- Person
- René Goscinny
- Lived
- 1926–1977
- Field
- Comics, children’s literature
- From
- French
The story
In the early 1950s René Goscinny, the Paris-born son of Polish Jewish immigrants, was working in Paris for World Press, a Belgian agency run by Georges Troisfontaines that supplied comics and features to magazines. At the time, writing comics was not considered a real profession. Editors and publishers dealt only with the artists, writers usually went uncredited, and creators who worked through an agency received only their wages while the agency kept the copyright to the characters and stories they invented.
In 1956 Goscinny and his fellow writer Jean-Michel Charlier tried to gather the agency’s artists behind a creators’ charter. According to the comics historians at Lambiek, it set out to secure better payment, ownership of their rights and, above all, recognition of their professional expertise. When Troisfontaines learned of what he saw as an attempt at unionisation, he made Goscinny the scapegoat and fired him.
His colleagues did not abandon him. Out of solidarity Charlier and the illustrator Albert Uderzo left the agency too, along with its former publicity manager Jean Hébrard, and the cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé also walked out in loyalty to his friend. The group went on to set up their own syndicate, Édipresse/Édifrance, and in 1959 helped launch the comics magazine Pilote, in whose first issue Goscinny and Uderzo introduced Asterix.
Goscinny kept making the case for writers. His work on Lucky Luke, which he had been scripting since 1955, carried no credit until 1961, after which the stories received a joint byline with the artist Morris. As editor of Pilote he championed new creators, and by the end of his life he was one of the few comic writers of his generation as famous as the artists he worked with.
The principle he lost his job over, that the people who write and draw comics are authors who deserve credit and a fair share of what their work earns, is now widely accepted. Today scriptwriters’ names appear on the covers of comic albums, and the Angoulême International Comics Festival gives an annual prize in Goscinny’s name to encourage young comic writers.
Why it matters
Goscinny’s stand helped establish comic scriptwriters as recognised authors with credit and rights, a standard that benefits comic creators everywhere today.
About René Goscinny
Paris-born son of Polish Jewish immigrants who co-created Asterix, wrote Lucky Luke and Le Petit Nicolas, and fought for comic writers’ rights. Translated into more than 100 languages.
Sources
- René Goscinny Lambiek Comiclopedia
- René Goscinny Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.