mheu, Historical Museum of the Urban Environment

The artist

A screenwriter and cartoonist, Reiser was born in 1941 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, to a mother who cleaned houses and an unknown father. Moving to Paris, he worked as a delivery man at Nicolas, the French wine retailer while trying his hand at drawing cartoons, which he had published wherever he could, including Nicolas's in-house newsletter. He made the acquaintance of Georges Bernier, alias Professor Choron, and Cavanna, with whom he founded the "witty and sarcastic" satirical magazine Hara-Kiri in 1960. Reiser built an entire world around his favorite characters Jeannine and Gros Dégueulasse (Disgusting Fatty). His highly personal drawing style aimed for a crude comic expressiveness. His storylines, which rail against the stupidity and malice of the masses, always take a humanistic, poetic, sympathetic view of individuals. It is the signature characteristic of Reiser's work: unabashed bad taste, even vulgarity, softened by genuine empathy for ordinary people. Passionately interested in ecology, aviation and architecture, Reiser, in addition to his regular features for Hara-kiri and Charlie Hebdo, also published his strips in Pilote, La gueule ouverte, Le Monde, L'écho des savanes and other publications. He died prematurely of cancer in 1983.