Iznogoud #28 - 'Les Mille et une Nuits du Calife' (2008).
Nicolas Tabary is a French comic artist, cartoonist and illustrator. From 2008 until 2021, he succeeded his father Jean Tabary as the artist of the humorous series about the diabolical grand vizier 'Iznogoud'.
Early life and career
Nicolas Tabary was born in 1966 in Paris, as the son of comic artist Jean Tabary. He is the nephew of Jacques Tabary and Pierre Tabary. Nicolas Tabary started out working in the advertising industry. In 1991, he founded the Atelier Graphique Nicolas Tabary, a design and communication company in Rochefort in the Charente-Maritime district.
Iznogoud
In 1984, Nicolas Tabary began working in the comic industry, assisting his father with the colorization of his series 'Iznogoud', 'Grabadu et Gabaliouchtou', 'Totoche' and 'Corinne et Jeannot' at Éditions de la Séguinière. Between February and November 1999, he also served as chief editor of the short-lived monthly Le Magazine de Corinne et Jeannot.
In 2004, Jean Tabary suffered a stroke, leaving him unable to draw new adventures of his signature series 'Iznogoud'. Nicolas Tabary was appointed the new artist of the series, with 'Les Mille et Une Nuits du Calife' (2008) being the first story completely drawn by him. As scriptwriters, his brother Stéphane Tabary and sister Muriel Tabary-Dumas were brought in. Following the death of Jean Tabary in 2011, 'Iznogoud' was continued by new scriptwriters, including Nicolas Canteloup, Jul and Laurent Vassilian. At the turn of the 2010s into the 2020s, Nicolas Tabary announced his intention to pass the pencil to another artist, in order to focus on different projects. His successor became Elric.
'Les Aventures d'Orick et la Mouette Trieuse - L'Île Aux Trois Couleurs' (2006).
Promotional comics
In addition to 'Iznogoud', Nicolas Tabary has worked on a variety of advertising comic books. In the mid-1990s, he provided colors for 'Don Patillo Veille Au Grain!' (Delcourt, 1995), a comic book for Panzani pasta, written by Christine Arfeuillères and drawn by Jacques Boisnard. With his sister Muriel as scriptwriter, he created the one-shot comic book 'Les Aventures d'Orick et la Mouette Trieuse - L'Île Aux Trois Couleurs' (2003) for the community of Cap L'Orient. For the Tête De Com communication agency, he worked with scriptwriter Jean-Pierre Cétou on the two-volume comic series 'Têtes de Com - Le Petit Monde de Gigapôle' (JMD Conseil, 2004, 2006), and for the Kéolis public transport company, he made the promotional comic book 'Karo & Niko – Mystère Sur Le Littoral' (2004) with scriptwriter Frédéric Huet.
Cartoon for L'Hebdo de Charente-Maritime (30 December 2015).
Other comics and cartoons
Since 2015, Nicolas Tabary has made a weekly political cartoon for L'Hebdo de Charente-Maritime. A selection of his topical cartoons was released in 2016 by Siranouche Éditions in the format of a coloring book, under the title 'Devenez coloriste à la place du coloriste' ("Becoming colorist instead of the colorist")". The title is a pun on Iznogoud's famous catchphrase "Je veux devenir caliphe à la place du caliph!" ("I want to become caliph instead of the caliph!"). With Eric Corbeyran as scriptwriter, he adapted Alexandre Jolien's philosophical novel 'Éloge de la Faiblesse' into a 2016 graphic novel for Éditions Marabout.
Graphic contributions
Nicolas Tabary was one of several comic artists paying tribute to the victims of the 2015 terrorist attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine. His homage was collected in the book 'La BD est Charlie' (Syndicat National de l'Édition, 2015). In 2016, Tabary also made a graphic homage to Émile-Joseph Pinchon's classic character Bécassine in 'Hommage à Bécassine' (Gautier-Languereau, 2016), and to the recently deceased Marcel Gotlib in a special issue of Fluide Glacial.
'Éloge de la Faiblesse' (2016).