Rene Goscinny

René Goscinny (Paris, August 14, 1926-ibid., November 5, 1977) was a French comic strip writer and editor. Goscinny is one of the world's most successful French authors, with more than 500 million books sold, translated into more than thirty languages.

He was co-founder and director of the weekly magazine Pilote and gained fame as a writer of several comic strips, working with leading cartoonists from Belgium and France. His most successful creation were the adventures of Asterix the Gaul , together with cartoonist Albert Uderzo (1927-2020) in Pilote (1959). Other notable works of his are the series Lucky Luke, Little Nicholas and Grand Vizier Iznogud.

Biography

René Goscinny (Paris, August 14, 1926 – ibid, November 5, 1977) was a French comic strip writer and editor. Goscinny is one of the most successful French authors in the world, with more than 500 million books sold, translated into more than thirty languages.

He was the co-founder and director of the weekly magazine Pilote and gained fame as a writer of various comics, working with leading cartoonists from Belgium and France. His most successful creation was the adventures of Asterix the Gaul, together with cartoonist Albert Uderzo in Pilote (1959). Other outstanding works of his are the Lucky Luke series, Little Nicholas and the Grand Vizier Iznogud.

Argentine Youth

René Goscinny was born into a Polish family of Jewish origins. He was the son of Stanisław Gościnny, a chemical engineer from Warsaw, and Anna Bereśniak-Gościnna, from Khodorkow, currently on Ukrainian territory. His parents met in Paris and married in 1919. Claude, René's older brother, was born in 1920. When René was two years old, Stanisław got a job as a chemical engineer in Buenos Aires, and the family moved to Argentina. This move It would save them from running the same fate as their relatives who remained in Europe, and who were exterminated years later during World War II. Established in Buenos Aires (875 Sargento Cabral street), René Goscinny had a quiet childhood. He studied at the French College of the city, at 1800 Pampa Street, whose directors were Mr. and Mrs. Crespin. Some characters from the "Petit Nicolás" They are inspired by his college days. The character named "le bouillon" is inspired by the head of preceptors M. Lhande. He spent short periods in Uruguay, Venezuela and Brazil, and vacations in France.

Between two continents

Buenos Aires

In December 1943, at the age of 17, René Goscinny received his high school diploma. A week later, Stanisław Goscinny died as a result of a brain hemorrhage. René then began to look for work. He got it as an assistant accountant at a tire repair company. The job in that company did not excite him. In addition, the moments in which he opened the mail that arrived at the office would remain engraved in his memories, since many of the letters from clients began by accusing them of being murderers, due to the low quality of the repairs made. Shortly after, he resigned to be a cartoonist at an Argentine advertising agency, and published some illustrations in the internal newsletters of the French Lyceum, Notre Voix and Quartier Latin (" Nuestra voz" and "Barrio latino", respectively).

New York and Paris

In October 1945, he emigrated with his mother to New York, in search of Boris, his maternal uncle. In Manhattan, Goscinny found a job as a translator with an import-export company. The following year he returned to France, evading United States military service. In France, he joined the army in Aubagne, in the 141st Alpine Infantry Battalion, where he ended up as the regiment's official illustrator, for which he made posters and other illustrations.

Later, still in France, Goscinny illustrated La fille aux yeux d'or (The Girl with Golden Eyes), for the publication of Balzac's novel in the book Classics of the 19th century. On April 30, 1947, he returned to New York, where he went through the most difficult phase of his life, finding himself alone, jobless and completely depressed. In 1948, Goscinny found work in a small studio, collaborating with Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Elder and Jack Davis, that is, the team that would found MAD magazine in 1952. He soon became art director at Kunen Publishers, where he wrote four children's books. In 1949 he met Maurice de Bévère (alias Morris), the cartoonist and author of the Lucky Luke comics series, with whom he would work six years later. In 1950, Goscinny drew Dick Dicks, his first cartoon, about a detective in an almost deserted New York. Goscinny was not good at drawing cars, so the characters in Dick Dicks had to run to get around quickly.

Back to Paris

That same year, he met Jean-Michel Charlier, from the World Press news agency, in Brussels. Charlier convinced him to return to France, and that was how Goscinny began working for the agency in Europe, at its base in Brussels; and he was hired by Georges Troisfontaines, the director of the agency. His first job was to examine the illustrations of Albert Uderzo, marking the beginning of a remarkable and long history of artistic cooperation. Goscinny offered the cartoon Dick Dicks to International Presse, and the detective appeared in the youth supplement La Wallonie, in Belgium.

