2Comic book series Bicot, président de club (Bicot, Club President) was published in this particular context, first in the United States, and then in France starting in 1924, when it appeared in the Dimanche Illustré, a supplement to L'Excelsior. The one-page stories made it to the center pages of the newspaper. These were set in 1920s America. A funny, mischievous, feisty kid named Bicot founded the Ran-Tan-Plan club with a bunch of other kids. Together, they were dreaming of putting together a sports team and attending baseball games nearby. Thus, they had to make some money (see image 1).

3In order to do so, they completed odd jobs in their neighborhood, helping out shopkeepers and elderly people. But they also engaged in petty theft. Besides, most of the time, they only thought about having fun and playing pranks on people. Bicot’s stories often ended in failure. In spite of the kids’ good will, things went wrong when they tried to give people a hand. Their carefully-planned thefts came to sudden ends, and the club’s till remained hopelessly empty. Sometimes, the kids even became the victims of their own plans. But it did not matter, for Bicot was having fun. That was without taking his big sister Suzy into account. She was some fifteen years older than him, and she was planning on giving her little rascal of a brother a good education, while he was only thinking about escaping her watch to join his gang made of kids from poor backgrounds. As for him, Bicot was part of a working-class-to-lower-middle-class family which aspired to move up the social ladder – just as Suzy wished.

5These wood boards were so important that no matter the story or place, Branner drew fences of different sizes and materials which were always signifying. Out of the 220 studied stories, 149 took place outdoors in the city. Only 26 of them did not feature a fence. Moreover, a wooden wall was to be found in more than a quarter (29%) of the comic book squares when the action occurred in the city. This consistent representation gave the readers some landmarks, for Bicot’s adventures moved from one neighborhood to another. And only a few clues helped them to locate the action. Did Bicot’s adventures took place in one of these small towns which were still beloved in 1920s America, or in the growing suburbs of a big city which were changing America’s urban landscapes at that same period? Were the short stories staged downtown, in nearby streets, in residential neighborhoods, or next to some megalopolis, as it was suggested in “The Unexpected Swim” (« La baignade imprévue », in Bicot #1), in which the reader could see towers in the background, behind some wide river navigated by liners? Certainly, there were some clues in the background regarding the urban setting – higher buildings or numerous shops (“A Fair Revenge”, « Une juste vengeance », in Bicot #1), or, on the contrary, single wood houses (“You Break the Glasses, You Pay For Them”, « Qui casse les verres, les paie », in Bicot #3). But in the end, no matter where the stories unfolded, what mattered to young readers were the pranks, adventures and misadventures experienced by Bicot, and his tricks to escape from his sister’s watch.

6Turned into their own playground by Bicot and his friends, the waste ground and wooden fence worked as landmarks. They reminded the readers that they were reading a Bicot story. These two elements gave some kind of unity and balance to the short stories, even while they took place in changing, hard-to-identify places.

About the context

9The Bicot, président de club series was written by Martin Branner. It was created in 1920 in the United States under the title Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner, in the form of four-to-five-square comic strips. In 1923, a Sunday page in color was added to the weekly strips, focusing on the adventures of Perry/Bicot, Winnie/Suzy’s adopted little brother.

12As previously written, the action took place during the interwar period. Bicot lived in a fictitious American city, in a neighborhood with small houses and a few buildings. The urban landscape changed from story to story, along with the neighborhood where Bicot did his pranks. Nevertheless, it definitely referred to America, especially through the iconic image of the kid’s father sat in his rocking chair on the terrace of a wooden house.

15As far as methodology was concerned, this research consisted in deciphering the messages contained in the drawings (PEETERS, 1991) without overinterpreting them. Inspired by the work of scholars from Besançon (LAFFAGE-COSNIER, VIVIER, 2012), this study aimed at highlighting what the squares showed and conveyed, as well as what they inspired and allowed the readers to imagine, as these levels of interpretation – the obvious and the suggested – could differ. Two kinds of analysis were jointly led. The first one was quantitative. It allowed us to identify key elements, formulate hypotheses and ask the main question tackled in this research. The second one was qualitative. It allowed a subtler reading of what the figures showed, and highlighted what they could not.

