180 - Gotlib

Gotlib MARCEL GOTLIB RUBRIQUE-À-BRAC (Vol. 2), Dargaud 1971 Original cover. The title was created by an art restorer, based on Gotlib’s original lettering, and then affixed to the cover. India ink and white gouache on paper 34.5 × 44.5 cm (13.58 × 17.52 in.) *Rubrique-à-Brac* is one of the major works in Gotlib’s oeuvre, and we are fortunate to have here the cover of one of the most memorable volumes in the series. It features his recurring characters, such as Isaac Newton and his apple, the ladybug, Gotlib himself, and the guests in this album—all of whom evoke memories of the pages found in the magazine *Pilote*: Tarzan and his decaying yoga session, the laughing hyena, the giraffe spilling out of the panels, and even a parody of Lone Sloane—a character created by Philippe Druillet—whose shadow-like mouth opens onto the cosmos. And then, towering above it all, brandishing the album like the Tablets of the Law, Michelangelo’s Moses in an impressive low-angle shot. These striking images have remained etched in the imagination of several generations of readers and bear witness to the irreverent critical spirit of that era, when *Pilote* was the weekly magazine “that had fun thinking.” Didier Pasamonik