A brief history of mobility by Sempé (Brève histoire de la mobilité)

I've always loved this cartoon, from 1962, by the celebrated French cartoonist Sempé. For a long time, I couldn't find it on the web, but a friend kindly sent me the link:

http://carfree.free.fr/index.php/2009/11/05/breve-histoire-de-la-mobilite/

Ou comment résumer une centaine d’années de mobilité humaine en 5 dessins… Extrait de l’ouvrage « Rien n’est simple » par Sempé, paru en 1962.

'Or how to summarise one hundred years of human mobility in five drawings. From «Rien n’est simple» ('Nothing is simple') by Sempé, published in 1962.

Brève histoire de la mobilité

5 Attachments

Well five drawing as the first two is identical.

SO cynical

Ha! This is good!

OT - Sempe bike shop drawing here: http://www.france24.com/en/files/element_multimedia/image/sempe-3-diapo.jpg

Well five drawing as the first two is identical.

They're not, it's like spot the difference...

The first one have the top cropped off.

Ha! This is good!

OT - Sempe bike shop drawing here: http://www.france24.com/en/files/element_multimedia/image/sempe-3-diapo.jpg

Very nice.

Well spotted, Ed. Believe it or not, I actually didn't clock that. I've deleted the smaller version of the first drawing.

Ha! This is good!

OT - Sempe bike shop drawing here: http://www.france24.com/en/files/element_multimedia/image/sempe-3-diapo.jpg

Didn't he do lots of bike shop cartoons? I think I remember seeing more.

can we retitle the last one as 'queues-lose'?
my fave cartoons are the moden toss ones, they have a certain 'je ne cest quoi'

Sempé had an amazing ability to be funny, mean, nostalgic, understanding, and other adjectives, all at the same time, in one picture. And often, it's without using words at all. Awesome stuff.

Now also here:

http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/sempe/

I'm very sad to read that the wonderful Sempé has died:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/11/le-petit-nicolas-illustrator-jean-jacques-sempe-dies-aged-89

Repose en paix.

Quite so