Le petit Nicolas

When I think Rene Goscinny, I think Asterix. I never knew, for example, that he had also created a comic in the late-50s to mid-60s called Le petit Nicolas - but he did.
Although Goscinny did not draw these comics - they were drawn by another artist named Jean-Jacques Sempe - it was Goscinny's daughter, Anne, who found several hundred pages of Nicolas hidden away in her father's house. Until now, only five volumes have been released, so this discovery was quite a surprise, I am sure!

With Mr Sempé's blessing, Ms Goscinny and her husband set up a publishing house, called IMAV, to make a book out of the 80 rediscovered stories. The 600-page volume, “Histoires inédites du Petit Nicolas”, has become an instant hit, selling 250,000 copies since its publication in October. On December 6th hundreds of people snaked around the Virgin Megastore building on the Champs-Elysées in Paris to have their book signed by Mr Sempé.

I always loved reading Asterix when I was younger. But Nicolas seems to be a completely different breed of story. It revolves around a young boy, his friend who eats too much, and a girl friend of his whose father "install telephones in peoples' houses"! Although no tome has been translated into English, I am sure it will happen soon, considering how successful the new collection has done in France!