Uderzo and Goscinny then play an active part alongside Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Hébrard to create the companies called Edipresse (news agency) and Edifrance (advertising agency), which at last give them the opportunity to express themselves independently. The partnership results in many heroes, including Oompah-Pah, whom many see as a precursor to Asterix. The two hit it off immediately, and are to work on numerous joint projects. He’s French and he’s moving here from the United States.” But he learns that “No, his name is spelt G.o.s.c.i.n.n.y. When Albert hears this name, his Italian roots get all excited. One fine morning in 1951, Albert Uderzo, who is working for World Press/International Press, is told that someone new, called ‘Gossini’ is coming to join them. They reach a deal and a few weeks later René arrives in Paris to work with them … 1951 The latter introduces him to Georges Troisfontaines, boss of World Press, and Yvan Chéron, head of International Press. In New York he meets the cartoonists Jijé and Morris. He then goes back to the States where he meets the team from the humour publication MAD Magazine (Willy Elder, Harvey Kurtzman …), who give him enough work to survive. With no money and little work, he decides to return to Europe to do his military service in the French Army. This is the beginning of a tough time that is to last 5 years. René is still a teenager when his father dies and he has to find a job quickly.Īfter a few short-term experiences, he becomes an assistant illustrator in an advertising agency and then leaves for New York at the invitation of an uncle who has settled there. René Goscinny is to keep the scars from this painful period all his life.

That doesn’t stop him later from getting a BA and studying fine art.įrom their remote position in South America the family experience the Second World War, which sees many of their relations die.

René quietly spends his childhood there and goes to the French Lycée in Buenos Aires, where he already begins to stand out (according to him, he has a reputation for clowning about). After the birth of little René, the Goscinny family leaves for Argentina for professional reasons.

Asterix the Gaul by René Goscinny