Les Pieds Nickelés

Les Pieds Nickelés (French for "The nickel plated feet") is a French comic series, originally created by Louis Forton. The comic premiered on June 4, 1908 in the newspaper L'Épatant, published by Société Parisienne d'Édition. It is considered to be one of the earliest French comics and one of the longest-running. It centers on a group of anarchist youth getting in trouble. In French informal speech of the early twentieth century, "nickel-plated feet" was a moniker for slackers, work-shy people. The story features three main characters named Croquignol, Filochard, and Ribouldingue, three brothers who are good hearted but at the same time are indolent crooks and slackers, characteristics of anarchists. Les Pieds Nickelés was originally drawn in text comics format, with the text written beneath the images. Louis Forton had to struggle with his editors to use actual speech balloons, as was common in American comics. At the beginning of their "career", the 'nickel-plated feet' constantly clash with the police in various adventures where they rarely have the upper hand. Gradually, as the comic book became increasingly popular, the Pied-Nickelés gain widened scope, complexity, and audacity. Over time, they are seen rubbing shoulders with the elite of their time, such as the President of France, the King of England, and the Kaiser of Germany. With the arrival of First World War, the personalities of the Pied-Nickelés takes a new turn. They embody the popular French values of ingenuity and resourcefulness known as "System D". Operating behind the enemy lines under multiple guises, they constantly fool the "Boches" (French derogatory nickname for the Germans), portrayed like big heavy oafs without any finesse and easily fooled. Louis Forton continued to draw the Pied Nickelés until his death in 1934, after which the series was taken over by Aristide Perré and Albert Badert. However, it was not until Pellos took over in 1948 that the Nickelés returned to success. The successive authors of the Nickelés thus changed the comics and evolved the comics in new directions.