L’Écho des Savanes is a Franco-Belgian comics magazine founded in May 1972 by Claire Bretécher, Marcel Gotlib and Nikita Mandryka. It featured the work of French and international authors and graphic artists in mature-oriented comics over the course of 34 years and temporarily ended publication in December 2006. It was relaunched in 2008.
The first issue of L’Écho des Savanes was published on May 1, 1972. It was the only issue that year, although popular demand caused it to be reprinted in several editions. All its pages (except for the cover) were in black and white and exclusively contained the work of its founders, Bretécher, Gotlib and Mandryka. Marked as a publication for adults, it staked a different course than Pilote magazine, the family-friendly publication the founders had a long relationship with. Over the following two years, it was a quarterly publication. Only near the end of this period, work by other creators began to appear, such as Alexis, Harvey Kurtzman, Jean Solé, and Moebius.
In 1975, the magazine adapted a bi-monthly schedule, and from 1976 it became monthly. Although no longer labeled "for adults", the usual cover imagery suggested nothing about the contents had changed. During this period, contributions began to arrive from creators such as Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Robert Crumb, Dick Giordano, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jeff Jones, Gérard Lauzier, Jacques Lob, Georges Pichard, Jacques Tardi, Martin Veyron, Wallace Wood and Berni Wrightson.