Daniel Goossens (born 16 May 1954 in Salon-de-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, though German Wikipedia records his birthplace as Paris) is a French comic artist and cartoonist.^[1,6] In addition to his work in comics, he is an associate professor, lecturer, and computer science researcher in the field of artificial intelligence at the University of Paris.^[6,21]

He has collaborated with magazines such as Pilote and Hara-Kiri, and has been an active contributor and pillar of the magazine Fluide Glacial since 1977, where he is recognized for his absurd and often cerebral humor. Admired by his peers and celebrated by critics, he won the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 1997, although his public success has remained more limited.^[11,22]

At the age of 16, Daniel Goossens published a drawing in Spirou. His regular publications and comic career began in 1971 in the scout magazine Pionniers. After completing his baccalaureate, he enrolled in the experimental university of Vincennes (Paris 8 University) to take comic courses taught by Moebius and then Jean-Claude Mézières, where he also discovered artificial intelligence through Patrick Greussay, who shared his passion with him.^[9,10] After several initial failures, he joined Pilote in 1976 through the mediation of Mézières, who introduced him to editor-in-chief Guy Vidal, leading to the publication of several of his short stories.^[2] Gotlib, who had created Fluide glacial two years earlier with Jacques Diament, noticed one of Goossens' comic strips in Pilote and wrote him a letter to arrange a meeting.

After only a few months at Pilote, Goossens joined Fluide glacial in 1977 at Gotlib's request, publishing his first page, Le Messie est Revenu, in February 1977 in issue 9 of Fluide glacial "Magazine d’Umour", with Gotlib suggesting the idea for the punchline.^[3,4] Goossens became a mainstay and regular author for Fluide glacial, publishing an episode of his absurd series in nearly every issue and producing the majority of his comic work there. His comics are characterized by dark, intellectual humor and feature subjects and characters such as Santa Claus, Jesus Christ, Albert Einstein, and babies (L'encyclopédie des bébés).^[23] In parallel, he contributed to other periodicals and comic collectives, including (à suivre), Marie-France, Le Petit Psikopat Illustré (the precursor to Psikopat), Rigolo, PLG, and J'ai Lu BD.^[5] His short stories created for Rigolo were collected and published under the title Laisse Autant le Vent Emporter in 1985 by Les Humanoïdes Associés. In German, an anthology of his work was published in 1982 by Volksverlag, and individual stories were released in U-Comix. In 1997, Goossens was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême.

Goossens' comics are built on a clash between semi-realistic art and surreal content, falling within the lineage of the "comico-realistic" style inherited from Mad Magazine, which combines elements of both the "big nose" style and the realistic style with very structured, semi-realistic drawing.^[2] During an interview given to Tracks in October 2022, he stated that his drawing is recognized by being "probably very nervous, very dry and very precise in expressions, it is also very caricatural". He masters anatomy, perspective, light, and color, as well as the drawing of drapery, of which he made a parodic "anatomy treatise" where he enjoyed giving scientific names to clothing folds such as "forearm sardines" or "great elbow highlighter". For his inking and color, he uses sable hair brushes and Colorex watercolor ink.^[14]

Most of his comic books are collections of short stories with a loose common thread. Like his mentor Gotlib, Goossens has also often used a mock-encyclopedic tone. He relishes regurgitating clichéd situations from literature, film, and television, and introducing odd twists, such as in his classic book Route vers l'enfer, which is a war film pastiche starring Father Christmas. Particular attention is paid to dialogues, which often drag on past all logic and include much stuttering, mumbling, and other noises rendered phonetically. Goossens' inquiry on the absurd does not refrain from astonishing scenes that some may find disturbing, such as a gang of children stoning Father Christmas, an infant Albert Einstein tossing an eye out of a bully at the kindergarten, or a mother consulting a doctor for basic practical wisdom until she finally brings her baby's skeleton.

Daniel Goossens was awarded multiple times for his work. In 1979, he received the Saint-Michel Award for best foreign cartoonist for all of his work published in Fluide glacial. He won the Angoulême Festival Promising New Talent Award (Alfred de l'espoir) for La Vie d'Einstein in 1981, followed by the Alph-Art Humor Award at the Angoulême Festival in 1991 for L'Encyclopédie des bébés. In 1997, he was awarded the Grand Prix de la Ville d’Angoulême at the International Comics Festival in Angoulême, where he also received the Prix de l’École supérieure de l’image. Later, in 2007, he received the Humor Comic Book Award in Nantes at the "Juste pour Rire Nantes Atlantique" Festival for Panique au bout du fil.