16Reading a comic book is a visual experience first. What “jumps out” and catches the reader’s eye, and what makes sense right from the start is what can be seen. For the cartoonist, keeping on representing an element is one of the ways to make it visible. He can also change its size or location in the drawing. Counting the occurrences of an element allows us to grasp its importance before digging a little deeper into its meaning. This work was based on reading the books without any preconceived idea in mind over which elements to look for. Identifying the most represented elements and regrouping them into categories led us to build hypotheses and strengthen our demonstration. Two types of lists were put up. The first list focused on the presence of the fence and playground in the comic books, while the second one highlighted the parts they played in each story and how Bicot used them. Knowing how many times the fence and playground were drawn in Bicot, président de club was essential to our understanding of their status in the series. The second, qualitative analysis allowed us to build a more complete understanding of this status. Groensteen’s thorough work (GROENSTEEN, 1999) underlined the complexity of such a study. What he named “iconic solidarity” led us to take into account the context of the interwar period both in France and the United States in our reading of the series. Indeed, referring to what happened at a particular time is “the most valuable protection against hasty interpretation” (GERVEREAU, 2000, p. 54). Among other things, it allows to seize the way young French readers understood Bicot’s adventures and experienced them then. Studying the context also allowed us to understand the difference between the series’ American and French versions (GORDON, 2016), and, starting from there, consider a semiotic reading of the fence and waste-ground-turned-playground.

17Even though some data were linked to a short story as a whole, these analyses, both quantitative and qualitative, mostly focused on the squares. Indeed, they were relatively autonomous and sent multiple messages. Some of them sometimes even conveyed messages which were independent from the rest of the short story they were part of. In the same time, they were meant to be coherent and they were part of a whole designed by the author. They gave the reader the opportunity to move on in the story step by step, but they could also exist on their own at the margin of the main, “official” story or create their own story. Of course, the whole page and its general meaning were also taken into account.

Characters in their own right

18The playground and fence stood as important elements in Bicot, président de club. In the foreword to the second edition by Hachette in 1965, Claude Santelli wrote

How about these fences, moving landscape, infinite space where mirages come and go! What wouldn’t we imagine while looking at them? . . . We all thought we had already seen this fence: it was featured in Tom Sawyer. . . It was the very fence which sheltered the Tramp’s happiness. . . Above all, this fence, this vast territory which belongs to no one, is the hidden world where the Ran-Tan-Plan club could maybe take refuge one day

