Topor, Roland

(1938-1997)

   artist, writer

   Born in Paris, Roland Topor collaborated on various revues, including Hari-Kiri, and in 1961 was a founder of the Panique group that also gives its title to one of his albums of ink drawings (Panic, 1965). The creator of color drawings, seriographs, and text illuminations (La Vérité sur Max Lampin, 1968), Topor also wrote novels and short stories (La Princesse Angine, 1967; La Cuisine cannibale, 1971; Mémoires d'un vieux con, 1975). With rené laloux, he produced an animated film, La Planète sauvage (1973). One can find, in all Topor's works, a black humor that blends the absurd with the cruel, while leaving the appearance of poetry that is reinforced in his drawings through a style that evokes the engravers of the 19th century.