From the Comics Strip to the Airwaves

Abstract

Thought as a case study illustrating the connections between comics (bandes dessinées) and radio, this article analyses the short-lived radio show ‘Le Feu de camp du dimanche matin’ (Sunday Morning Campfire). It aired for 13 episodes in 1969 on the waves of Europe n°1 and was presented by members of the comics magazine Pilote. This article is based on the two surviving episodes and a few issues of the magazine to offer an analysis that reveals the links between two mass media of popular culture. Rather unknown, this show is a fascinating, although not so successful, experiment of ‘comics celebrities’ to transpose their culture, references and sense of humour, onto a different medium. These connections highlight the permeability between two highly popular media in the late 1960s, and the ways in which the norms of each medium were played with and, at times, transgressed.