Prominent Poles
René Goscinny , Polish-Jewish-French writer, cartoonist, editor and humorist, best known for the comic strip Astérix, which he created with illustrator Albert Uderzo.
Born: August 14, 1926, Paris, France
Died: November 5, 1977, Paris, France
Early days. Rene was born to a Polish-Jewish immigrants family of Stanislaw "Simkha" Goscinny, a chemical engineer from Warsaw, Poland, and to Anna Beresniak Goscinna from Chodorow, Austro-Hungarian partition of Poland (presently Khodorov, Ukraine). Stanislaw and Anna had met in Paris and married in 1919. In 1928 the Goscinnys moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, because of a chemical engineer post Stanislaw had obtained there. Rene spent a happy childhood in Buenos Aires, and studied in the French schools. He had a habit of making everyone laugh in class, probably to compensate for a natural shyness. He started drawing very early on, inspired by the illustrated stories which he enjoyed reading. In December of 1943 the year after he graduated from school, René lost his father to a cerebral hemorrhage, forcing him to find a job. The next year, he got his first job, as an assistant accountant in a tire recovery factory, and when he was laid off the following year, he became a junior illustrator in an advertising agency. René, along with his mother, left Argentina and went to New York in 1945, to join his uncle. In 1946 he went to France and joined the French army. He served at Aubagne, in the Alpine infantry. Promoted to senior corporal, René became the appointed illustrator of the regiment and drew illustrations and posters for the army.
First works. In 1947 he illustrated the book The Girl with The Eyes of Gold and returned to New York. On his arrival René went through the most difficult period of his life. For a while, he was jobless and totally broke. By 1948, though, he recovered and started working in a small studio where he met and became friends with future Mad alumni Elder, Davis and Kurtzman. René then became art director at Kunen Publishers where he wrote four books for children. In 1949 he met de Bevere aka Morris, the cartoonist and first author of the comic book series Lucky Luke (René would write the Lucky Luke series from 1955 to his death in 1977), and also Gillain, known as Jijé. Also, he met Troisfontaines, chief of the World Press agency, who convinced René to return to Paris and work for his agency as the head of Paris office in 1951. Here, he met Albert Uderzo, with whom he started a longtime cooperation. They started out with some work for Bonnes Soirées, a women’s magazine for which Goscinny wrote Sylvie. Goscinny and Uderzo also launched the series Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior in La Libre Junior. In 1955, Goscinny, with Charlier, Uderzo and Hébrad, founded the syndicate Edipress/Edifrance that launched publications Clairon and Pistolin. Goscinny and Uderzo cooperated on the series Bill Blanchart, Pistolet and Benjamin et Benjamine. Under the pseudonym Agostini, Goscinny wrote Le Petit Nicolas, Sud-Ouest and Pilote. In 1956, he began collaboration with the Tintin magazine. He wrote some short stories for Angenot and Weinberg, and worked on Signor Spaghetti with Attanasio, Monsieur Tric with de Moor, Prudence Petitpas with Maréchal, Globul le Martien and Alphonse with Tibet, Modeste et Pompon with Franquin, Strapontin with Berck, and Oumpah-pah with Uderzo. In addition, Goscinny appeared in the magazines Paris-Flirt and Vaillant.
Pilote and Astérix. In 1959, the Édifrance/Édipresse syndicate started the magazine Pilote. Goscinny became one of the most productive writers for the magazine. In the magazine's first issue, he launched his most famous creation, Astérix, with Uderzo. This series was an instant hit and is now known worldwide. Goscinny also began Jacquot le Mousse and Tromblon et Bottaclou with Godard. The magazine was bought by Dargaud in 1960, and Goscinny became editor-in-chief. He also began new series Les Divagations de Monsieur Sait-Tout, La Potachologie Illustrée, Les Dingodossiers and La Forêt de Chênebeau. With Tabary, he launched Calife Haroun El Poussah in Record, a series that was later continued in Pilote as Iznogoud. With Macherot he created Pantoufle for Spirou. He married Gilberte Pollaro-Millo in 1967. In 1968 his daughter Anne was born. Goscinny died in Paris from a heart attack at the age of 51. Since 1996, the René Goscinny Award is presented at the yearly Angoulême International Comics Festival in France as an encouragement for young comic writers. …And from 1962 another story came along: Le Grand Vizir Iznogoud, a parady of the Arabian Nights, which he created in cooperation with the young Jean Tabary for the Record magazine (published as albums by Dargaud from 1966). The great success of Asterix made Goscinny as well as Uderzo almost over night national heroes. The publication of the new adventure "Le combat des chefs" (engl.: Asterix and the Big Fight) became a social event. The creators of the little gallic warrior helped comics to public recognition as art, especially in France. In 1968 disagreements came up concerning the way of leadership as practiced by Goscinny, Uderzo and Charlier. Even though the three bosses and their employees managed to set up a mutual agreement the gap became to big, and Goscinny and his friends withdrew more and more from the business. Charlier even quit completely in 1974. From now Goscinny concentrated on his major three works as well as on animated cartoon films based on his classics. But neither he nor Uderzo were satisfied with the realization of their ideas. Because of that they founded their own Studio Idefix, which produced "Les douze travaux d'Astérix" (engl: The Twelve Tasks of Asterix) in 1974. Another production lead by Goscinny was the Lucky Luke film "La Ballade des Daltons" which had its start in the cinemas in 1978.
Awards 1964: Prix Alphonse Allais, 1966: Prix Gaulois, 1974: Prix Loisirs-Jeunes, 1974: Adamson Award for best international comic strip artist, Sweden; 2005: Included in the Will Eisner Hall of Fame as a Judges' choice, USA. During his lifetime he was decorated many times for his works; among others and became a member of the Academy of Humor.
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