Gotlib

Gotlib by himself.

Gotlib is the Pen Name for Marcel Gotlieb. He is a French cartoonist whose French Belgian Comic Books are popular classics. He started out in cooperation with scenarist Rene Goscinny (of Asterix fame), and later struck out on his own.

His comics are mostly comedy. He talks about film clichés, complains about Real Life nuisances, and creates What If scenarios... which he tackles with his unique art style and humor.

He is still held in high esteem among French cartoonists. Currently heading the NSFW Fluide Glacial mature humour and cartoon magazine, which he cofounded.

Most of his (SFW) comics are gathered in the Dingodossiers and Rubrique-à-brac series. The NSFW ones are collected in Pervers Pépère and the Rhaâ- series.

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Gotlib provides examples of the following tropes:

• Author Avatar: Gotlib frequently draws himself in his comics, and is recognizable by his sideburns and big square glasses.
• Non Sequitur Episode: The strip with the tiger statue that makes anyone who looks at it become insane. Including Gotlib himself, and, it is implied, the reader.
• Butt Monkey: The Sidekick in the film clichés episodes, who always gets cream pies in his face.
• Catch Phrase: Several!
  • "Blondeau Georges Jacques Babylas, I arrest you for MURDER!"
  • "Hell and damnation, I am done for!"
  • "Darn it, but of course!" (directly taken from Les Cinq Dernières Minutes)
  • "And now, let's go for new adventures!"
  • "Now there, my dear, you're fully into science fiction!"
  • "And now, let's go for well-deserved vacations!"
  • Thought bubble: "Universal gravitation theory"
• Curse of the Ancients and Foreign Cuss Word: sort of. When going through the various action hero occupations (pilot, pirate, Tarzan, secret agent, etc.), they use the expletives used at the time such as Gosh!, Blood'n'guts!, and Damned! (which seems the be the transcription for Dammit!).
• Damsel in Distress: When Brick Abrack is playing blind man's buff with his girlfriend Clorinde, she gets captured by the villain and put into a Death Trap while he still thinks she is hiding despite her cries for help.
• Dirty Old Man: Pervers Pépère is one, except (maybe) for the times he subverts his own antics For The Evulz For The Lulz.
• Discreet Drink Disposal: Referred to when talking about film clichés.
• Disney Villain Death: In an episode about film clichés, he explains the villain must never die and be back in the next episode, and shows a villain falling from a cliff but then is shown in the "ending" panel as being alive and well.
• Everything Is Messier With Pigs: Parodied in the "animal documentary" episodes with Professor Burp: despite the pig who is shown as being a messy and unrefined animal, Professor Burp is all dressed up, with a top hat and monocle, and talks about the pig in a very respectful way, while The Ladybug is very sloppy and vulgar. Later, in the episode about the deer, who is shown as a classy and beautiful animal, Professor is the one who is sloppy, vulgar and very laconic about the deer, while The Ladybug wears this time the top hat and monocle.
• Eyepatch of Power: A recurring villain in the episodes about clichés is a bald, eyepatch-wearing villain who speaks with a German accent.
  • Isn't he supposed to be a melding of Blofeld and his eyepatch-wearing henchman?
• Flirting Under Fire: His action heroes do this all the time, passionately kissing the Bond Girl while shooting a bad guy (without looking) and delivering an Offhand Backhand to another.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: He has drawn some fairy tales straightforward, others go into parody.
• For Want of a Nail: One story is about a time traveller who goes into Isaac Newton's time, sleeps under his apple tree, and because Isaac Newton was not here to have the apple fall on his head, he couldn't have thought about the law of gravitation and therefore, the lack of it will have prevented the invention of time travel in the future; the time traveller is stucked.
• Hands in Pockets: In an episode, he describes different kind of cartoonists and how their temper defines what they draw. The description of a "cheating" cartoonist is the latter hiding a complicated scenery with simple objects, so, as an example, a panel describes the terrifying battle of Waterloo but most of the battlefield is hidden from the viewer by a big cannon and a pile of cannonballs.
• The Hero: Brick Abrack is meant to be the archetypical hero.
• It Will Never Catch On: An episode was a sarcastic Take That at cynical officials who dismiss innovative scientific hypothesises with the phrase "Now there, my dear, you're fully in science fiction!" and show it happening to famous scientists of History.
• Love At First Sight: A story is about a prince who totally falls in love, head over heels, with a pretty shepherd girl, and almost becomes sick because of it.
• Mockumentary: The animal-themed strips. For example, one starts out about rhinoceroses that suddenly acquire duck traits (migrate, taste good with oranges...) because someone messed up his files.
• Nerd Glasses: Gotlib's glasses in his Author Avatar.
• No Smoking: Gotlib obviously dislikes smoking and describes an elephant who has become forgetful because it has taken up smoking and a time traveller who doesn't recognize his mother in the past because he is a heavy smoker.
• Once Per Episode: In every "animal documentary", Isaac Newton will have the animal of the week fall on his head, and subsequently discover universal gravitation theory. The exception was when the files were mixed up (see Mockumentary above) and it's Edison (still portrayed as Newton, though) who puts a rhino in a tub and then says "And yet it moves". A great deal of confusion ensues.
• Polly Wants a Microphone: A story is about the problem of having a non-speaking parrot.
• Running Gag: Isaac Newton having some object falling down on his head, getting him to come up with the universal gravitation theory.
• Shaggy Dog Story: A lot, of the kind ending in an untranslatable atrocious pun.
• Something Completely Different: He usually does comedy, but sometimes does dark and sad stories.
  • And sometimes he mixes a bit of both. For example, there is one story which is a "sequel" to the Hop-o'-My-Thumb fairytale in which the ogre, overcome with guilt, goes through a deep depression before deciding to seek redemption, as the reader realizes he eventually becomes Santa Claus
• What If: Several comics are about "What if.." scenarios, some of them completely absurd, such as "What if... apples were pumpkins?".