Georges Pichard

This article is about the cartoonist Georges Pichard. For other people, see Georges Picard .

Georges Pichard (born January 17, 1920 in Paris ; † June 7, 2003 ibid) was a French comic author , draftsman and illustrator , who became known with his erotic work and the genre of adult comics in the 20th century, especially with his works from the The 1960s and 1970s made a significant contribution.

Career

Pichard studied at the l'École des Arts Appliqués in Paris (he grew up in the city), taught there as a professor of graphics and applied arts from 1940 and also worked as a teacher in the subjects of humorous drawing, cartoons / comics and realistic drawing. His students included u. a. Marcel Gotlib , Michel Rouge , Joann Sfar and Annie Goetzinger .

From 1946 onwards, Pichard worked as a draftsman for various mostly short-lived magazines, although his career began before the war - he designed advertising for perfumes and pharmaceutical products, drew pictures for the Liberairie Hachette and designed graphics for the Atlanvic agency . Since 1946 he made his first girl illustrations for Le Rire magazine , with which he worked for thirty years. Further works published the Blatt V Magazine (known for publishing the comics by Jean-Claude Forest ), for which he has also designed several front pages. The Belgian magazine Line published many of his strips . Pichard made his comic debut in 1954 with Miss Mimi (for La Semaine de Suzette magazine ), followed by Loly Strip ( Le Rire , 1956) and many other little stories. In 1964 he began working with Jacques Lob , with whom he first developed parodies of Superman comics ( Subermann , first published in Chouchou ) and then created Ulysse ( Linus , 1966, later in the daily France Soir ) based on Homer . Pichard also worked with Goscinny and Uderzo on the weekly Pilote . In 1967 he began his career as an erotic draftsman with Blanche Epiphanie ( V Magazine , later in France Soir ; published in Germany under the title Brigitte ), followed shortly afterwards by Caroline Choléra (published as a series in L'Echo des Savanes ) and many other comic heroines like Sahara, Athéna or Circé. All of these heroines embody the spirit of the swinging sixties , travel around the world, experience sex and drugs.

Pichard himself rarely wrote the lines of his comics and very often limited himself to drawing. He worked with various authors, including Danie Dubos, Jacques Lob , Françoise Prévost, Claude Faraldo , Jin Ping Mei, Lo Duca, Fred Othon Aristidès , the fantasy specialist Jean-Pierre Andrevon and Georges Wolinski . Together with Wolinski, he created his best-known figure in 1972 - Paulette , who - inside like Blanche Epiphany of harsh chastity - outwardly bears great resemblance to the young Brigitte Bardot . The revealing comic first appeared in Charlie Mensuel magazine and provoked attacks on Pichard by right-wing politicians Jean Royer and Michel Debré . In Germany, Pichard has appeared in magazines such as Schwermetall , Pilot , pardon , Pip International and Slapstick .

style

Pichard showed a preference for literary subjects and drew comics based on models by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch ( La Comtesse rouge , 1985), Émile Zola ( Germinal , 1999), Lucius Apuleius ( Les Sorcières de Thessalie , 1985–1986) and Denis Diderot ( La religieuse , 1995). For the comic genre he also adapted the stories of Don Juan ( Apollinaire ), Carmen ( Merimée ), and the Odyssey ( Homer ); he illustrated the Kamasutra ( Vatsyayana Mallanaga ) as well as books by Pierre Louÿs ( Les Mémoires d'une chanteuse allemande and Trois Filles de leur mère ) and Gustave Flaubert ( Pierrot au Sérail. Pantomime en six actes from OEuv eres de jeunesse III , Tome XIII) . The widespread use of texts by other authors in Pichard's work and the ironic-playful reuse of traditional modes of representation represents a construction principle of intertextuality that is widespread in comic art . This is the dialogical reference of a strip-based sequential art form to a fictional text by means of the technique of transformation , whereby the topic remains the same, but is treated in a different style - mostly as pastiche , parody or travesty . The various functional ways in which Pichard's comics relate to his source texts (through playful, satirical, serious modification, adaptation and imitation) merge and are sometimes difficult to tell apart. What all the comics have in common is that Pichard transfers all texts by other authors into an overarching category of the genre “erotic epic and fable”. The relationship between comic and text is seen as a dialogue that shows itself on the level of the overall text as a distorting, exaggerating or mocking style - satirical and is reflected selectively in quotations and allusions and which enriches the meaning of both texts.

