Ylipe

Philippe Labarthe, pseudonym Ylipe (9 January 1936 – 8 March 2003) was a French humorist, artist, and writer.[1][2] He was born in Bordeaux and studied Fine Arts there before moving to Paris to work as a cartoonist, painter and aphorist.[1] He signed his cartoons φlipe, using the Greek letter phi (φ) in place of the first three letters of his forename.[3] Maurice Nadeau misread the Greek φ as a Latin y and the name Ylipe stuck.[3] In the 1960s he contributed to Arts, L'Express, and Lettres nouvelles,[1][2] and signed the Manifesto of the 121 opposing the use of torture during the Algerian War.[3] He later exhibited paintings in New York and Paris under his own name, with backing from Eugène Ionesco and Jacques Prévert.[1][2] In 2000, a back injury prevented him painting and he returned to writing aphorisms.[4] His writing and painting often exhibit black humour;[2][5] Dominique Noguez described him as a "sparkling misanthrope" (French: misanthrope étincelant).[5] He died of lung cancer, having refused medical treatment.[5]