'Zoé, Enfant Terrible'. Translation: "What a disaster: I'm first in everything. That says a lot about the intellectual level of my class."
Ange Michel was a mid-20th-century French-Algerian press cartoonist, most notable as one of several artists to draw the newspaper gag comic 'Zoé, Enfant Terrible'.
Press cartoonist
Not much is known about the artist Ange Michel, who worked under either his surname or a pseudonym. According to the 'Dico Solo' encyclopedia of press cartoonists (Aedis, 2004), Ange Michel was born in Blida, Algeria, in 1920. After starting as an engraver, he became a gag cartoonist in the Algerian press. During World War II, he served in the operational intelligence office of the French Army. Demobilized, he eventually stayed in France, where he resumed his work as press cartoonist. His drawings appeared in titles like Carrefour (1945-1970), Aux Écoutes, Le Merle Blanc (1948), Point de Vue-Images du Monde, Le Courrier de l'Ouest (1949-1950), Le Parisien Libéré (1949-1964), La Vie Catholique Illustrée (1950-1963), Paris-Match (1951, 1954), Semaine du Monde (1953-1954), L'Écho Liberté (1954), Ici Paris (1956), Almanaque Magazine Radio Télé Luxembourg (1959), Divertissements (1961) and La Vie du Rail (1962).
Comic strips
In the French newspaper Le Parisien Libéré, he was one of the artists of the feature 'Zoé Enfant Terrible' (1949-1974). The title character is the schoolgirl Zoé, who has a sharp, snout-like nose and two ponytails which stand upright. She is considerably smart for her age and not shy about expressing her sometimes brutally honest thoughts. Ange Michel worked on the comic from the start until the mid-1960s, taking turns with other cartoonists who worked on the feature at the same time, like Jo Carbi, Roland Moisan and creator Michel Douay. Besides Le Parisien, the 'Zoé' strip also ran in La Liberté du Massif Central, L'Oise Matin and La Liberté de l'Est. In estimation, Ange Michel drew about 1,200 of the 7,800 strips.
An additional comic by Ange Michel is 'Les Aventures de M. Cordial' (1954), an advertising strip for the firm Clacquemin appeared in L'Aurore.
"Et surtout, tu diras au plombier que c'est urgent!"("And above all, tell the plumber that it’s urgent!").