| Siné | |
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Siné in March 2007 |
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| Born | 31 December 1928 Paris |
Maurice Sinet (born 31 December 1928), known as Siné, is a French cartoonist.
As a young man he studied drawing and graphic arts, while earning a living as a cabaret singer. After his military service he started publishing his drawings and also worked as a photo-retoucher for porn magazines. His first published drawing appeared in France-Dimanche in 1952. Siné received the Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir in 1955 for his collection Complainte sans Paroles. His series of drawings on cats was his breakthrough. He then started working for L'Express as a political cartoonist.
Siné's anti-colonialism caused controversy during the Algerian war. He was sued a number of times, being defended by Jacques Vergès, then a lawyer for the Algerian Liberation Front.
In 1962 Siné left L'Express and launched his own publication, Siné Massacre, noted for its anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, anti-clericalism and anarchism. On reviewing the book, Private Eye described Siné's cartoons as "grotesque" (9 December 1966), criticising publisher Penguin Books, who subsequently removed all unsold stock and listed the title 'out of print'.
In May 1968, together with Jean-Jacques Pauvert, he launched L'Enragé.
Siné is a great lover of jazz, and has illustrated several books on jazz as well as record covers. He's a dignitary of the French Collège de 'Pataphysique.
His article and cartoons in the magazine Charlie Hebdo relating to Jean Sarkozy's marriage to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the Jewish heiress, touched off a controversy, after journalist Claude Askolovitch described them as anti-Semitic.[1] The magazine's editor, Phillipe Val, ordered Siné to write a letter of apology or face termination. The cartoonist said he would rather "cut his own balls off", and was promptly fired.[2] Both sides subsequently filed lawsuits, and in December 2010, Siné won a 40,000-euro court judgment against his former publisher for wrongful termination.[3]
Maurice Sinet also reported a death threat posted on a site run by the Jewish Defence League. The text said "20 centimeters of stainless steel in the gut, that should teach the bastard to stop and think".[4]