Alain Saint-Ogan, French Comic Gallery 3

THE COMIC ALBUM has been an integral part of French publishing since April 1839 when Charles Philipon and Gabriel Aubert published a comic album plagiarism of Rodolphe Töpffer’s ‘Histoire de Mr. Jabot.’ In 1925 Alain Saint-Ogan (pen-name of Alain Marie Joseph Paul Louis Fernand Lefebvre Saint-Ogan, 1895-1974) created the comic series ‘Zig et Puce’ appearing in Le Dimanche illustré, a weekly supplement of the daily L’Excelsior. His later strip about a comic bear, ‘Prosper L’Ours,’ first appeared in the newspaper Le Matin on February 16, 1933 and soon dominated sales of comic albums for children in France. Seven PROSPER albums were published by Hachette between 1933 and 1940.

[1] Advertisement in Philipon and Aubert’s Journal Amusant for a comic album by Léonce Petit (1839-84), ‘Les Mésaventures de M. Béton,’ November 21, 1868.

[2] Le Jardin Des Lettres, November 1933, No. 31.

[5] Prosper comic album advertisements, Le Matin, December 29, 1936.

[6] Le Matin, December 19, 1937.

[7] PROSPER merchandising, Le Matin, December 19, 1933.

[8] Le Matin, December 25, 1935.

[9] Le Matin, February 9, 1936.

[10] Le Matin, December 25, 1937.

[11] Le Matin, June 18, 1939.

[12] ‘Les nouvelles aventures de Zig et Puce,’ Le Matin, July 23, 1936.

[13] ‘Zig et Puce à New York,’ 1930.

Images courtesy Gallica