Moebius (Jean Giraud)
1938 - 2012

Jean Giraud has been described as the most influential bandes dessinées artist after Hergé. His most famous works include the series Blueberry, featuring one of the first anti-heroes in Western comics. As Moebius he created a wide range of science fiction and fantasy comics in a highly imaginative and surreal style. These works include 'Le Garage Hermetique', 'Arzach' and the comic book series 'The Incal' (in collaboration with avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky). Moebius also contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science fiction and fantasy films, such as Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element and The Abyss.

Moebius (Jean Giraud)
1938 - 2012

Jean Giraud, popularly known as Moebius, was a French artist and cartoonist revered for colorful, outlandish, and surreal science fiction and fantasy comics, as well as his work as a film concept designer. Giraud began using the Moebius pseudonym in 1963 specifically for his fantasy and science fiction works. The style and tone of his artwork is very adaptive and through the course of his career has generally shifted from more realistic, as seen in his early Blueberry series, to more expressive and fantastical compositions.

Enki Bilal
1951 -

Born in Belgrade where his father was Josip Tito's tailor. Moved to Paris at the age of 9. Together with script writer Pierre Christin, he created several comics, including 'Les Phalanges de l'Ordre Noir' and 'Partie de Chasse'. He is best known for his solo effort; the Nikopol trilogy (La Foire aux immortels, La Femme piège and Froid Équateur). Besides his comics activities, Enki Bilal also works in film, theater and opera, photo retouching and glass painting An asteroid was named after him in 2006.

Enki Bilal
1951 -

Enki Bilal is French-Yugoslavian comic book writer and artist, best known for his Nikopol Trilogy. He also wrote and drew the 'Le Sommeil du monstre' quartet. Working primarily as a graphic artist and illustrator, Bilal has also directed three movies, Bunker Palace Hotel (1989), Tykho Moon (1997), and Immortal (2004).

Jacques Tardi
1946 -

Jacques Tardi is one of the most important and influential French comics artists. Recurring themes in his works are World War I, detective stories and the underworld of the city. His signature series 'Les Extraordinaires Aventures d'Adèle Blanc-Sec' recreates Paris of early the 20th century where the moody heroine encounters supernatural events, state plots, occult societies and experiments in cryogenics.

Jacques Tardi
1946 -

What, for Jacques Tardi, is the essence of a “good” cover illustration? “It has to be a reflection of the book” he says. “I’ve always been annoyed by covers that bear no relation to the content of the book. The covers of “Blueberry” bother me. It’s nothing to do with their graphic properties. They resemble film posters. I like to see, on an album cover, the same graphic style that is found in the book itself. For that reason, the Tintin covers are excellent.”

Jacques Tardi
1946 -

Tardi describes his album covers as “quite static”: “I’m not an artist of the moving image; my characters tend to be fixed, and I create a kind of freeze-frame…though this is not cinema! Coming across the cover of "La Marque Jaune" in the window of a bookshop in my neighbourhood was a real jolt for me. I looked, at length, at these two characters who seemed to return my gaze, and at that strange yellow sign behind them. This cover admirably achieved its purpose, namely, to attract the eye through fascination, rather than through some gaudy device in the way that advertising does.”

Jacques Tardi
1946 -

Tardi's 'Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec' comic book series first appeared in 1976 published in album format by Belgian publisher Casterman. The adventures, set in Paris in the years before and after World War I, revolve around the protagonist Adèle Blanc-Sec. Themes of the occult, corruption, official incompetence, and the dangers of patriotism suffuse the series. One of Tardi's most popular works and his first to span multiple albums, it has been reprinted in English and other translations and has been adapted as a feature film by Luc Besson.

André Franquin
1924 - 1997

Franquin is widely considered one of the major artists of European comics. A leading contributor to Spirou magazine, he was the third official author of the title comic, 'Spirou et Fantasio'. Between 1946 and 1969, Franquin enriched the series with longer and more intricate narratives. He introduced many colorful secondary characters, such as the inhabitants of the town of Champignac, the recurring villains Zorglub and Zantafio, and the world's strangest animal, the Marsupilami. Most of his creations remained part of the 'Spirou' universe after Franquin's run, with the exception of the long-tailed Marsupilami, who since 1987 has starred in his own spin-off series. Franquin is best known for the aforementioned Marsupilami, plus his signature series 'Gaston Lagaffe' (1957-1996), about a lazy and incompetent office clerk.

