Benjamin Rabier

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

Benjamin Rabier (1864 in La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée – 1939 in Faverolles, Indre) was a French illustrator, comic book artist and animator. He became famous for creating 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.

Rabier started to work as an illustrator for various newspapers after meeting Caran d'Ache. His first album for children was the story of Tintin Lutin, published in 1887, 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.

Bibliography

• Olivier Calon, Benjamin Rabier, Paris, Tallandier, 2004 ISBN 2-84734-102-1

External links

• (French) About Benjamin Rabier
• (French) Tintin Lutin
• 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.