Edmond Kiraz, born Kirazian (25 August 1923 – 11 August 2020) [1] was an Egyptian-born French-Armenian cartoonist, painter, and illustrator.
Edmond Kirazian (or Kirazyan) was born on 25 August 1923 in Cairo, and was of Armenian descent. He was named after French writer Edmond Rostand. [2]
Kiraz started painting from an early age, and had apprenticed under Armenian artist Ashot Zorian. [2] Kiraz began his career as a political cartoonist at age 17 (without formal artistic training) in Egypt.[ citation needed] Kiraz later studied at the Nubarian National College in Cairo. [2] He emigrated post- World War II to Paris. [2]
In 1950 he created the comic strip, Line. [3] In 1959, while he was working for the French magazine Jours de France, his boss, Marcel Dassault, had him move from politics to humor. As time passed, Kiraz developed a distinctive and humorous pictorial style of representing women that he called Les Parisiennes: very thin, with long legs, small breasts, and a pouty face. His cartoons are often not only humorous but slightly naughty or erotic, and since 1970 he had contributed regularly to Playboy magazine. [4]