André Franquin
1924 - 1997

Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, who produced the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1946 to 1969, a period seen by many as the series' golden age. Along with artists such as Morris and Peyo, Franquin was a pioneer of the "Marcinelle school" ; a drawing style named after the Belgian town where the office of the influential 'Spirou' magazine was located. The style soon became the preferred in-house style for the magazine, and thus had a huge impact on the Franco-Belgian comics scene, inspiring generations of cartoonists. Stylistically, the Marcinelle school is a mix of cartoon and realism, and is also sometimes called comic-dynamic. It is often cited in opposition to Hergé's ligne claire style. Though these two styles have much in common, Marcinelle school is all about conveying the impression of movement, while ligne claire tends to be more schematic.

Hugo Pratt
1927 - 1995

Hugo Pratt was an Italian comic book artist and creator of 'Corto Maltese; Pratt's signature series about an adventurous sailor around the turn of the 19th/20th century. Pratt was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research.

Hugo Pratt
1927 - 1995

Hugo Pratt was an Italian comic book artist and creator of 'Corto Maltese; Pratt's signature series about an adventurous sailor around the turn of the 19th/20th century. Pratt was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research.

Jacques de Loustal
1956 -

Jacques de Loustal is a French comics artist who uses a painterly style reminiscent of David Hockney. In combination with a career as an illustrator, Loustal began working in comics in the late 70s publishing short comics in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Métal Hurlant. Independent albums include 'Coeurs de Sable', 'Barney et la Note Bleue' and 'Kid Congo'. Since 2008 Loustal has been a frequent cover illustrator for the American weekly magasine 'The New Yorker'.

Jacques de Loustal
1956 -

When one asks Jacques de Loustal to explain how this image, a homage to the Arumbaya fetish figure created by Hergé in 'L’oreille cassée', came about, he is happy to elaborate. “It must owe its creation to the association of my nascent taste for African statuary, for South America and for 1930s-style interiors, that being the period that would have witnessed the birth of that particular “Tintin” album. I thus began a series of statuettes that reflected, in a certain manner, the static quality that was shared by the characters I was drawing at that time.”

Jacques de Loustal
1956 -

Normally, Loustal's travels all over the world result in notebooks crammed with sketches; the Atomium, however, is less cooperative. "The structure has such a strong identity that it’s easy to suggest it, even if its extraterrestrial quality and its intrinsic strangeness in relation to its environment cause problems with perspective. It’s actually better to draw it from photographs than in the field.” Loustal sees in the Atomium "a symbol of Brussels, a sense of the modernity of the Belgian capital in relation to Paris." For him, the Hergéan 'ligne claire' style has little connection with the emblematic monument: "Franquin and the Marcinelle school are inextricably linked to it. We find the purity of its forms in Franquin: the Atomium and the Turbotraction are cousins. For me, the Atomium is part of an ambience you might call futuristic retro."

Jacques de Loustal
1956 -

A very rare monochromatic effort by Jacques Loustal. 'Usine' is one of a series 3 silkscreen prints issued by Loustal to mark the release of his 1980 album 'New York - Miami'. The series (consisting of the prints 'Briquet', 'Usine' and 'Cigarette') is personally handprinted by Loustal himself, and denotes his very first endeavour into silkscreen printing.

Morris (Maurice de Bevere)
1923 - 2001

Morris was a Belgian cartoonist, comics artist, illustrator and the creator of Lucky Luke, a bestselling comic series about a gunslinger in the American Wild West. Lucky Luke is the best-selling European comics series ever, with more than 300 million copies sold, and published in more than thirty languages. Morris collaborated for two decades with French writer René Goscinny on the series. Morris' pen name is an Anglicised version of his first name.

Milo Manara
1945 -

Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist. Manara is best known for producing comics that revolve around women caught up in unlikely and fantastical erotic scenarios, expressed in works such as Click (1983), about a device which renders women helplessly aroused. Manara also created the surreal 'HP and Giuseppe Bergman' trilogy. The character 'HP' is based on the Italian comics creator Hugo Pratt, with whom Manara later concocted the double album 'Indian Summer'.

