Edmond Kirazian was a French-Armenian cartoonist, who worked under the penname Kiraz. Born in Cairo, Egypt, into an Armenian family, Kirazian settled in France in 1946. He had published his first political drawings from age 17 in Egyptian papers like Image, Parade, La Réforme d'Alexandrie, Al Moussavar and Al Itnein. In France, he continued to make humorous drawings for La Bataille (1949-51), Nuit et Jour, Le Rouge et le Noir (1951-52), Carrefour, Le Nouveau Candide, Point de Vue-Images du Monde and Le Chasseur Français throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
In 1950 he created the comic strip 'Line' for Samedi Soir. It was continued in Ici-Paris from 1956 on. Another comic by Kiraz was 'Roméo et Lucette' in Lectures pour Tous in 1954. Kiraz became well known for his drawings of Parisian girls, at first in the feature 'Carnets de Belles' in Ici Paris (1955-1964), later as 'Les Parisiennes' in Jours de France (1959-1987). The girls have also made regular appearances in advertisements. Although a loyal and longtime artist for Jours de France, Kiraz's art later also appeared in Gala (1995-2000), Paris Match, Vogue, the Spanish magazines ABC and Ola, Grazia from Italy, and especially Playboy from 1970 on.