The Playground As Another World

20In Bicot, président de club, the waste-ground-turned-playground was mostly located on the corner, between two blocks. 78 stories took place in an outdoor urban environment while 32 were set in the countryside. In a few stories, the ground was sometimes located at the city’s limits. A long shot would show the countryside or factories in the background, reinforcing this idea of an in-between space. This area would not belong either to the city or the country. Thus, it would fit the definition of what sociologist Ratzel named “scattered cases”. Branner was inspired by the changes undergone by the American cities during the interwar years. At that time, urbanization spread towards the cities’ outskirts, which were divided into zones or parcels. Residential suburbs developed next to underdeveloped, sometimes rural sites (SUKKO, 2007 and GHORRA-GOBIN, 1997). Several Bicot adventures showed the kid in the nearby countryside either fishing (“A Fishing Contest”, « Un concours de pêche », in Bicot #2), swimming (“Bicot Does Not Want to Go for a Swim”, « Bicot ne veut pas se baigner », in Bicot #3) or sometimes working at the farm (“A Day of Rest”, « Une journée de repos », in Bicot #4). Other adventures showed the kids’ playground next to fields (“Bicot and the Broken Windows”, « Bicot et les carreaux cassés », in Bicot #3). Branner used to draw different territories on each side of the waste ground. On the one hand, there were the suburbs, where lower-middle-class families – along with Bicot’s – lived. On the other hand, there were poor neighborhoods where the other Ran-Tan-Plan kids lived. Even though the lower-class housing was not portrayed by the cartoonist, it was nonetheless to be found in Bicot’s adventures. Branner gave hints of its presence, and the reader’s imagination did the rest. Two social and urban backgrounds were put in contrast. In the background of certain squares, one could see a few shacks and projects looking in bad shape. Other squares featured stone walls, while others showed numerous, damaged wooden fences with missing boards, and streets filled with tramps and kids in rags. All this offered a sharp contrast to other squares with fancy neighborhoods where well-dressed kids played in well-equipped parks or well-kept houses (“A Humiliating Situation”, « Une humiliante situation », in Bicot #1). Moreover, the entrance of the basement where an African-American family lived (“Negro Battle”, « Bataille de nègres », in Bicot #4) seemed to be located in an old, lower-class neighborhood or in some unattractive, often insalubrious inner cities (SILVER, 1985). This little black girl shown next to big projects in “Bicot and the Children’s Car” (« Bicot et la voiture d'enfant », in Bicot #3) tended to suggest the same urban and social background.

21Branner often represented the waste ground as an in-between space, an enclave which broke the harmony of the urban landscape, but also structured it somehow (MAUMI, 1997 and GHORRA-GOBIN, 2006).

The Playground as a Unit to Characterize Space

23Branner drew a city which alternately featured little houses surrounded by wooden-fenced gardens, more urban inner cities and waste grounds hidden behind high fences (see “You Break the Glasses, You Pay for Them”, « Qui casse les verres, les paie », in Bicot #3). The latter also stood as free spaces where the rules, codes and norms were different from the ones in place in constructed areas (see “Useless Efforts”, « Efforts inutiles », in Bicot #2 or “A Fast Eviction”, « Une expulsion rapide », in Bicot #3, which celebrated the strong). However, 62% of the squares dedicated to sports in the city were staged on the playground, and these sports practices which took place there did not obey those other rules. Even though they were ruled, codified and organized, sports activities did take place in the non-“policed” part of the urban space, behind the wooden fence. As soon as the children engaged in physical activities, the rules of sports applied and ruled the playground. Cheating was forbidden (“An Impartial Referee”, « Un arbitre impartial », in Bicot #1) and every kid abode by the constraining organization and rules of sport. In other words, the cartoonist emphasized the supposedly socializing aspect of sport. By doing this and by staging sport and the kids’ game on the playground, Branner introduced the idea that this was not an empty space. He even demonstrated the usefulness of these spaces which helped channeling the kids’ energy and socializing them by teaching them the rules of society. Thus we could compare Branner’s representation of the children’s playground to Michel Foucault’s thoughts on the garden, as he wrote that “the garden is both the smallest fragment of space in the world, and the whole world in the same time. Since the Ancient days, the garden has been this kind of happy, universal heterotopia” (FOUCAULT, 1984). Besides, some argued there was a link between the urban organization under construction in the first half of the 20^th century in America, and phenomena of social disorganization and deviance (THOMAS, ZNANIECKI, 1919). Branner based some stories on these ideas when he portrayed a gang of older kids trying to settle in Ran-Tan-Plan territory (“Bicot Is Defeated”, « Bicot est déchu de son titre », in Bicot #2), or African-American kids living in a basement downtown and accused of having stolen Bicot’s baseball outfits (“Negro Battle”, « Bataille de nègres », in Bicot #4).

24While urban planning was often synonymous with prohibition and limitation (PIERROT, 1983), on the contrary, the waste ground-turned-playground remained a place of creativity, self-expression, freedom or deep change. Actually, as it was the case in “The Ran-Tan-Plan Shack” (« La cabane des Ran-Tan-Plan », in Bicot #2) and “An Incomplete Rescue” (« Un sauvetage incomplet », in Bicot #3), the playground was the birthplace of Bicot’s imagination, prank-planning or money-making schemes. And when these were planned in the street, Bicot and his friends met in the playground to get set.

