Its name may not mean anything to you. Her pair of turbulent and lively heroes, behind whom she faded like other of her contemporaries, nevertheless accompanied several generations of young French readers. Bernadette Després, designer and co-author with Jacqueline Cohen of Tom Tom and Nana (1), has just died at the age of 83. In 2019, the Angoulême International Comics Festival dedicated a major exhibition to him and awarded him an honorary Fauve: the artist in fact belonged to this generation which not only understood how to address the youngest, their intelligence and their imagination, but which became a school and inspired other authors – Pénélope Bagieu, who claims to be one, Camille Jourdy or Emmanuel Guibert, to name just a few.
It's a fact, and it's very pleasing, young readers are interested in the 9th art, which has been enjoying the glory days of a rather healthy children's edition for around ten years. More than half of them are turning to comics, according to the latest CNL study on young French people and reading. The 40th edition of the Seine-Saint-Denis Youth Book and Press Fair, which opens on Wednesday November 27 in Montreuil, says nothing else, which will welcome more than 2,000 children's authors and illustrators.
With the death of Bernadette Després, it is an era, that of the pioneers of the press and children's publishing, which is dying out a little. The mark left is fortunately deep, at the foundation of vocations and talents which bring children's illustration to life, a completely unique field which combines an art and an audience. The adventure has only just begun.
(1) Bayard Éditions, publisher of The Cross.