Miguelanxo Prado
1958 -

Miguelanxo Prado is a Galician comic book creator. Prado studied architecture, wrote novels and painted before his career in comics. His early works include the delirious and absurd: 'Chienne de Vie', 'C'est du Sport' and 'Y'a Plus de Justice'. His best-known comic book is Trazo de Tiza (Streak of Chalk): A dream-like, experimental story about a man on an island, unable to distinguish dream from reality, or present from past.

Hergé (Georges Remi)
1907 - 1983

Hergé was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the iconic 'The Adventures of Tintin' comic book series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983. 'The Adventures of Tintin' which relays the story of a young Belgian reporter who travels the world with his dog Snowy to solve crime, is considered one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. Today, Tintin has been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies, and has been adapted into movies, television, and radio, solidifying Hergé’s status as one of the leading cartoonists of the 20th century. Hergé's work remains a strong influence on comics, particularly in Europe, due to his creation and pioneering of the 'Ligne claire' drawing style.

Albert Uderzo
1927 - 2020

Albert Uderzo was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the Astérix series in collaboration with René Goscinny. Asterix is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into 111 languages and dialects. After Goscinny's death in 1977, Uderzo continued to write and illustrate the books on his own. Other collaborations include 'Oumpah-pah' (also with Goscinny), and the aviation series 'Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure' with Jean-Michel Charlier. .

Régis Loisel
1951 -

Régis Loisel is a French cartoonist, best known for the series La Quête de l'oiseau du temps, written by Serge Le Tendre. He worked with Walt Disney Studios on the animated films Atlantis and Mulan.

Tanino Liberatore
1953 -

Tanino Liberatore, is an Italian comics author and illustrator. His best known fictional character is RanXerox. Together with Stefano Tamburini he created 'Rank Xerox'; the not very bright, ultra violent cyborg. Several stand alone albums ensued, translated into several languages, until Tamburini's death in 1986 from a heroin overdose. The cover of Frank Zappa's The Man from Utopia album features an illustration by Tanino Liberatore, showing Zappa as RanXerox. He has additionally done art direction for films.

Dominique Lidwine
1960 -

Dominique Legeard - Lidwine is a French comic book artist. Lidwine was a contributor to Métal Hurlant from the age of 19, He also worked with Régis Loisel and Serge Le Tendre on 'Quête de l'Oiseau du Temps'.

Brian Reedy
1970 -

Miami based Art teacher Reedy is known for his creative woodblock and linocut renderings of super heroes and other pop culture references. Some examples of his work touch on apocalyptic dystopian futures, mythic creatures and the gods and goddesses of Hinduism.

William Hogarth
1697 - 1764

William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. He is perhaps best known for his series A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving, Hogarth's works are mostly satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual, mostly of the first rank of realistic portraiture. They became widely popular and mass-produced via prints in his lifetime, and he was by far the most significant English artist of his generation.

William Hogarth
1697 - 1764

William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, and social critic. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". Hogarth was born in London to a poor middle-class family. In his youth he took up an apprenticeship where he specialised in engraving. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of outstanding debts; an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge.

Gustave Doré
1832 - 1883

Gustave Doré was a prolific engraver, artist, illustrator, and sculptor, working primarily as a wood and steel engraver. He produced over 100,000 sketches in his lifetime. His works are considered some of the most important in the entire engraving art world. As an illustrator, Dore created engravings for the books of Balzac, Rabelais, Jules Verne, Dante, Edgar Allen Poe, and Lord Byron.

Josiah Wood Whymper
1813 - 1903

Josiah Wood Whymper was a British wood-engraver, book illustrator and watercolourist. He was expert at illustrating nature, such as dramatic engravings of natural phenomena such as aurora borealis, rainbows, icebergs, volcanoes and the mysterious Fata Morgana. His engravings for 'British Birds in Their Haunts' is widely regarded as his finest work. He additionally provided engravings for books about travel and expeditions such as 'The Naturalist on the River Amazons', 'the Life and Habits of Wild Animals', 'Himalayan Journals' and David Livingstone's 'Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi'.