25The playground also drew the line between public and private property, between the construction site and the houses, and even between a territory which was open to all, and a space belonging to some, sold by its owner or closed to the public. This change from an open-to-all space to a closed one led those who used to go there to be evicted and excluded from it (NAVEZ-BOUCHANNE, 1991). The “An Unsuccessful Attempt” (« Une tentative malheureuse », in Bicot #1) story signifyingly symbolized this process, as some promoter threw Bicot out of the playground to exploit it.

The Playground as Meeting Place and In-Between Athletic Space

28Bicot’s looks validated that this was not a sports comic book. Athletic and physical activities, including circus, only made up for 28% of the stories, i.e. 62 pages. Often, these activities were only suggested through a stadium drawn in the background or a ball carried by a kid. They served as pretext for a kids meeting, a Bicot adventure or a reward when Bicot behaved or obeyed his sister. The kid was no athlete, even though he practiced some physical activities. His body was neither muscled nor overpowering. Bicot was not looking to perform. Branner’s drawings did show his common body. Nevertheless, sport was among the recurring themes in Bicot, president de club.

29Representing physical activities allowed Branner to show that the playground was not without rules or values. On the contrary, it was a space with codes which were not necessarily the ones one might face in the city. As a result, this space was as good a place of acculturation and socialization as other spaces.

30Branner portrayed Bicot and his friends doing sports in a variety of places, from the playground, of course, to the street, the countryside, and, in a few stories, a private gym and an outlined baseball field. Through this variety of places, the cartoonist highlighted the relative autonomy of physical practices, as they could settle in various spaces, and thus convey other values than the ones linked to sports. Besides, we shall remark that girls were missing from the sports scenes drawn by Branner, and only one story staged a girl who was more agile and daring than Bicot (“Feminine Disloyalty”, « Déloyauté féminine », in Bicot #4). In fact, in both the United States and France, women’s sports were only in their early stages (TERRET, 2006), even though a few pioneers had spread the practice of basketball – a sport which was not featured in Bicot, président de club – and even though women’s part in society was evolving, as the Suzy/Winnie character symbolized.

between 1917 and 1919, American soldiers, teachers and humanitarian workers living in France showcased some kind of basketball which was ruled by norms and standards similar to those of the football association and football rugby. They organized championships in many public places such as schools, hospitals, ports, parks and gardens which were requisitioned for their quartering (CHAVINIER, 2008)

On Both Sides of the Fence

34Thus, the fence marked the border between the city and unconstructed spaces or others being constructed. More importantly, it drew the line between the kids’ territory or world and the adults’. Only 21% of the squares set on the waste ground showed a handful of adults. A childlike man who was happy to do pranks with his son, Bicot’s father was shown on the playground in 25% of the squares in which he was not pictured home. Suzy was only seen on the playground in four squares, trying to pick her rascal brother up. A few outcasts, such as a wanderer or a thief, used it to hide. Construction site managers and workers worked there. Some young men tried to evict the Ran-Tan-Plan gang. Some adults helped them out. And, a few occasional prestigious guests were invited to take part in games against Bicot and his friends.

35The fence also drew a border between middle-class and popular cultures and educations (see “Bicot Hires a New Recruit”, « Bicot fait une nouvelle recrue », in Bicot #1). It differentiated a civilized world from a world of gangs, fights and rule transgressions. By the way, it is worth noticing that policemen never entered the playground, and Suzy only set one foot there to yell at Bicot.

36At the end of the day, the fence represented a physical border between geographical or physical – based on age, sex, etc. – worlds, cultures, models of socialization, and, above all, rituals. Depending on which side of the fence the characters were, the rituals were not the same. They could be divisive and perceived in the behaviors, languages and types of games played, among other things.

