The Eye of the Police – France 1908-14

L’Œil de la Police (“The Eye of the Police”) was published in France between 1908 and 1914. The logo was a huge voyeuristic eye which revealed shocking images of sadistic murder, boiler explosions, suicides and natural disasters. When the Titanic sank L’Œil de la Police produced a wraparound cover to illuminate the tragic scene. On occasion the cover illustrated some incident of warfare in Calcutta, Turkey, Algeria or Russia.

The paper was a cornucopia of Grand Guignol (“big puppet-show”) produced in a fashion meant to shock the eye – much of it in comic strip form. The covers were the main selling point, and the best drawn, while the interior was full of small black and white illustrations. The back cover often featured a surrealistic illuminating eye lighting up horrible scenes of murder, tragedy and boiler explosions encased in circles, squares and jagged panels. Jules Mary, Constant Guéroult and other popular feuilleton writers contributed grand romans policier.

You can browse 47 issues of L’Œil de la Police HERE.

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