René Goscinny (French:[ʁəneɡɔsini];Polish:[ɡɔɕˈt͡ɕinnɨ]ⓘ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created theAsterixcomic book series with illustratorAlbert Uderzo. Born in France to a Jewish family from Poland, he spent his childhood in Argentina where he attended French schools and later lived in the United States for a short period of time. There he met Belgian cartoonistMorris. After his return to France, they collaborated for more than 20 years on the comic seriesLucky Luke (in what was considered the series' golden age).[1]
Goscinny was born inParis in 1926, toJewish immigrants fromPoland.[2] His parents were Stanisław Simkha Gościnny, a chemical engineer fromWarsaw, and Anna (Hanna) Bereśniak-Gościnna from Chodorków (modern-dayKhodorkiv), a small village nearKyiv inUkraine.[3][full citation needed] Goscinny's maternal grandfather, Abraham Lazare Berezniak, founded a printing company.[4] Claude, Goscinny's older brother, was six years older, born on 10 December 1920.
Stanisław and Anna had met in Paris and married in 1919. When René was two, the Gościnnys moved toBuenos Aires,Argentina, because his father had been hired as a chemical engineer there. René had a happy childhood in Buenos Aires and studied in French-language schools there. He was often the "class clown", probably to compensate for a natural shyness. He started drawing very early on, inspired by the illustrated stories which he enjoyed reading.
In December 1943, the year after Goscinny graduated from lycée or high school, his father died of acerebral hemorrhage (stroke). The youth had to go to work. The next year, he got his first job as an assistant accountant in a tyre recovery factory. After being laid off the following year, Goscinny became a junior illustrator in an advertising agency.[5]
Goscinny, along with his mother, emigrated from Argentina and immigrated to New York, United States in 1945 to join her brother, Boris. To avoid service in theUnited States Armed Forces[citation needed] he travelled to France to join theFrench Army in 1946. He served atAubagne in the 141st Alpine Infantry Battalion. Promoted to seniorcorporal, he became the appointed artist of the regiment and drew illustrations and posters for the army.
The following year, Goscinny worked on an illustrated version of theBalzac novellaThe Girl with the Golden Eyes.[6] In April of that year he returned to New York.
There he went through the most difficult period of his life. For a while, Goscinny was jobless, alone, and living in poverty. By 1948, though, he had begun working in a small studio, where he became friends with futureMAD Magazine contributorsWill Elder,Jack Davis, andHarvey Kurtzman.[5] Goscinny became art director atKunen Publishers, where he wrote four books for children.
Around this time he met two Belgian comic artists, Joseph Gillain, better known asJijé, and Maurice de Bevere, also known asMorris. Morris lived in the US for six years, having already started his cartoon seriesLucky Luke. (He and Goscinny collaborated on this, with Goscinny writing it from 1955 until his death in 1977, a period described as its golden age).[5]
Georges Troisfontaines, chief of theWorld Press agency, convinced Goscinny to return to France in 1951 in order to work for his agency as the head of theParis office. There he metAlbert Uderzo, with whom he started a longtime collaboration.[5][7] They started out with some work forBonnes Soirées, a women's magazine for which Goscinny wroteSylvie. Goscinny and Uderzo also launched the seriesJehan Pistolet andLuc Junior, in the magazineLa Libre Junior.
In 1955, Goscinny, together with Uderzo,Jean-Michel Charlier, andJean Hébrad, founded the syndicate Edipress/Edifrance. The syndicate launched publications such asClairon for the factory union andPistolin for a chocolate company. Goscinny and Uderzo cooperated on the seriesBill Blanchart inJeannot,Pistolet inPistolin, andBenjamin et Benjamine in the magazine of the same name. Under the pseudonym Agostini, Goscinny wroteLe Petit Nicolas forJean-Jacques Sempé inLe Moustique. It was later published inSud-Ouest andPilote magazines.
In 1959, the Édifrance/Édipresse syndicate started theFranco-Belgian comics magazinePilote.[9] Goscinny became one of the most productive writers for the magazine. In the magazine's first issue, he launchedAstérix, with Uderzo. The series was an instant hit and remains popular worldwide. Goscinny also restarted the seriesLe Petit Nicolas andJehan Pistolet, now calledJehan Soupolet. Goscinny also beganJacquot le Mousse andTromblon et Bottaclou with Godard.
The magazine was bought byGeorges Dargaud in 1960, and Goscinny became editor-in-chief. He also began new series likeLes Divagations de Monsieur Sait-Tout (with Martial),La Potachologie Illustrée (withCabu),Les Dingodossiers (withGotlib) andLa Forêt de Chênebeau (withMic Delinx). WithTabary, he launchedCalife Haroun El Poussah inRecord, a series that was later continued inPilote asIznogoud. WithRaymond Macherot he createdPantoufle forSpirou.
Goscinny married Gilberte Pollaro-Millo in 1967. In 1968, their daughter Anne Goscinny was born. She also became an author.
Anne Goscinny, the daughter of René Goscinny, co-wrote the screenplay forLittle Nicholas: Happy As Can Be, 2022 animation film with Michel Fessler and Massoubre.[10]
Goscinny died at 51, in Paris of aheart attack on 5 November 1977, during a routinestress test at his doctor's office.[11][12] He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery inNice. In accordance with his will, most of his money was transferred to thechief rabbinate of France.
