Jean-Jacques Sempé dies: ‘Little Nicholas’ creator and illustrator was 89

deadline.com:

French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé, best known for the ‘Le Petit Nicolas’ (‘Little Nicholas’) children’s books, has died at the age of 89.The mischievous schoolboy who is constantly getting into scrapes in and out of school but somehow always comes out on top was inspired by Sempé’s own childhood memories.Sempé’s collaborations on the series with late Asterix co-creator René Goscinny sold millions of copies worldwide and have been adapted to the big screen on numerous occasions, especially in France.The latest production inspired by the works, Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre’s Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be won the top prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June.Sempé’s wife Martine Gossieaux Sempé told French news agency Agence France Press that her husband died on August 11.Born in 1932 in the town of Pessac just outside of Bordeaux, Sempé left formal education at the age of 14 after his schooling was disrupted by World War Two.

He then tried his hand at various jobs including delivery boy, toothpaste sales and wine merchant.In 1950, he started submitting illustrations to the regional newspaper Sud Ouest, signing them under the pseudonym of DRO, a play on the English word ‘draw’.Shortly afterwards, a stint in the army took Sempé to Paris.

He fell in love with the city and never left, living for most of the rest of his life in the sixth arrondissement neighbourhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.In 1953, he met Goscinny in the offices of the Paris branch of Belgian news agency World Press and their subsequent friendship would shape his career.At that point, Sempé had already created the character of Little Nicholas for the World Press publication Le Moustique.