37This fence symbolized the generational, social, and cultural division which interwar America was experiencing. For instance, “The Brand-New Suit” (« Le costume neuf », in Bicot #1) successively showed higher-class ladies, a black maid with a mended apron, Suzy, and lower-class kids in one single story. In “Bicot Celebrates Two Birthdays” (« Bicot fête deux anniversaires », in Bicot #1), as he was invited to a birthday party by some well-off family, the boy stole the gifts to bring them to the birthday party of a friend of his whose parents could not afford to buy some.

38Nothing was seemingly preventing people from going from one side of Branner’s openwork fences to the other. However, only a few Bicot, président de club characters went beyond the wooden fence. Thus, it stood as a protection. In 30% of Bicot’s adventures, the fence allowed one of the characters to escape chasers or hide his or her self, or something – being it the clubhouse or some string for a prank. On the contrary, in seven stories, the absence of a nearby fence forced Bicot or his father to run away to avoid all kinds of objects thrown at them.

39The characters from Bicot, président de club did not go across the fence because of several social, cultural and mental taboos which prevented them from doing so. Branner also chose to use the wooden fence as a self-regulating filter. Some did not know where to cross this border. Others knew but did not want to or dare crossing it (see image 2).

40The cartoonist used different registers and ways of drawing depending on situations. Bicot and his gang could go through the fence thanks to some trapdoor invisible or hidden by posters in four stories such as “Don’t Push It” (« Tant va la cruche à l'eau », in Bicot #2), or some unnailed board in “Mere Misunderstanding” (« Simple méprise », in Bicot #3) or “The Charitable Wrongdoers” (« Les malfaiteurs bienfaisants », in Bicot #4). In other squares, they went through some conspicuous hole passersby could see but did not pay attention to. The characters from the comic book had different ways of going (or not) through the fence or behaving on each side of it. These ways showed which group the characters belonged to. Suzy, along with well-brought-up children, only rarely went across the fence (“A Too-Demanding Friend”, « Un camarade trop exigeant », in Bicot #1). Conversely, the playground kids did not know how to approach a “Lady”, a man with a hat, and a well-brought-up child they often made cry, though unwittingly. They were clumsy in this world they were not familiar with (“Bicot Becomes a Nanny”, « Bicot est bonne d'enfants », in Bicot #1) and the opposite was also true (“Bicot Hires a New Recruit”, « Bicot fait une nouvelle recrue », in Bicot #1).

41Clothes also played an important part to identify those from the playground from those from the suburbs (BARTHES, 1967). Bicot was the only kid who was part of the two worlds. Urchin in the morning, he did not hesitate to dirty or shred his nice clothes once on the playground, to the great despair of his sister, who “dressed him up” as a good boy when it was time to drink at her friends’ house. Bicot complained when he was dressed up as a higher-class child. He seemed ill-at-ease as a stiff, well-dressed boy in disguise. Besides, his friends did make fun of him, called him a girl, and sometimes did not recognize him anymore. In total, 23 Bicot stories, i.e. 10% of them, focused on the theme of nice clothes and manners.

42In any case, all the characters in Bicot, président de club acknowledged the existence of this wooden border. They knew what was allowed by it, and what was not. There was only one story (“A Too-Demanding Friend”, « Un camarade trop exigeant », in Bicot #1) in which a child from a rich family was accepted on the playground, and it did not go well for him. On a different level, Dorothée, Bicot’s girlfriend, also managed to go beyond the wooden border. On the other side of the fence, the kids became a gang and a strong bond connected them. Inversely, the occasional intruders were thrown out or outcast. Branner always kept them away, though always close to the fence. In these conditions, the street stood as a neutral field in which many situations unfolded. To take Anssi Paasi’s principles into account (PAASI, 1996), one needs to analyze the way the characters from territories on each side of the border act or interact. More precisely, for the purpose of this study, we needed to focus on how the characters played with the fence and sometimes used it. How did crossing the border change the narrative as well as the way the heroes behaved and acted? Bicot played the part of a link between different – or at least differentiated – worlds, namely the playground and the streets or downtown.

