Claude Moliterni, Comics Scholar and FIBD Co-Founder, Dead at 76

Tom Spurgeon reports the death last Tuesday of French comics scholar, comics writer, novelist, editor, curator and event organizer Claude Moliterni. Moliterni “became involved in France’s influential comics-advocacy groups by becoming president of the Societe civile d’etudes et de recherches des litteratures dessinees (SOCERLID) in 1964, and founding the magazine Phenix in 1966.” With Pierre Couperie he curated the early major exhibit “Bande dessinee et figuration narrative” in 1967, also co-authoring a book by the same title. The ISA Style website carries photographs from that exhibit.

Among his many activities, Moliterni wrote and edited several books about comics history and edited comics projects at Dargaud. He was also a co-founder of the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angouleme, France. Among English-language readers he may be best known as a contributor to Pierre Couperie and Maurice Horn’s book A History of the Comic Strip, for which he wrote the chapter on “Narrative Technique.” Molierni was 76 years old at the time of his death.