In 1952, Goscinny moved back to Paris to run the local International Press - World Press agency. There, Goscinny met again with Albert Uderzo, and they produced their first works together, including the first version of Oumpah-Pah. In addition, they worked for Bonnes Soirées, a women's magazine for which Goscinny wrote a column under the pseudonym Liliane d'Orsay; and also wrote the script for Sylvie, illustrated by Martial. A year later, Goscinny participated in the launch of TV Family, a New York weekly magazine, financed by Dupuis and World Press. Together with Uderzo, she drew up the first version of the comic strip Jehan Pistolet .

On August 25, 1955, Lucky Luke, the cowboy "faster than his own shadow," first appeared in issue 906 of Spirou. The authors were the Belgian cartoonist Morris for the illustrations, and René Goscinny for the script; the adventure was entitled Des rails sur la prairie (Rails on the Prairie). The next episode was developed solely by Morris, as Goscinny was away, but from the third episode on, the two produced over forty Lucky Luke albums. In September of that year, the Belgian daily Le Moustique published the first strip of Le petit Nicolas (little Nicolas), whose script was written by Goscinny, under the pseudonym &# 34;Agostini". The strip was drawn by Jean-Jacques Sempé. Le Moustique would publish twenty-eight adventures of petit Nicolas, and in 1959 the character would emigrate to Sud-Ouest Dimanche.

By 1956, Goscinny was more comfortable writing screenplays than drawing; and he stood out as a fruitful and tireless writer. For a change, he wrote a cartoon with realism, in an episode of Jerry Spring that appeared on Spirou .

In that same year, Goscinny participated, along with Albert Uderzo and Jean-Michel Charlier, among others, in the drafting of a manifesto to defend copyright against powerful publishers. They couldn't get very far, however, and Goscinny simply licensed his creations; the other authors had the same fate. Next, together with Jean Hébrard, the head of publicity for World Press; Goscinny, Charlier, and Uderzo founded the company Édi-France/Édi-Presse, an agency specializing in editing and publishing. However, the prosperity of the authors was at risk, as the failed episode of the fight for copyright made them fall out of favor with the majority of businessmen in the medium. Thus, they had to resort to food work of all kinds. The quartet gave life to the magazine Clarion, published for the Fabrique-Union company, and Jeannot, jointly sponsored by a watchmaking company, a chocolatier and a plastics company. Jeannot featured the stories Bill Blanchart, and Le Cheval de Jeannot (Jeannot's Horse).

The Pistolin magazine resumed the adventures of Jehan Pistolet, but renaming the character Soupolet, to avoid any phonetic confusion. Both Goscinny and Charlier became editors-in-chief of Pistolin. As late as 1956, Goscinny and Uderzo took over Christian Godard's baton, in the making of Benjamin et Benjamin. Simultaneously, Goscinny began to fill up with side projects. The first of them, which would not go beyond number 0, was the Illustrated Supplement.

Tintin Magazine

Surprising his colleagues, Goscinny simultaneously worked on the comic strips Antoine the Invincible, Max Garac, and Lucky Luke (illustrated by Uderzo, Gill and Morris, respectively), as well as co-starring in an episode of Wise Fred. In 1957, Goscinny obtained a position in the Belgian magazine Tintin, thanks to André Fernez, the editor-in-chief of the magazine. There his intensity to work produced the series Signor Spaghetti, illustrated by Dino Attanasio, while also working on retail stories for various cartoonists, including Bob de Moor, Raymond Macherot, Tíbet, Maurice Maréchal, André Franquin and François Craenhals. Together with his old partner Uderzo he made Poussin et Poussif .

Goscinny and Uderzo that year resumed the adventures of Oumpah-Pah, the first version of which they had sketched six years earlier. The title character is a chief of the fictional Shavashava American Indian tribe, during the times of the colonization of North America by France and England. The adventures of Oumpah-Pah and his troupe Hubert de la Pâte Feuilletée (Hubert de la Puff Pastry), appear in Tintin magazine. Oumpah-Pah ceased publication in 1962; It was never very successful, but it laid the groundwork for the elaborate scripts for the future Asterix series.

