Claire Bretecher, one of the most celebrated French cartoonists of recent decades and the first woman to achieve real prominence in the genre in France, died on Tuesday aged 79, her publisher announced. Bretecher rose to fame in the 1970s with the comic book series "Les Frustres" (The Frustrated Ones) which tackled issues of gender and sexuality with a mordant and deadpan humour.

From the 1980s onwards her most famous character was Agrippine, a spoilt adolescent dealing with the troubles of growing up whose travails were carved into the mind of a generation. In France, comic books are known as bandes dessinees or BD and are regarded as a serious literary art form for adults as well as children.