March 5th - Iznogoud

A Year in Comics - March 5th

Grand Vizir Iznogoud and Caliph Haroun El Poussah - Iznogoud

Jean Tabary was born in Stockholm, Sweden on March 5th 1930, the son of a French violinist.  Starting out as a ceiling sculpture plasterer, Tabary turned to making comics in the mid-1950s, first with the series Richard & Charlie, which ran in the French comic magazine Vaillant between 1956 and 1962.  However, his big break came in 1959 with the series Totoche, about a gang of Parisian street kids.  Originally published in Vaillant, the series got its own comics magazine in 1965, and a spin-off gag strip, Corinne & Jeannot, focussing on the love/hate relationship of two of the gang.  From 1966 onwards, Jean Tabary was assisted on both Totoche and Corinne & Jeannot by his elder brother Jacques Tabary, who eventually would end up taking over the Totoche series from his brother.

However, the younger Tabary remains most famous for his collaboration with René Goscinny of Asterix fame: together, Goscinny and Tabary created the series the adventures of Caliphe Haroun el Poussah in 1962, which chronicles the adventures of a good but naïve ruler, who is completely unaware of the plans of his second-in-command, the Grand Vizir Iznogoud, to overthrow him.  However, through over-ambition, incompetence and pure (lack of) luck, Iznogoud's plans always end up backfiring.

Already early on, Goscinny and Tabary realised that it was not Haroun el Poussah, but the evil Iznogoud who was the more interesting character of the series, and soon the series was retitled as Iznogoud.  While not as succesful as Goscinny's Asterix, Iznogoud became a succes in its own right, spawning a cartoon series and even a live-action film in 2005.

Tabary and Goscinny together also created the series Valentin le Vagebond, about the misadventures of a tramp.  Between 1962 and 1977, seven Valentin stories were made by Goscinny and Jean Tabary - who received assistance on this series by his other brother Pierre Tabary.

After Goscinny's death in 1977, Jean Tabary abandoned the series Valentin, and continued Iznogoud by himself, setting up a publishing label which not only issued the new Iznogoud titles, but also reissued Tabary's older work.

Unfortunately, Jean Tabary was forced to give up drawing following a stroke in 2004; on August 18th 2011, he passed away in his home in Pont-l'Abbé-d'Arnoult, France.

Noteworthy is, that following Jean Tabary's forced retirement, his series Iznogoud was taken over by his children, Stéphane and Muriel (script), and Nicolas Tabary (illustration)

----------

80th entry out of ?

 <- Back to March 4th ---------- Forward to March 6th ->