René Goscinny
René Goscinny | |
---|---|
Born | Paris, France | 14 August 1926
Died | 5 November 1977 Paris, France | (aged 51)
Nationality | French |
Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer, Editor |
Pseudonym(s) | d'Agostini, Stanislas |
Notable works | |
Collaborators | |
Awards | Full list |
Spouse(s) |
Gilberte Pollaro-Millo
(m. 1967) |
Children | 1 |
René Goscinny (French: [ʁəne ɡɔsini], Polish: [ɡɔɕˈt͡ɕinnɨ] ⓘ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the Astérix comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. He was raised primarily in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schools, as well as lived in the United States for a short period of time. There he met Belgian cartoonist Morris. After his return to France, they collaborated for more than 20 years on the comic series Lucky Luke (in what was considered the series' golden age).[1]
He wrote Iznogoud with Jean Tabary. Goscinny also wrote a series of children's books known as Le Petit Nicolas (Little Nicolas) illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé.
Early life
Goscinny was born in Paris in 1926, to Jewish immigrants from Poland.[2] His parents were Stanisław Simkha Gościnny, a chemical engineer from Warsaw, and Anna (Hanna) Bereśniak-Gościnna from Chodorków (modern-day Khodorkiv ), a small village near Kyiv in Ukraine.[3][full citation needed] Goscinny's maternal grandfather, Abraham Lazare Berezniak, founded a printing company.[4] Claude, Goscinny's older brother, was six years older, born on 10 December 1920.
Stanisław and Anna had met in Paris and married in 1919. When René was two, the Gościnnys moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, because his father had been hired as a chemical engineer there. René had a happy childhood in Buenos Aires and studied in French-language schools there. He was often the "class clown", probably to compensate for a natural shyness. He started drawing very early on, inspired by the illustrated stories which he enjoyed reading.
In December 1943, the year after Goscinny graduated from lycée or high school, his father died of a
Goscinny, along with his mother, emigrated from Argentina and immigrated to New York, United States in 1945 to join her brother, Boris. To avoid service in the United States Armed Forces[citation needed] he travelled to France to join the French Army in 1946. He served at Aubagne in the 141st Alpine Infantry Battalion. Promoted to senior corporal, he became the appointed artist of the regiment and drew illustrations and posters for the army.
First works
The following year, Goscinny worked on an illustrated version of the Balzac novella The Girl with the Golden Eyes.[6] In April of that year he returned to New York.
There he went through the most difficult period of his life. For a while, Goscinny was jobless, alone, and living in poverty. By 1948, though, he had begun working in a small studio, where he became friends with future
Around this time he met two Belgian comic artists, Joseph Gillain, better known as
Georges Troisfontaines, chief of the World Press agency, convinced Goscinny to return to France in 1951 in order to work for his agency as the head of the Paris office. There he met Albert Uderzo, with whom he started a longtime collaboration.[5][7] They started out with some work for Bonnes Soirées, a women's magazine for which Goscinny wrote Sylvie. Goscinny and Uderzo also launched the series Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior, in the magazine La Libre Junior.
In 1955, Goscinny, together with Uderzo,
magazines.In 1956, Goscinny began a collaboration with
Pilote and Astérix (1959)
In 1959, the Édifrance/Édipresse syndicate started the
The magazine was bought by
Family
Goscinny married Gilberte Pollaro-Millo in 1967. In 1968 their daughter Anne Goscinny was born. She also became an author.
Anne Goscinny, the daughter of René Goscinny, co-wrote the screenplay for Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be, 2022 animation film with Michel Fessler and Massoubre.[10]
Death
Goscinny died at 51, in Paris of a heart attack on 5 November 1977, during a routine stress test at his doctor's office.[11][12] He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Nice. In accordance with his will, most of his money was transferred to the chief rabbinate of France.
Goscinny's death occurred part-way through the writing of Asterix in Belgium (published in 1979, two years after his death). As a homage to Goscinny, Uderzo drew darkened skies and rain into the comic. The last panel on page 32 and all but the last panel on page 33 were drawn with grey skies and rain to mark the point at which Goscinny died. Most of the remaining panels in the book were drawn with leaden grey skies, but none have rain. There is a further tribute at the end of the book: near the lower left corner of the final panel, Uderzo drew a rabbit sadly looking over its shoulders towards Goscinny's signature. Regrettably, as printed (at least in the German edition) the outlines are too thick, even at 10X magnification, to make clear what the rabbit is doing.
