Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Siné 1928-2016






Provocative French cartoonist Maurice Sinet, who worked under the pseudonym Siné, died on May 5, 2016 after lung surgery, according to the Lambiek site. He was 87.

Born in Paris, he was trained as a typographer at École Estienne. But
he was so impressed by his first sight of the work of Steinberg that he immediately began drawing cartoons himself. He succeeded brilliantly not only in this field, but also as a book illustrator and designer of posters, stage decors, animated cartoons and publicity films. During his studies, he also was a cabaret singer with Les Garçons de la Rue. 
He spent most of his military service in prison, and began his professional career as a retoucher for pornographic magazines. He published his first cartoon in France Dimanche in 1952, and won the Black Humour Award for his cartoon collection 'Complainte sans Paroles' in 1955. Siné became especially famous for his wordplay cartoons about cats. Until 1962, he made political cartoons for L'Express, some of which were refused or caused heavy criticism. He subsequently published his anti-colonial, anti-zionist, anti-capitalist and anti-clerical worldviews in his own publication, Siné Massacre.
-- Lambiek 

Siné's savage cartoons were even too much for the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine. After being a regular cartoonist for the publication for 25 years, he was fired, in 2008, for an anti-semitic cartoon about the wife of Jean Sarkozy.

At the age of 80, he started up his own magazine of cartoons and satire, Siné Hebdo. It went from a weekly to a monthly and a name change to Siné Mensuel.

According to RFI, Siné "drew the last cover for Siné Mensuel while awaiting the operation on his lungs during which he died on 5 May 2016."


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