Pilote Magazine and the birth of Asterix

In 1958, François Clauteaux proposed to Édifrance/Édipresse the launch of an illustrated magazine aimed at young audiences. This proposal crystallized on October 29, 1959, with the first issue of the weekly magazine Pilote. This magazine would eventually become one of the most important publications in the comics medium. In addition to being its co-founder and press officer, Goscinny became one of the publication's most productive authors; and he developed his ability to discover talented but unknown authors.

Asterix

Albert Uderzo in 1973

Another milestone that marked the first issue of Pilote was the first appearance of the adventures of Asterix the Gaul. Creation of Uderzo and Goscinny, Asterix would become one of the most famous characters in world comics and the greatest success of the cartoonist duo. The adventures of Asterix were located in Armorica, in the north of France, in the year 50 a. C., and narrated the adventures of fifty Gauls who refused to be dominated by the Roman Empire.

Compared to children's magazines, Pilote had more imaginative and free comics, as it was aimed at an adolescent audience. Gotlib illustrated for Pilote the comic strip Les dingodossiers (The wacky files), with a script by Goscinny. In Pilote, Goscinny resumed writing scripts for old acquaintances of Pistolin magazine readers: Little Nicholas and Jehan Soupolet . However, the Pilote magazine faced its first financial difficulties in 1960, which caused Georges Dargaud to buy the magazine for a symbolic franc in December of that year. Goscinny then became editor-in-chief, a post he would occupy for thirteen years. As late as 1960, Goscinny also worked for the newspaper Jours de France, in collaboration with the illustrator Coq.

It is considered that the character is strongly influenced by the leading couple of Patoruzú, the cacique Patoruzú and Upa, long before the creation of Goscinny and known to him, given his childhood in Buenos Aires. The Argentine influence is reflected even in the pants that Obelix wears, light blue and white with vertical stripes like the Racing Club shirt, a soccer team with which Goscinny sympathized.

Dargaud launched the monthly magazine Record in 1961 and Goscinny contributed the character Iznogoud, a grand vizier inspired by the tales of the Arabian Nights., who wants to "be a caliph instead of the caliph." The adventures of the vizier were illustrated by the French cartoonist Jean Tabary. Together, Goscinny and Tabary also created Valentin the Wanderer a few months later. In 1962, Goscinny made his first foray into the film medium, writing the screenplay for the first Tintin feature film, called Tintin et le Mystère de la Toison d'or (Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece), film directed by Jean-Jacques Vierne.

In 1963, during a voyage across the North Sea, Goscinny met Gilberte Polano-Millo (b. 1942, Nice), who four years later would be his wife. Polano-Millo had never heard of Goscinny, even though Goscinny was a highly regarded author at the time. The couple married on April 26, 1967. His only daughter, Anne, was born on May 19, 1968.

Asterix becomes a world star

Georges Dargaud had asked Goscinny to lead the relaunch of Pilote, this time sponsored by Éditions Dargaud. Uderzo joined the company and they opened the doors to a new generation of cartoonists, including Nikita Mandryka, Fred and Mézières.

Like all the content of the original Pilote, Asterix had also migrated to Dargaud's publishing house, where in 1961 his first book was published, called simply Asterix the Gaul, with six thousand copies sold in France. His second book, called The Golden Sickle, appeared the following year, followed by Asterix and the Goths, in 1963. The fourth book, Asterix Gladiator, was published in 1964, with an initial circulation of 150,000 copies, representing 25 times more readers than for the first book, spectacular growth for three years.

Making a hiatus in editorial work, that year Goscinny resumed film work, this time participating in two productions. The first was the short film Tous les enfants du monde ( All the Children of the World ), where he shares screenwriting credits with Sempé. The second was the second Tintin feature, called Tintin et les Oranges bleues (Tintin and the Blue Oranges). For this, Goscinny co-wrote the script with Hergé, Rémo Forlani and Philippe Condroyer.

By 1965, the success of Asterix was spectacular. The Pilote magazine surrendered to this success and officially became Asterix Magazine. The character's fifth book, entitled The Return to Gaul was published with 300,000 copies. That year, Uderzo and Goscinny gained international fame when the first French satellite, named Asterix, was launched into space on November 26, 1965. The character appeared on the cover of L' Express on September 19, 1966 with the article The Asterix phenomenon, and the authors were interviewed by Paris-Match. The fame of the French adventurer was at its height when French President Charles de Gaulle jokingly renamed his entire cabinet after names taken from the Asterix books. At that time, the books on the Frenchman had circulations of 600,000 copies. The circulation of the Asterix books multiplied in 1967, when in just two days in March of that year, 1.2 million French copies of the new book called Asterix and the Normans and the German translation were sold. it outsold the original.

