Panic Stations

Jean-Jacques Sempé wurde 1932 in Bordeaux geboren. Er wollte ursprünglich Jazzmusiker werden und arbeitete bei einem Weinhändler, bis er 19jährig den Prix Carrizey, einen Förderpreis für Nachwuchszeichner, erhielt. Seine Karikaturen und Zeichnungen erschienen in Paris Match, Punch, Marie-Claire, L'Express und im New Yorker. Auch literarischen Figuren von Patrick Modiano und Patrick Süskind verlieh er unvergeßliche Gestalt.

'Sempe goes about showing us up with great good nature. ... his drawing is consistently delightful.' Anthea Bell 'drawings [that] are eloquent in every language.' Quentin Blake, The Week 'The world Sempe draws is full of frustrated lovers and pretentious intellectuals, rural worriers and urban ennui. He doesn't point fingers, and he doesn't judge. He simply makes you smile ... Sempe's work expresses the quietly observed humour of a man who can't quite believe how lucky he has been. To his surprise, he has found work in the small, sunny spot reserved for very few dessinateurs humorists.' The Glasgow Herald '[Sempe] is, par excellence, the master of the panoramic cartoon. ... Captions [...] have been brilliantly translated by Anthea Bell. ... There are many talented French cartoonists. [...] [Sempe] is the most universal ... Sempe cartoons are a kind of illustrative haiku. In such small space he conveys a great amount of meaning. ... an infinite delight in the complexity and ambivalence - and the humour - of the everyday and the ordinary.' The Independent '[Sempe] started life as a journeyman cartoonist, drawing single gags. From there he has gradually broadened out and blossomed, acquiring colour and boldness and breadth, until it is hard to call him anything but an artist. ... you can't really lose with Sempe.' The Spectator