The Fence as Dividing Line

43The waste ground did shape the urban space. The comic book characters owned this space and turned it into their playground before urban renewal could occur, and “normal” life could unfold there again. In France and the United States, these locations reserved for reurbanization dealt with issues of space management and, as a result, social issues as well. In the United States, these new, emerging neighborhoods were occupied by middle-class and working-class families. In the 1930s, more than 55% of American people lived in urban areas, to about 40% before World War I (SILVER, 1985). The American way of life represented some kind of ideal, a model for the French to emulate during the interwar period. This could be seen through the “Americanization of French culture” (TOURNES, 1997) or Americanization through culture (NYE, 2004), as well as through the debates surrounding the comic book industry in France (CREPIN, 2001; PERROT, 1999). It also led to the development of American-inspired mass consumption in France (ROSENBERG, 2009; CORBIN, 1995). However, even though these facts showed the attraction between these two countries, they need to be nuanced since there was also some kind of aversion brewing which could explain the reactions of the public opinion (ROGER, 2002).

44The fences shaped and reinforced the city space. Indeed, 128 Bicot stories unfolding in the city featured a fence. These wooden walls stood as a link between different social backgrounds. They were a kind of contact zone, as well as a combat zone. In numerous pages of Bicot, the fence seemed to favor the poor while excluding the rich. Without looking to overinterpret the author’s intentions, we could claim that Branner seemed to represent the concepts of first- and second-class citizens which were at play in the United States during the interwar period. Coming from a poor background, second-class citizens wanted to climb the social ladder. Several American Founding Myths, such as the rise from rags to riches and the figure of the Self-Made Man, were built from this want and possibility in America. As a “common origin” to many immigrants in America, being poor originally did not prevent people from aiming at and sometimes experiencing a brighter future.

46Above all, the fence drew the limits of the different territories, thus marking a clear, visible line between constructed and non-constructed areas, as well as modern, renewed ones and old or abandoned others. It also clearly separated different social identities which Branner made explicit by drawing openwork construction boards in some squares, and a high, closed fence, a wooden gate or a stone wall in others.

47The fence stood as the border between different physical, cultural and social worlds. As a result, there were those who were at ease on the playground, and those who were in the suburbs where they lived. And according to Branner, you could only belong to one or the other. Eleven stories took place in classy neighborhoods and houses, as Branner used to draw opulent-looking settings to show that the scenes took place in an upper-class neighborhood. Like borders, the fence was sometimes impassable. But it could also be open depending on circumstances, times or characters. Besides, sports were an excuse to move beyond these limits and cross the border. Bicot and his gang went out of their playground to make some money and attend baseball games or buy sports apparels. Kids and even big boys were allowed to enter the playground to take part in games against Bicot’s team. Also, some sports practices sometimes did take place beyond the fence.

48To strengthen the border-like dimension of the fence, the cartoonist sometimes drew a police officer in uniform who was tricked by the children. The fence allowed the kids to control, authorize, or forbid people in and out. Therefore, it acted as a filter. On another matter, education through social codes and learnt cultural norms played the part of a passport to this space. Thanks to his sister – and thus despite his will – Bicot was familiar with both worlds and played with and within both. As an in-between character or smuggler, the kid made the fence more open, especially when he took his poor friends to the suburban streets where they ran countless pranks. He also invited a few rich children on the playground, when they got in touch with popular games and bad education, or in the streets of his neighborhood. This intertwinement of spaces and worlds separated and linked by the fence could be compared to Michel Foucault’s heterotopias, which have “an opening and closing mechanism which both isolates and opens them” (FOUCAULT, 1984).

