Monday, October 5, 2009

Carton - Les Cahiers du Dessin d'Humour : Sempé

Carton "Les cahiers du dessin d'humour", was a French journal that theoretically would appear every 3 months. It was founded in April 1974 by Jacques Glénat. Its first issue is devoted to
Sempé, the following to Cabu, Chaval, Dubout, Mordillo, Philibert-Charrin, Samivel, Serre, Tetsu and Topor. It folds in April 1980 after only nine titles.

Carton... some pictures from inside:

The following YouTube video introduces you to other books and art of Sempé. It's a video that refers to http://cartoonist.name , a Russian website dedicated to various favorite cartoonists and their best gag cartoons.


JEAN-JACQUES SEMPE (born 1932) is a French cartoonist, poster artist and set designer born in Bordeaux, France. He began his career in 1950.Most a Sempé's work has been reissued in albums, more or less on an annual basis. The most important and funniest are Rien n'est Simple ('Nothing is simple', 1962), M. Lambert (1965), Des Hauts et des Bas ('From Highs and Lows', 1970) and L'Ascension Sociale de M. Lambert ('Mr Lambert's Social Climb', 1975). He has also collaborated with René Goscinny (of Astérix fame) on a series of books relating the amusing adventures of Young Nicolas and his friends (1960-64).


Like Dubout, Sempé is fascinated by crowds, not, however, for their hilarious confusion but as minuscule nonentities lost in a cavernous department store, at the terrace of a café, on a long waiting line or at the bus stop at rush hour. His characters are pompous, phony intellectuals, unhappy husbands and wives forever dreaming of killing one another, presidents happy to be loved by crowds rushing for the subway entrance, nouveaux riches who have not quite forgotten their petty origins. Even children have something who makes the ugliest and most disgusting faces in a mirror, until the last drawing reveals not a mirror but a picture of his parents. His cartoons all have a beautiful balance among protagonists, setting and action, pense, impact and euphoric explosion of laughter.
Jean-Jacques Sempé had exhibited his work in museums and art galleries all over the world and received numerous prizes.

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