Aristophania

Joël Parnotte was born in 1973. He studied at the Versailles School of Fine Arts before following the comic book curriculum at Angoulême. He notably published "Hong Kong Triad" at Le Téméraire publishing, in collaboration with author Vincent Mallié and Delphine Rieu as the colorist. Next up, with the same associates but a different publisher (Soleil), came the five-volume series "Les Aquanautes." Sticking with Soleil, he then produced the one-shot "Un Pas vers les Étoiles," with a script by Jérôme Félix. He was later singled out by the author Balac, who, having been enraptured by his artwork in "Les Aquanautes," suggested they work together. Thus began the epic "Le Sang des Porphyre" (Dargaud, 2008), which eventually amounted to five volumes, the last one released in 2013. In 2015, Joël teamed up with writer Xavier Dorison to illustrate the action-packed 15th-century drama "The Sword Master" (Dargaud, Europe Comics). That collaboration would then lead to the creation of the historical fantasy series "Aristophania," released by Dargaud in 2019 (Europe Comics in English).

Xavier Dorison was born in 1972. After three years of business school, during which he launched a college comic book festival, he started writing "Troisième testament" (Glénat), a series illustrated by Alex Alice. Following that, he worked with Mathieu Lauffray on the series "Prophet" (Humanoïdes Associés), and then with Christophe Bec on "Sanctuaire" (Humanoïdes Associés). In a very short time, Xavier Dorison carved out his status in the world of Franco-Belgian comics, which was confirmed by "W.E.S.T." (Dargaud; "Spooks," Cinebook), co-written with Fabien Nury for one of the biggest names in realism, artist Christian Rossi. But Dorison didn't limit himself just to the world of comics. In 2006, the film "Les Brigades du Tigre" was released, an adaptation of the TV series of the same name, which Dorison again co-wrote with Nury. In 2007, he teamed up once more with Mathieu Lauffray for "Long John Silver" (Dargaud, Cinebook in English), which also met with huge success. In 2008, publisher Dargaud called on Dorison to write the script of the first volume of "XIII Mystery" (published in English by Cinebook), a spin-off of the famous series "XIII." The artwork was done by Ralph Meyer, and this would be the beginning of another prolific collaboration, including the Viking epic "Asgard" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English). And in 2014, with Thomas Allart, Dorison produced "H.S.E." (Dargaud; Europe Comics in English), a tale of suspense about the downward spiral of an ultraliberal society. As an author with a high output, Dorison tends to work on several comic book series at the same time. Switching with ease between the aforementioned series, and his latest and greatest success "Undertaker" (Dargaud 2015, Europe Comics 2016), he's proved his ability to work with genres varying from adventure to westerns to historical drama, without ever losing the energy of the plot line and the structural solidity that characterize his work. It thus comes as no great surprise to know that he was entrusted with a recent volume of one of the all-time biggest adventure series of Franco-Belgian comics, the legendary "Thorgal" (Le Lombard, Europe Comics/Cinebook in English). He has also made a splash with his latest work, the historical fantasy series "Aristophania" (Dargaud, Europe Comics), created alongside Joël Parnotte.