Illustrator Bernadette Després, who made generations of young readers laugh thanks to her pencil work in the comic series “Tom-Tom and Nana”, died at the age of 83 on Tuesday, it was announced Bayard editions on Wednesday.
“It is with immense sadness that the Bayard Jeunesse teams learned today of the death of the illustrator Bernadette Després,” said the publishing house in a press release, specifying that its teams will pay tribute to her during the Show book and youth press in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), at the end of November.
Born in Paris in March 1941, Bernadette Després began her career as an illustrator for the Bayard Jeunesse newspapers, before subsequently working for various publishers.
In 1976, Bayard Jeunesse placed an order with Bernadette Després (drawing) and Jacqueline Cohen (screenplay), in order to create a monthly comic strip: “À la bonne fork” would officially become “Tom-Tom and Nana” in 1990.
A successful bet
With the adventures of “Tom-Tom and Nana”, Bernadette Després always wanted to make young readers laugh. The antics of Tom-Tom, the big brother in the striped T-shirt, and Nana, his little sister with blonde braids, have rocked the childhood of several generations.
With 34 albums, more than 3,000 original plates published in the form of episodes in the monthly “J’aime lire” since 1977, and an adaptation into an animated television series, “Tom-Tom and Nana” has been a more than successful bet for the designer who sketched with humor the daily life of the two children and their family. “One day, a child told me that with my stories, I was taking revenge on adults and that’s very true. I don’t like adults. They impress me with their seriousness,” admitted the cartoonist in the La Croix newspaper in 2019.
Honorary Fauve at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2019, Bernadette Després was elevated to the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor in 2021.
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