182 - Gotlib

Gotlib MARCEL GOTLIB SUPERDUPONT Fluide Glacial Original cover of the Fluide Glacial special issue SuperDupont special issue published in February 1982 by Audie. Signed. India ink on paper 30.5 × 38.5 cm (12.01 × 15.16 in.) This drawing is exceptional. It is a cover created to celebrate the tenth anniversary of SuperDupont, which debuted in September 1972. That year was particularly significant for relations between the European comic book industry and the United States. In late April, a delegation of Belgian authors traveled to New York for the 1st International Comics Congress. Hergé, Tillieux, and Greg were among them. In September, it was the turn of a delegation from *Le Journal Pilote* to cross the Atlantic: Jean Giraud, Philippe Druillet, and Jacques Lob, who had been toying with the idea for some time of creating a parody of a “typically French” superhero—wearing a Basque beret, a lover of Camembert, and slippers. Gotlib himself was mulling over a similar idea. The two men decided to join forces: Superdupont was thus born in *Pilote* No. 672 on September 21, 1972. The headline on the weekly’s final cover proclaimed: “Superdupont is a creation by Gotlib-Lob.” This illustration, in which the hero straddles a quintessentially French rooster in the style of Arzach on his pterodactyl, was created for a special anniversary issue of *Fluide Glacial*, the magazine founded by Gotlib.