Visually, the draftsman mainly focuses on the representation of the feminine. Pichard's figures are always characterized by a buxom abundance of corporeality with large, round breasts and expansive buttocks. The (almost always barefoot) women are often captured or dependent, which repeatedly leads to sexual exploitation and sadistic torture. The summit in this regard was reached in Marie Gabrielle de Saint-Eutrope . Marie Gabrielle is a series about the excess of bestial punishment in a monastic reformatory, which is like hell on earth.

In his late work all forms of sexual dominance and aggression or erotic consumption can be found through the projection of desire over a female subject, in which Pichard apparently assures himself of the power and potency of his artistic vision and an uncompromising visual discourse on numerous taboos around violence and sexuality constructed. Many of his comics were therefore indexed as harmful to young people in Germany because of the unleashing of the obscene and the richly pictorial painting of the sexual.

An unknown side of this master of the bizarre genre are his humorous cartoons and the multitude of book illustrations. In total, he has published more than 50 comics (including children's comics such as the schoolbook-like work Le Français facile en bandes dessinées for the Hachette publishing house ), some of which are completely lost and sometimes reach very high prices at auctions.

comics

• 110 pilules (Les)
• Blanche epiphany
• Bornéo Jo
• Carmen
• Caroline Choléra
• Ceux-la
• Comtesse rouge (La)
• Edouard + la reserve
• Exploits d'un Don Juan
• Fleur du lotus (La)
• Français facile en bandes dessinées (Le)
• Germinal
• James du tiers bond (la)
• Kama-Soutra (Le)
• Lolly Strip
• Love stories
• Madoline
• Manufacturées (Les)
• Marie Gabrielle de Saint-Eutrope
• Marlène et Jupiter
• MCPM - Maison de Correction Princesse Melanie (La)
• Miss Mimi
• Nostalgies polissonnes
• Paulette
• Religious (La)
• S. Maxi BD
• Sorcières de Thessalie (Les)
• Submerman
• Ténébrax
• Ulysse
• Usine (L ')
• Voie du repentir (La)

Publications in German

• Brigitte (1) - Brigitte (Volksverlag, 1982–1983)
• Brigitte (2) - The Hellish Cruise (Volksverlag, 1982-1983)
• Brigitte (3) - Brigitte in New York (Volksverlag, 1982-1983)
• Carmen (Bahia, 1982)
• Carmen (Heyne, 1984)
• Caroline (Volksverlag, 1981)
• Comics for Adults 8 - Borneo Jo (1) (Volksverlag, 1981–1984)
• Comics for Adults 9 - Borneo Jo (2) (Volksverlag, 1981–1984)
• The factory (Volksverlag, 1981)
• Germinal (Bich Trading, 1994)
• The exploits of a young Don Juan (Bikini Edition, 1995)
• Marie-Gabrielle 1 - Marie-Gabrielle de Saint-Eutrope (Edition Belrose, 1982–1983)
• Marie-Gabrielle 2 - Marie-Gabrielle de Saint-Eutrope (Edition Belrose, 1982–1983)
• Marie-Gabrielle 3 - Marie-Gabrielle in the Orient (Edition Belrose, 1982–1983)
• The Militarists (Bahia, 1982)
• Paulette 1 (Bahia, 1980)
• Paulette 2 (Bahia, 1980)

literature

• "The erotic work of Georges Pichard" . Bourgeois, Michel; Munich, Bahia Verlag 1982; ISBN 3922699111
• "Sex in comics" . C. Knigge, Andreas; Berlin, Ullstein Verlag 1985; ISBN 3548365183
• “Spécial Georges Pichard” (an extensive dossier with interviews, reviews, criticisms and pictures - especially on his work with Lob and Wolinski) in: Schtroumpf N ° 27, 5/1975, Edition Glénat, Geneva

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Literature in comic adaptations A current overview ( memento of the original from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 5.6 MB), thesis by Maike Herrmann. 

Web links

• Literature by and about Georges Pichard in the catalog of the German National Library
• Georges Pichard in Lambiek's Comiclopedia (Engl.)
• List of works at Bedetheque - with covers and samples (French)
• Georges Pichard in the BDSM Artzone - with covers and samples (German)