ECC Cartoonbooks Club: Jean Bosc (1924-1973)

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Jean Bosc (1924-1973) - part 1

"Alain, Michele, Gerald and Joelle DAMMAN, nephews and nieces of Jean-Maurice BOSC, are pleased to welcome you on its official website, and thank you for your interest in his work."

This is the welcome word of one of the most complete and interesting sites dedicated to a cartoonist: the official BOSC website. I had some contacts by mail with Alain Damman, and I think Alain asked himself why I didn't make an article about Bosc earlier. Bosc is one of the greatest cartoonists ever. Alain made it easy for me: all you should know about Bosc is on his website, so I just have to link to it.

Les Boscaves (1965)

You should take a look at the pictures part and the impressive bibliography, it's a pleasure for collectors. It has 3 parts: books of Bosc in French, Bosc in other languages and books of Bosc with other cartoonists. At least 210 books are published with one or more Bosc cartoons!
You'll find cover pictures, and some more information on every book. Some collectors will recognize books they already have or notice books they should have and some books they could only dream of to have... because they are very rare to find.

Alain, keep going on with your site and promoting the great Bosc.
Vive Bosc!

The site is in French, but with 'google translate', it's available in many languages.

Here's a short biography of Bosc. Other biographies are on the site.

Bosc Jean (1924-1973)

"Bosc is een French cartoonist, poster designer and animated cartoon director born in Nîmes, France, on December 30, 1924. After his military service in France and Indochina, Jean Bosc rejoined the weekly magazine Paris-Match in 1952 and contributed

cartoons to other publications as well (Punch, Esquire, France-Observateur). Many of his drawings have been published in the albums Gloria Viktoria, Homo Sapiens, Mort au Tiran ("Death to the Tyrant"), Les Boscaves ("Bosc's Fools", 1965), Si De Gaulle était Petit ("If De Gaulle Was Short",1968) and La Fleur dan Tous Ses Etats ("Two Flowers", 1968).

All his cartoons show absurd and often cruel incongruity, portraiting look-alike, almost interchangeable long-nosed men and children who wait on long lines or walk in funeral corteges or interminable parades. Bosc's long stint in the army is probably responsible for the strong antimilitaristic slant in his work, with officers depicted as heartless fools, sometimes reduced to beribboned and bemedalled jacquets only, and privates seen as inoffensive, mechanical dunces forever performing menial and useless chores. Bosc also directed a few animated cartoons: Le Voyage en Boscavie ("Travels in Bosc Country"), which won the Emile Cohl Prize in 1959, and Le Chapeau ("The Hat").

Like Chavel, Bosc saw no escape from the absurdity of the human condition: in 1973, at 49, he killed himself in Antibes, on the French Riviera. That same year, the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover, Germany, held a two-month exhibit of his work, along with that of Chaval and Sempé."(Source: The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons)