me in Paris, November 2001.1 As we shall see, Gotlib makes fun of the whole process of growing up in a French-speaking country; moreover, his jokes often hinge upon references to French history and culture which most French readers can recognise, but which most English-speakers cannot. The influence of a distinctively French-speaking historical and cultural heritage over Gotlib will become particularly apparent when we compare him to the American comic strip humorists of his day: Mad magazine and the Underground.