Goscinny's death occurred part-way through the writing ofAsterix in Belgium (published in 1979, two years after his death). As a homage to Goscinny, Uderzo drew darkened skies and rain into the comic. The last panel on page 32 and all but the last panel on page 33 were drawn with grey skies and rain to mark the point at which Goscinny died. Most of the remaining panels in the book were drawn with leaden grey skies, but none have rain. There is a further tribute at the end of the book: near the lower left corner of the final panel, Uderzo drew a rabbit sadly looking over its shoulders towards Goscinny's signature. Regrettably, as printed (at least in the German edition) the outlines are too thick, even at 10X magnification, to make clear what the rabbit is doing.
After Goscinny's death, Uderzo began to writeAsterix himself and continued the series, although at a much slower pace, until passing the series over in 2011 to writerJean-Yves Ferri and illustratorDidier Conrad.[13] Tabary similarly began to writeIznogoud himself, whereas Morris continuedLucky Luke with various other writers.
As a further tribute to Goscinny, Uderzo gave his late colleague's likeness to the Jewish character Saul ben Ephishul (a play on "it's all beneficial"; Saül Péhyé, a play onça eût payé and therefore a sketch byFernand Reynaud, in the original French, Saul Nizahle, a play onsoll nicht zahlen, in the German edition) in the 1981 albumL'Odyssée d'Astérix ("Asterix and the Black Gold"), which is dedicated to Goscinny's memory.
According toUNESCO'sIndex Translationum, Goscinny, as of August 2017, was the 20th most-translated author, with 2,200 translations of his work.[14]
On 23 January 2020, a life-sized bronze statue of Goscinny was unveiled near his former home in Paris. It was the first public statue in Paris dedicated to a comic book author.[15]
Studios Idéfix was an animation studio founded on 1 April 1974 by Goscinny,Uderzo andMorris.
Its logo, designed by Uderzo, is a parody ofMGM's logo, withDogmatix (known in French as Idéfix) instead ofLeo and a banner reading "Delirant Isti Romani", instead of "Ars Gratia Artis".
Prior to Idéfix, the works of the founders were animated and adapted to films byBelvision Studios, based atBrussels inBelgium.As the founders themselves said,
Goscinny and I were very unhappy watching the previous films, even if the public had followed them. The first two films were not a claim to fame for us. And we had to go through the premieres[dubious – [[Talk:René Goscinny#I guess it's a mistranslation, "premieres" is wrong and what's meant is "the first [2 movies]". See talk-page. |discuss]]] several times… By dint of seeing these flaws again and again, which we felt more and more because we knew them better, they had become enormous! For this one, we can avoid this kind of thing. Goscinny and I are doing the storyboarding and we hope to oversee everything. Because this time the cartoon will be produced in Paris, by a studio that we created ourselves. We will be both authors and directors, we will work really closely with the animators. If we're embarking on this adventure, it's because we've pulled out all the stops!
It’s an old childhood dream that we had with Albert Uderzo, who actually started out in cartoons. It’s the culmination of ten years of work, because we started making cartoons in other studios. It took ten years before we could have our own studios and make the films the way we wanted them. We did it, I must say, thanks toAsterix, who is a miracle character and who is our star, and who allowed us in many ways to realize this dream.
René Goscinny called Henri Gruel to constitute the technical and artistic teams of the Idéfix studios. The latter directed several animated short films and was responsible for the sound effects of Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and Cleopatra, as well as the two productions byPierre Tchernia scripted by Goscinny, Le Viager and Les Gaspards. Gruel gets Goscinny to share the artistic direction of the studios with Pierre Watrin, whom he considers to be an excellent designer, one of Paul Grimault's best former animators. Over several months, Gruel and Watrin contacted former artists and animators, as well as promising young artists. Most ofPaul Grimault's former animators then worked in small cartoon structures, and would be interested in the idea of working again in a real studio. However, the search for Pierre Watrin and Henri Gruel ultimately proved difficult, most of the former employees of theLes Gémeaux studios having converted to illustration and advertising. Talent was lacking and, at Goscinny's request, Henri Gruel sent his friend Serge Caillet, production director on live-action films, to theParis Chamber of Commerce and Industry to demand the opening of an animated cinema section to supply the studios with young artists, who thus offer employment to students as soon as they leave school. Eventually, they managed to produce their first feature film,The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, withHalas and Batchelor andDargaud.[citation needed]
However, in 1977, during the production of their second (and final) production, Goscinny died of a sudden heart attack. So, after the release of their second feature,The Ballad of the Daltons, aLucky Luke feature, the studio ceased operations and closed shop permanently.[citation needed]
^According to Yeruham Eniss, the village had a soap factory, and many Jews of nearby Chodorków had jobs selling and trading in soap. A census made in the late 1930s counted 3670 Jewish families in Chodorków beforeWorld War II (ShtetLinks website: alternate spellings include Chortkow and Khodorkiv)
^UNESCO Statistics."Index Translationum - "TOP 50" Author".Official website of UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Retrieved12 August 2017.
