Adieu, Petit Nicolas

August 13, 2022 12:59 PM

Jean-Jacques Sempé, Cartoonist of Droll Whimsy, Dies at 89 [NYT]

French cartoonist Sempe, famous for New Yorker covers, dies age 89 [Reuters]
Le dessinateur Jean-Jacques Sempé est mort [Le Monde]

posted by chavenet (18 comments total)

I'm sorry to hear this, but glad for the chance to remember his wonderful work today.

"Il aimait Paris de tout son cœur," says the Le Monde article - "He loved Paris with all his heart," and it's so lovely and human to read something like that in a memorial in a newspaper, unlike the dry factual style of the Reuters story.

There are some representative works in the Sempé entry at the Lambiek Comiclopedia, and some absolutely lovely watercolors in this article about Sempé at It's Nice That.

Thank you for posting this, chavenet. I'm going to cherish my time looking at his work today.
posted by kristi at 1:17 PM on August 13, 2022 [5 favorites]

Sempé: "Pense à ne pas m'oublier."
Sempé: "Mes personnages ne sont pas minuscules, c’est le monde qui est grand."
Sempé's cover for The New Yorker, Oct. 24, 2005.
@VarlanOlivier: "Je pense toujours à Sempé quand je visite un site archéologique."
@GregLemenager: "On peut le dire : c’était un génie"
@Brindille_: "Qu’importe le monde si on est deux"

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posted by Wobbuffet at 1:23 PM on August 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

And this New Yorker cover is really great.

This appreciation from Deutsche Welle from a few years ago notes, "At 12, Sempé had already decided to only draw worlds in which people were happy."
posted by kristi at 1:27 PM on August 13, 2022 [7 favorites]

Oh, and this is pure joy.
posted by Wobbuffet at 1:36 PM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]

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posted by acb at 1:58 PM on August 13, 2022

Despite my incompatible French teacher, it was from her I learned about Petit Nicholas and still have all the books.

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posted by Melismata at 2:16 PM on August 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

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posted by blob at 2:34 PM on August 13, 2022

Oh man. As a francophile, as a fan of his work, and being a Nicolas — this cuts deep.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:26 PM on August 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

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I loved the Petit Nicolas series when I was a kid, his illustrations were no small part of the wonder of those stories.
posted by Kattullus at 4:01 PM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]

One of the features in my dream room is a lot of framed Sempé inked New Yorker covers.

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posted by of strange foe at 5:53 PM on August 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have one of his New Yorker covers as a puzzle. I might do that today in his honour.

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posted by Athanassiel at 7:10 PM on August 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

A store I frequented in my youth had the most charming Sempé cards, and then the New Yorker covers. Such a distinctive, elegant style, with gobs of wit & whimsy. Thanks so much for the post.

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posted by theora55 at 7:15 PM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just learned about him five minutes ago, coming across the NYT obit. What beautiful work! Thank you to everyone sharing even more. His memory is already a blessing, to me.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 7:36 PM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think we still have a copy each of Sempé's books Tout se complique and Rien n'est Simple but maybe not: my kids re-read them until the pages frittered from the covers. Chapeaux!
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:52 AM on August 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

If you have never read the Nicolas books (they have been Englished), you are in for a treat.
posted by BWA at 4:23 AM on August 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

I have aphantasia, I usually read stories with no real image of the protagonists. When I think of le petit Nicolas, which I read a million times as a kid, I feel like I have some kind of rough sensation of the character in my head, not an image but Sempé's style is so distinctive that it's like I can recreate the feeling of seeing the image even if I cannot picture the image.
Thank you Sempé, thank you Goscinny.
posted by anzen-dai-ichi at 5:18 AM on August 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

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posted by jabo at 11:58 PM on August 14, 2022

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posted by From Bklyn at 12:19 AM on August 15, 2022