The Including-and-Excluding Fence

49As the wooden wall acted as a filter, so, as a result, it included and excluded people according to their belonging to one space or the other, while highlighting the differences between them. Even though the playground was the field of popular culture, bad education and petty theft, it was free of criminality at a time when America was plagued by it (TRASHER, 1927). Tough guys and ruthless gangs were only very rarely allowed past the fence, and when they tried to force their way in, thugs only found misfortune there. On the other side of the wooden wall, they lost their marks and habits, and thus were weakened and dominated by those who owned this space – even though they were younger and worse fighters.

51As for them, adults rarely ventured on the other side of this border, as if they had understood that this space was not theirs. Bicot’s father was the odd one out, as he was featured in 25% of the squares set on the playground. He spent entire days with his son, officiating or announcing basketball games organized from scratch by his son. Like Bicot and his friends, he hid behind the fence to run pranks, escape some shopkeeper or mad man wearing a hat, or to protect his son as in “Bicot Delivers the Mail” (« Bicot distribue des lettres », in Bicot #4) (see image 4).

53The rules of this inclusion-exclusion system made possible by the fence could change according to situations. Indeed, some characters were occasionally allowed to cross the border. While she only rarely went into the playground, Suzy found refuge there when she was chased by a black matronly woman whose son she had beaten up by mistake (“The Brand New Suit”, « Le costume neuf », in Bicot #1). The fence prevented the cheaters and troublemakers from coming back to the playground once they were expelled from it. For instance, Mr. Bicotin was driven out by his son and the Ran-Tan-Plan kids for they suspected him of favoring the other rugby team and refereeing the game unfairly. The wooden wall could also go in the way of the playground’s regulars while they were chased after one of their pranks. Even though they sometimes managed to escape by climbing over the fence, they also sometimes found themselves with their backs against it, as in “The Right Runaway” (« La bonne escapade », in Bicot #1).

The Fence as a Friend and Protector

56But, the fence was also a confidant (“Don’t Push It”, « Tant va la cruche à l'eau », in Bicot #2). The kids shared their sorrow with it. They found refuge behind the wooden wall to cry or think about how to fix their mistakes – as in the very first adventure entitled “First Difficulties” (« Premières difficultés », in Bicot #1), or discretely heal their wounds (“Negro Battle”, « Bataille de nègres », in Bicot #4). Thus, the fence allowed the playground kids to remain children, even though they were used to the tough life of lower classes in an evolving America. The waste ground-turned-playground brought them back to that space which was owned by the youth, as well as an evolving space which welcome different identities while also building them. Being tied with a place, and identifying oneself or having a sense of belonging to a particular space leads to embodying the identities which this territory hosts and conveys (DI MEO, 2007). Thus, the playground becomes a place of memory, a legacy which is passed on to the youth, and is sometimes linked to it (BROMBERGER, 2006).

57The wooden wall was also a guardian and teacher. Behind the fence, the children slowly learnt some rules and how to live in society. Thus, in “Bicot Is Defeated” or “Useless Efforts” (« Bicot est déchu de son titre » or « Des efforts inutiles », in Bicot #2), the all-too-naive kids saw their shack being stolen from them by older kids. Inversely, Bicot established himself as gang leader (“The Ran-Tan-Plan Shack”, « La cabane des Ran-Tan-Plan », in Bicot #2) or tried to integrate the neighborhood (“Bicot Wants to Become a Better Kid”, « Bicot veut devenir meilleur », in Bicot #3). His role as president of an association illustrated this acculturation process. There was no doubt that the playground’s codes and norms sometimes differed from those in the city and the suburbs. But it did not matter, as Bicot and the others learnt to live together as well as live with others (see image 7).

58Branner used the myth of sports as a socializing tool, among other things. According to Durkheim, if the socializing process traditionally occurs between the adults and the youth in our Western societies, the peers also play an important part. This secondary socializing process was studied by Berger and Luckmann, and it was the one mainly portrayed in Bicot, président de club. It led to the construct – or in the case of comic books, the representation – of different identities depending on the character’s position and role, the efforts he or she had to make to live and adapt to cultural or social issues he or she faced.

