Daniel Goossens is one of the main artists of the humorous comic magazine Fluide Glacial, and a master of the surreal. He was born in Salon-de-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, and had a first publication in Spirou at the age of 16. He then moved to Tahiti with his father, who was in the military. There, he cooperated on the fanzine Tikirama from 1970 to 1971. Back in France, he began a collaboration with the boy scout magazine Pionniers. He had a brief appearance in Pilote, before becoming one of the regular artists of Fluide Glacial in 1977. Among his best known features for this magazine are 'L'Encyclopédie des Bébés', 'La Vie d'Einstein', and 'Georges et Louis'.
La Vie d'Einstein (Fluide Glacial 68)
These serials have all been collected in albums at Audie, as well as his independent short stories ('Route Vers L'Enfer', 'La Messie est Revenu', 'L'Homme à La Valise', 'Le Romantisme est Absolu', 'L'Esprit, le Corps et la Graine' and 'Voyage au Bout de la Lune'). Besides his work for Fluide Glacial, Goossens has also cooperated to À Suivre, Marie-France, Psikopat and Rigolo. His short stories for Rigolo have been collected in the album 'Laisse Autant le Vent Emporter' at Humanoïdes Associés in 1985.
Goossens was one of several artists to make a graphic contribution to ‘Pepperland’ (1980), a collective comic book tribute to the store Pepperland, to celebrate its 10th anniversary at the time. He was one of several artists to make a graphic contribution to 'Baston Labaffe no. 5: La Ballade des Baffes’ (Goupil, 1983), an official collective parody comic of André Franquin’s 'Gaston Lagaffe’. He made a graphic contribution to the book 'Françaises, Français, Belges, Belges, Lecteur Chéri, Mon Amour' (Jungle!, 2005), in which comic artists illustrated short stories by comedian Pierre Desproges.
L'Encyclopédie des Bébés (Fluide Glacial 137)
Goossens' stories can be best compared to the absurd sketches of the British comedy group Monty Python. Goossens picks conventions from literature, film, television and history, and gives them a surreal twist. His serial 'Route Vers L'Enfer' is a war film pastiche starring Father Christmas, while 'La Vie d'Einstein' tears down the myth of the theory of relativity and its inventor. He often uses the same documentary approach as his mentor Gotlib, as his stories are populated with TV hosts, interviewees and talk show guests. The strangeness of his characters and his illusions of reality are even more emphasized through his semi-realistic drawing style.
Besides being a cartoonist, Goossens is also a lecturer and researcher in artificial intelligence at the University of Paris VIII.
Daniel Gossens has been cited as an influence by Philippe Wurm.
