Author Archives: Cynthia Rose
RIP Alex Barbier, Poète Maudit
On January 29, a storm called Gabriel whipped the whole of France with eighty-mile-an-hour winds. Up on the Swiss border, citizens in snowbound Saint-Claude were hunkered down. But just before 8:30 pm, one group of neighbors caught a whiff of … Continue reading
Forgotten Friends of the Nib: Caricature & Victor Hugo’s Head
If French press cartoons are unashamedly rude, what’s at the heart of such a caustic culture? The answer can be found in a current Paris exhibition, Caricatures: Victor Hugo On Page One. Continue reading
Painting the Town with Brecht Evens
We catch up with the Flemish artist after the publication of his fifth major book, which is also the subject of an exhibition in Paris opening this Thursday. Continue reading
French and Frisky: The Man Behind Astérix
When the scenarist René Goscinny (1926 – 1977) died at 51, much of the world felt they knew him. With Astérix, he had created a hero who outsold Tintin. Goscinny also helped to found and run Pilote, a magazine that won French cartooning back an audience – adults – that it had lost after the 19th century. Continue reading
La Grande Dame Annie Goetzinger (1951-2017)
The French artist Annie Goetzinger, who died on December 20 at the age of 66, could never remember a time when she wasn’t drawing. Continue reading
“It’s Just So BD!”: A Fair to Remember
Reporting from SoBD, the annual comics festival located in the heart of Paris. Continue reading
