Gil Blas serialized novels, such as Émile Zola's Germinal (1884) and L'Œuvre (1885), before they appeared in book form.

[1] In addition to Germinal, Gil Blas serialized the Zola novels L'Argent, Au Bonheur des Dames, and La Joie de vivre.

Gil Blas critic Louis Vauxcelles's phrase "Donatello chez les fauves" ("Donatello among the wild beasts") brought notoriety and attention to the works of Henri Matisse and Les Fauves exhibited at the Salon d'Automne of 1905.

[5] Some well-known authors who were published in Gil Blas include: In 1887, after seeing a dress-rehearsal of Victorien Sardou's La Tosca at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris (with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role), Gil Blas published a complete description of the plot on the morning of opening night.

[6] In 1888 Camille Lemonnier was prosecuted in Paris for "offending against public morals" by a story in Gil Blas, and was condemned to a fine.