Bernadette Després, designer and creator of the famous comic strip Tom-Tom et Nana, has died

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She will have marked the childhood of many French people with her characters of Tom-Tom and Nana: Bernadette Després, designer of the famous children's comic strip, died at the age of 83, according to Bayard Jeunesse editions, which 'announced in a story on their Instagram account.

“A great little lady of children’s literature has left us,” said the publishing house.

His comics tell the adventures of Tom-Tom and Nana, a brother and a sister who are not the last to get into mischief. They grew up in the Dubouchon family, who ran a restaurant.

Tom-Tom and Nana in I like to read

Born in Paris in 1941, the designer was published for the first time in a communist publishing house: Farandole. She draws inspiration from everyday life for her first albums in Annie goes shopping (1965) or Nicole on the fifteenth floor (1969), as explained on the designer's website.

She then worked for youth magazines Apple of Api et I like to read (for almost 40 years for the latter magazine).

“In 1974, she moved with her family to Givraines (45), and a restaurant in Pithiviers, close to her place of residence, was her source of inspiration for La Bonne Fourchette, the Dubouchon family restaurant,” reads on the author's website.

It's in I like to read that the first adventures of the Dubouchon family appeared monthly, before becoming full-fledged comic strips. “We had to invent stories every month and then I drew from home,” the designer told our editorial staff in March. news Orleans, who had met her in her house museum.

That all children can identify

She had explained the Genesis of her two troublemaking little heroes. “All children do stupid things so we could very quickly identify with them. However, there was no moral in our stories, it was just for fun and to amuse the readers,” she said.

The last original adventure of Tom-Tom and Nana will appear in 2009.

The comic strip enjoyed great success in the 90s, which allowed the designer to “earn well [sa] life “. Although she had not been drawing officially for several years, last March she continued to respond to requests from students in schools who asked her to stage a story that they had invented. “The transmission is fabulous,” Bernadette was moved.

The author won a Fauve d'Honneur at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2019 and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor on August 28, 2021.

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