59Regarding this socializing process which was so critical to the author of Bicot, the presence of an umpire was never highlighted when the kids were playing baseball. Nevertheless, the games seemed to go on well. The competing kids’ teams showed seriousness, focus and respect for the others and the rules. A few rare stories did feature an umpire – very often Bicot’s father. Then, every time, the games involved cheating, bribing and missed calls. And Bicot had to throw the umpire out. Thus, the socializing process represented by Branner happened among the peers, behind the fence, and it led to learning shared common codes. The kids virtually did not do any stupid thing when doing sports. That could be seen in “Bicot and the Broken Windows” (« Bicot et les carreaux cassés », in Bicot #3), in which Bicot decided to look for another practice field away from the city not to break the neighbors’ windows with his ball.

Conclusion

60This research showed the parts played by the fence and playground regarding two aspects, as they separated and differentiated two worlds on the one hand, and linked these two different worlds on the other hand. Indeed, Branner – the author of Bicot – used both these registers. The waste ground-turned-playground and the suburbs highlighted those differences. They actually emphasized the differences between the characters. More than that, the cartoonist’s project consisted in explaining to his young readers – among whom the French – that these two different, and even antagonistic worlds could complete each other and grow richer from this process. In other words, people living in one of these worlds could benefit from the other. To send these messages, the cartoonist used the fence as a border and protection between the playground and the suburbs. But in the same time, he turned the wooden wall into a bridge, a gateway and a kind of “stepping stone”, a neutral area around which exchanges were made possible. To the children portrayed in the comic book, it seemed easier to go from the playground to the city, as if growing up meant moving out of the world of games into the world of seriousness, and from a less organized territory to a more civilized world. Thus, the crossing of the fence would become sort of an initiatory rite. Actually, the three stages identified by Van Gennep (VAN GENNEP, 1981) did appear quite obviously in Bicot, président de club. The ritual of coming into the playground was codified, even though the situations varied, and it reinforced the links between the members of the gang. In the same time, it allowed to control and select the characters who were part of that gang, who were invited by it, or those who were outsiders. It also had a highly symbolic function, as it made the people crossing the fence abide by the rules of the playground.

61Thus, this study showed that the waste ground as an empty space was not a “space of emptiness”, to use Alain Corbin’s words. Even though poor kids hung out there, it also conveyed “desire and pleasure” – specially to play together and plan pranks. Sometimes, it was even coveted. Even though it was protected or defended by the fence, the waste ground – as a space between two urbanization plans which the city wanted to make disappear – allowed the kids to enjoy this space even more, had it been planned as a playground by the city’s architects. It was also the perfect youth space, a place of lack of concern where everything was possible – at least in the United States.

62As Gordon did in his book (GORDON, 2016), it is interesting to highlight the differences and resemblances between Bicot’s American and French versions, as they translated, without a doubt, the adaptation of a cultural artifact from one culture to another, between two cultures which emulated and also protected their own specificities. The use of the fence and playground, along with the use of sports practices, allowed the authors to explicitly translate the elements which more technical issues, such as untranslatable jokes, could not explain.

63As far as sports were concerned, even though the theme of athletic practices was secondary in Bicot, président de club, other studies could tackle many different issues, such as the opposition between English and American sports, issues of gender in sports, the development and spreading of sports during the interwar period, or the difference between places of sport – more precisely, the tensions or similarities between urban spaces and sports spaces. In Bicot, the playground was also a place where practices such as baseball or football reached out to bigger audiences. There, the readers learnt sports rules and how to behave on the field – from playing fair to respecting the opponents. Implicitly, the readers faced each other and learnt social rules. Branner developed this theme in several stories, or at least, he evoked the intentions of Bicot and his friends – as those were not always fulfilled.