French strips artist, David

French strips artist, Jean David (Joduc)
(1915 – 1988, France)

Jean David was an illustrator for the advertising field, as well as for the cinema. In the 1940s, he was one of the main illustrators of V Magazine, for which he drew among others the comic ‘Les Amours de Barbara Smith’, and the back-cover section ‘V C’est le Mal d’Amour’. His political work appeared in Le Méridional. David’s strip ‘Les Nouveaux Mystères de Paris’, scripted by Claude Dupré, was published in Lectures Pour Tous, in a style close to Al Capp’s. During the 1960’s, he worked as a comic strip artist for the Opera Mundi agency.

He made ‘La Chartreuse de Parme’, based on the oeuvre of Stendhal, and ‘Le Corsaire Bien-Aimé’, under the signature Joduc. He also made the silent strip ‘Monsieur le Marquis’ (*), which somewhat resembled Otto Soglow’s ‘Little King’. David has also made numerous vertical strips to promote films, under the caption ‘Notre Film Raconté’. In the Marseille newspaper Midi-Soir, he made a strip called ‘La Famille Attentus’.

(*) 1960, 485 strips, © opera mundi