'Sam et Sap'.
Émile Tap was an early 20th-century French cartoonist and caricaturist, who worked under a variety of pen names. His art included illustrations, caricatures, political cartoons and children's picture stories, published in magazines like Le Petit Illustré Amusant, Le Pêle-Mêle, Le Populaire Illustré, Le Gaulois, and many more. As Rose Candide, he is believed to be the artist of 'Sam et Sap' (1908), considered the first French comic story using speech balloons. Even though Tap is often associated with the signatures E. Tap and Rose Candide, these names have also been attributed to the French painter Edmond Tapissier (1861-1943), making a definite identification difficult.
Life and career
Very little is known about Émile Tap's background. He was born in 1876 and he died in 1940. Between the First and Second World War, he was a clerk of the Commune Libre de Montmartre, an association imagined in 1921 by local artists to maintain the festive spirit of Paris's Montmartre district. At the Commune Libre's so-called "crust fairs" ("foire aux croûtes"), he exhibited his humorous and satirical ink wash drawings. He was also known for illustrating postcards, advertisements and sheet music.
From: 'Les Atrocités Allemandes en France et en Belgique' (1915).
Caricatures and cartoons
Between 1899 and 1902, cartoons and caricatures signed with "E. Tap" or "Tapy" began appearing in magazines like L'Illustré National, L'Exposition Comique, Jean qui Rit, Le Frou-Frou, Le Sourire, Le Pompon, Le Caricature, Le Tutu and Le Bon Vivant. A great many more magazines were added to that list in the decades that followed. Tap's art appeared frequently in Le Pêle-Mêle (1901-1920), Le Rire (1901-1929), Le Petit Illustré Amusant (1902-1907), Polichinelle (1903-1912), La Chronique Amusante (1905-1909), Mon Dimanche (1906-1911), La Guerre Sociale (1910-1916), Le Guy Blas (1915-1929), La Victoire (1916-1944), La Vache Enragée (1917-1924), Aux Écoutes (1918-1936) and Commentaires (1928-1939). In 1915, a selection of E. Tap's World War I-related drawings, detailing the atrocities of the German army, were collected by the Libraire de l'Estampe in the book 'Les Atrocités Allemandes en France et en Belgique'.
'Sam et Sap: Aventures Surprenantes d'un Petit Nègre et de son Singe' (1908).
Sam et Sap
Émile Tap is also believed to be the artist Rose Candide, a signature first appearing in 1903 in the magazines published by Offenstadt. With this pen name, he illustrated fairy tales by Charles Perrault (in Polichinelle magazine), but also picture stories for children's magazines. A notable story credited to Rose Candide was 'Sam et Sap: Aventures Surprenantes d'un Petit Nègre et de son Singe' ("Sam and Sap: Surprising Adventures of a Little Negro and his Monkey"), first serialized in the magazine Saint-Nicolas and then published in book format by Éditions Delagrave in 1908. Written by G. Le Cordier, the story was a product of its time. Created long before the decolonization of France, 'Sam et Sap' told the adventures of the black bellboy Sam and his talking monkey Sapajou, who join the service of a wealthy white family. Unfamiliar with the customs of the middle-class, the two engage in a sequence of clumsy acts. As with most early 20th-century comics about "uncivilized funny foreigners", the comedy nowadays comes across as racially offensive. Sam and Sap are unable to speak standard French and thus talk in African pidgin slang.
The outdated comedy aside, 'Sam et Sap' is historically significant as the first known French comic story using speech balloons. At the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, most Continental European comics still printed narration and dialogue underneath the images. Despite 'Sam et Sap' 's pioneering role, balloon comics didn't really catch on in French-language comics for several decades. The usage of presenting dialogue in balloons pointing to the characters' heads became more common practice with the creation of 'Zig et Puce' (1925) by Alain Saint-Ogan.
"La meute est sortie" ("The pack is out", 1940). Cartoon by E. Tap depicting Adolf Hitler at the start of World War II.
Émile Tapissier
Despite the presence in so many early 20th century French magazines, there is still no certainty about the identity of both "E. Tap" and "Rose Candide". For many years, it was believed that Rose Candide was a female illustrator - and as such the first French woman to make a comic story. "Her" style showed similarities with that of an artist signing with "E. Tap", and art by both illustrators appeared in a 1941 book collection of Perrault fairy tales by the Imagerie Merveilleuse de l'Enfance. This led to the assumption that Candide and Tap were either a couple or the same person. During the 1990s, the French comics researcher Georges Jouet delved into the matter and first attributed both signatures to the French painter, illustrator, lithographer and tapestry designer Edmond Tapissier (1861-1943) and his wife. Afterwards, Jouet came to revise this assumption after coming across the postcard illustrator and clerk Émile Tap, who also signed with Tapy. However, many (online) resources, including Wikipedia, still identify Edmond Tapissier as both E. Tap and Rose Candide, leaving the matter open for debate. Some articles also associate Tapissier with the pen names Pink Candide and Bigoudis, making it possible that these were pseudonyms of Émile Tap as well.
'Facheux Contretemps', picture story signed by E. Tap in La Gazette Vosgienne of 26 June 1904.