Abstract
In 1975, Claire Bretécher self-published Les Frustrés. After working for L'Os à moelle, Spirou, Record and Tintin, Bretécher gained notoriety in the pages of Pilote, then, with Marcel Gotlib and Nikita Mandryka, founded the magazine L'Écho des savanes (1972), a milestone in the emancipation of French comics from the gangue of childhood. From 1973 onwards, however, it was in Le Nouvel Observateur that Bretécher established the originality of her vision and style. A merciless observer of the failings of her time, Bretécher mocks the failings of the left-wing intelligentsia, its commitments and contradictions : her paper theater is a formidable mirror of the contradictions of French society during the Glorious Thirties .
By self-publishing, Bretécher took another decisive step in the artistic affirmation of the comic strip. Bretécher's album is therefore a good observatory of the tensions in the comics market of the 1970s, and of the shift in the center of gravity from magazines to albums. Claire Bretécher, an artist who was celebrated early on, also provides an opportunity to observe the difficulties of documenting the careers of female comic strip authors.
