Claire Bretécher (1940-2020) dropped out of art school to become a comics artist. In 1963, she met René Goscinny, the writer of Asterix, among others, who wrote a comic strip about a postman for her. She was one of the very few women in the comics world at the time and worked for magazines including Tintin, Spirou, and Pilote.
Bretécher was also a pioneer in another way. In 1972, she co-founded L’Echo des savanes, a comics magazine explicitly aimed at adults. Her international breakthrough came with the comic strip “Les frustrées” (The Frustrated), which addressed female and feminist themes. She self-published it. For her first album, she won the award for best screenplay at the 1975 Angoulême Festival.