After Goscinny's death, Uderzo began to write Asterix himself and continued the series, although at a much slower pace, until passing the series over in 2011 to writer Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrator Didier Conrad.[13] Tabary similarly began to write Iznogoud himself, whereas Morris continued Lucky Luke with various other writers.
As a further tribute to Goscinny, Uderzo gave his late colleague's likeness to the Jewish character Saul ben Ephishul (Saul Nizahle in the German edition) in the 1981 album L'Odyssée d'Astérix ("Asterix and the Black Gold"), which is dedicated to Goscinny's memory.
Awards and honors
- 1974: Adamson Award for best international comic strip artist, Sweden
- 2005: Inducted in the Will Eisner Hall of Fameas a Judges' choice, U.S.
Since 1996, the René Goscinny Award is presented at the yearly Angoulême International Comics Festival in France as an encouragement for young comic writers.
According to
On 23 January 2020, a life-sized bronze statue of Goscinny was unveiled near his former home in Paris. It was the first public statue in Paris dedicated to a comic book author.[15]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1968 | Asterix and Cleopatra | Commentator | Voice, Uncredited |
1978 | La Ballade des Dalton | Jolly Jumper, Lucky Luke's horse | Voice, (final film role) |
Bibliography
Series | Years | Magazine | Albums | Editor | Artist |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lucky Luke[b] | 1955–1977 | Spirou and Pilote | 38 | Dupuis and Dargaud | Morris
|
Modeste et Pompon[a][b] | 1955–1958 | Tintin | 2 | Lombard | André Franquin |
Prudence Petitpas | 1957–1959 | Tintin | Lombard | Maurice Maréchal | |
Signor Spaghetti | 1957–1965 | Tintin | 15 | Lombard | Dino Attanasio |
Oumpah-pah | 1958–1962 | Tintin | 3 | Lombard | Albert Uderzo |
Strapontin | 1958–1964 | Tintin | 4 | Lombard | Berck
|
Astérix[b]
|
1959–1977 | Pilote | 24 | Dargaud | Albert Uderzo |
Le Petit Nicolas | 1959–1965 | Pilote | 5 | Denoël | Sempé |
Iznogoud[b] | 1962–1977 | Record and Pilote | 14 | Dargaud | Jean Tabary |
Les Dingodossiers | 1965–1967 | Pilote | 3 | Dargaud | Gotlib
|
Notes
- ISBN 978-1-61147-557-9.
- ^ Garcia, Laure. "Uderzo, le dernier Gaulois". Le Nouvel Observateur (in French).
- ^ According to Yeruham Eniss, the village had a soap factory, and many Jews of nearby Chodorków had jobs selling and trading in soap. A census made in the late 1930s counted 3670 Jewish families in Chodorków before World War II (ShtetLinks website: alternate spellings include Chortkow and Khodorkiv)
- ^ "The wild adventures of René Goscinny, Jewish inventor of Asterix and Obelix". The Times of Israel.
- ^ a b c d Lambiek Comiclopedia. "René Goscinny".
- ^ Honoré de Balzac, La fille aux yeux d'or, Paris : Éditions du livre français, collection "Les classiques du XIXe", 1946.
- ^ Lagardère. "Release of the 33rd Asterix volume".
- ^ Asterix International!. "Albert Uderzo".
- ^ BDoubliées. "Pilote année 1959" (in French).
- ^ Kay2022-12-09T11:19:00+00:00, Jeremy. "Annecy winner 'Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be' scores Buffalo 8 US deal (exclusive)". Screen. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Le gag raté de Goscinny : mourir d'un arrêt du cœur chez son cardiologue". Sciences et Avenir (in French). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
- ^ Iovene, Franck. "Italy beckons for Gaul comic heros Asterix and Obelix". www.timesofisrael.com.
- ^ UNESCO Statistics. "Index Translationum - "TOP 50" Author". Official website of UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Retrieved 12 August 2017.
- ^ "By Toutatis! France unveils statue to Asterix creator". France24.com. AFP. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
References
- Goscinny publications in Pilote, Spirou, French Tintin and Belgian Tintin BDoubliées (in French)
- Goscinny albums Bedetheque (in French)
External links
- Goscinny official site (in French)
- Astérix official site
- On Dupuis.com
- Goscinny biography on Asterix International!
- Goscinny biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
- Daughter Ann lighting Hanuka candles with family.
- René Goscinny at IMDb