The publisher Dargaud succumbed to the temptation of taking the adventures of Asterix to the cinema and did so behind the backs of Uderzo and Goscinny, who in 1967 saw how the first film about the Gaul, Asterix the Gaul it became a blockbuster in France, without their involvement. The film was produced by Dargaud in partnership with Belvision studios. That year, Goscinny was named, along with Albert Uderzo, a Knight of Arts and Letters.

Towards the cinema

The authors participated in the creation of the second Asterix film in 1970, called Asterix and Cleopatra, for which they had the support of Pierre Tchernia. The following year it was the turn of Lucky Luke, who appeared in a feature film called Daisy Town, with a script written and adapted by Goscinny, art by Morris and direction by Tchernia.

After the success of Daisy Town, Goscinny reunited with Tchernia to make together the non-animated comedy Le Viager, for which Goscinny wrote the script, and Tchernia he directed Gérard Depardieu, Michel Serrault and Michel Galabru, among other actors. He also collaborated with Tchernia, adapting the script for Les Gaspards in 1973, a film starring again by Michel Serrault and Gérard Depardieu. The following year, Goscinny, Albert Uderzo and Georges Dargaud created a production company, Studios Idéfix, with sixty employees. This company would henceforth be in charge of all the productions of Asterix the Gaul and Lucky Luke , launching his first work in 1976, entitled The Twelve Tests of Asterix .

The activity at the cinema served to distract Goscinny from the Pilote environment. At the magazine, the climate deteriorated in the early 1970s. By 1972, when Goscinny was appointed managing director of the magazine, the atmosphere was at its most tense. For the first time, several employees left Pilote, including some cartoonists. By that time, 7 books by Iznogud, 19 by Asterix and 26 by Lucky Luke had already been published. In 1974, Goscinny handed over the reins of Pilote to Guy Vidal.

Latest works and legacy

In the last years of his life, Goscinny continued to work on multiple projects, concentrated around his three most famous characters: the Gaul, the cowboy and the grand vizier. Among several projects, the opera Trafalgar stands out, whose libretto Goscinny co-wrote, along with Jacques Mareuil. The opera was premiered in 1975, and adapted for television in 1976.

The death shocked René Goscinny when he was considered the greatest cartoonist in France. After a vacation in Jerusalem, he decided to have a routine medical check-up, at a Parisian clinic on Rue des Chazelles. In the course of this review, he died of cardiac arrest on November 5, 1977.

Rene Goscinny's tomb in Nice.

René Goscinny left numerous works unpublished, and the cartoonists who worked with him dedicated themselves to completing them to offer them to the public. There were so many that in 1998 Goscinny's unpublished works (the twenty-third book by Iznogud) were still published. Among these posthumous works, there were episodes of Iznogud, Lucky Luke and Asterix #24: Asterix in Belgium. Starting in 1980, Uderzo continued to produce Asterix. As a sign of respect for his memory, the issues of Asterix continue to bear the names of its two authors, published by Albert-René Productions .

Posthumously, the French Film Academy awarded him a César Award for his body of cinematographic work. The first tribute paid to him was in 1985, at the Eiffel Tower, called The René Goscinny Universe, followed by events in various European cities and in New York. In France, eleven schools and colleges are named after him, and some French cities, including Paris, have a street named René Goscinny. Perhaps the most notable tribute was the change of name of the French Lyceum in Warsaw, to "Liceo René Goscinny". In 1998, the word Goscinny was included in the Larousse dictionary.

Since 1986, the René Goscinny Award has been awarded annually to the most outstanding comic book writer of the year. This award is sponsored by Anne Goscinny in association with the Angoulême International Comics Festival, and is presented during the festival. It consists of a trophy, €5,000 (the prize was originally 30,000 francs), and a sticky ad in the author's publications.

Main works

Comics

Street sign René Goscinny in Paris, with the introductory text of Astérix.

Goscinny was involved in numerous comic strips, some of which are summarized in the following list. The cases in which the comic continued to be produced after Goscinny ceased to participate in it are marked with an asterisk.

Movies

Films where Goscinny worked as a screenwriter are listed.

Distinctions received

• Prize Alphonse Allais in 1966.
• Named Knight of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1967.
• Named Knight of the Order of Merit.
• César Award for the whole of his film work; posthumous, in 1978.