Caran d’Ache
Working with Craig and Clizia recently behind the scenes on the upcoming book THE GREAT ANTI-WAR CARTOONS introduced me to a number of artists with whose work I was not previously familiar. One I was particularly intrigued by was Caran d’Ache, a late nineteenth century Russian-French satirist and early precursor cartoonist who, for all intents and purposes, invented the graphic novel! Well, he would have if his graphic novel MAESTRO hadn’t remained unfinished and unpublished until 1999.
Real name Emmanuel Poiré, his more famous pseudonym is based on the Russian word for “pencil.” His clean, crisp style even now seems modern enough that it might be right at home in an issue of MAD. In fact, in his day, he himself co-founded a satirical magazine (sadly noted for its anti-semitism). Much of his work is wordless and thus defied language barriers even as it pioneered the sequential storytelling techniques on which the comic strip form would be founded.
Seen here is a sequence reprinted from a 1976 French collection I ran across quite literally by accident. Entitled “Les Duellistes et le Papillon,” (The Duelists and the Butterfly), it’s an amusing study in sequential art. I’m not sure how much of the work of Caran d’Ache is readily available these days but anyone truly interested in the history of the arts would do well to seek out what is there.
— booksteve
I’d never heard of Caran d’Ache before! I love when I can find something new. After collecting comics for the last 45 years, that’s a rare thing.