'Le Bouillant Bidou' from L'Illustration (23 March 1935), signed by "Pik".
The pen names of Pik and Lem most likely belonged to the same unknown Canadian cartoonist. Both are connected to the highly obscure comic feature 'Le Bouillant Bidou', which, signed by Pik, first ran in L'Illustration (1935) and then, signed by Lem, in Photo-Journal (1956). The cartoonist Lem should not be confused with the Belgian illustrator Jules Gustave Lempereur (1902-1985), the French sports caricaturist Jacques Lem (1925-2009) or the Belgian comic artist Xavier Lemmens (b. 1980), who have all used the pen name Lem.
Identity
Virtually nothing is known about the cartoonists Pik and/or Lem, who were most likely from Québec. Lem's pseudonym might be the first three letters of a name, possibly from a person called Lemieux, Lemaire, Lemay, Lemonde, Lemoyne, etc. Considering the obscurity of the character, the usage of the same header and the similar rudimentary artwork, it is most likely that Pik and Lem are the same person.
'Le Bouillant Bidou' from Photo-Journal (1956), signed by "Lem".
Le Bouillant Bidou
Between 19 January and at least 21 September 1935, the adventures of the young baker 'Le Bouillant Bidou' first appeared in the weekly magazine L'Illustration. The feature consisted of nine panels a week, with text captions underneath the images. At the bottom of each episode, a stand-alone gag strip of three panels with other characters was printed, also signed by Pik.
As L'Illustration ran mostly international comics, the strip had the byline "Pages Comiques Canadienes Exlusives à L'Illustration" ("Exclusive Canadian Humor Pages in L'Illustration"), making Bouillant Bidou one of the earliest original Canadian comic characters, along with 'Timothée' by Albéric Bourgeois in La Patrie du Samedi (1904-1905), 'Petits Espiègles' by Yvette Lapointe in La Patrie (1933), 'Casimir' by Tom Lucas and 'L'Oncle Pacifique' by Pierre Saint-Loup in Le Petit Journal (1935-1945), 'Bouboule' by Albert Chartier in La Patrie du Dimanche (1936-1937) and 'La Mère Jasette' by H. Christin in Le Petit Journal (1939-1951).
Over 20 years later, from 18 November through 30 December 1956, the Québec weekly newspaper Photo Journal ran the Lem version of gag comic 'Le Bouillant Bidou'. Considering the feature still had rudimentary artwork, Lem was presumably not a professional cartoonist, which might explain why his feature ran for only seven episodes. No further comics by Lem or Pik are known.
Companion strip from the 26 January 1935 episode of 'Le Bouillant Bidou', by Pik.