Benjamin Rabier

File:Benjamin rabier le printemps.jpg

"Le printemps" published in Le Rire (May 1902)

Benjamin Rabier (1864–1939) was a French illustrator, comic book artist and animator. He became famous for creating the logo for Laughing Cow Cheese (La vache qui rit), and is one of the precursors of animal comics. His work has inspired many other artists, notably Hergé and Edmond-François Calvo.

A native of La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée, Rabier started to work as an illustrator for various newspapers after meeting political cartoonist Caran d'Ache. His first album for children was the story of Tintin-Lutin, published in 1898, which told of a young lutin or "imp"; here his main characters are human and not animals, as they came to be in later albums. His most famous creations are Gideon the duck and the characters he drew for Le roman de Renart.

Notably, Rabier was also an early pioneer of animation as in 1916 he approached Émile Cohl to make an animated series based on his comic characters. The series was named Les Dessins Animés de Benjamin Rabier and ran from (1916-1919) gaining some national recognition in France.

He died at Faverolles, Indre, in 1939.

Bibliography

• Olivier Calon, Benjamin Rabier, Paris, Tallandier, 2004

External links

Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• (in French) Tintin-Lutin
• (in French) About Benjamin Rabier
• (in French) Tintin Lutin
• (in French)Benjamin Rabier's Cartoons
• Benjamin Rabier An animated documentary about "the creator of the Laughing Cow and pioneer of cartoon" on crowdfunding platform Ulule
• Issues of Histoire comique et Naturelle des Animaux in Gallica, the digital library of the BnF.
• Benjamin Rabier's life