East-West: Volume 0

Born in Paris in 1968, Philippe Aymond decided on a career in comic books at an early age and obtained a degree in fine arts. In 1989, he was hired on by Jean-Claude Mézières at the Canal Choc studio, founded by Mézières along with Pierre Christin, and where Hugues Labiano was already on the payroll. Aymond soon began to illustrate stories by Christin, who became his regular scriptwriter for the next ten years. In 1994, Christin published the innovative "L'Homme qui fait le tour du monde" at Dargaud, based on his travels around the world, with Aymond collaborating with Max Cabanes on the artwork for the text-heavy volume. Still working with Christin, Aymond went on to publish "Les Voleurs de villes" at Dargaud in 1997. At the start of the new millennium, he teamed up with a new scriptwriter, Bollée, with whom he launched the cataclysmic saga "Apocalypsemania" (Dargaud). He soon caught the attention of Jean Van Hamme, and the veteran scriptwriter, taken with Aymond's elegant and sober drawing style, asked him to illustrate a new series of his, featuring the enigmatic "Lady S" (Dupuis). More recently, Aymond joined with Christin yet again in 2018 to create "Est-Ouest" (Dupuis; East-West, Europe Comics), which chronicles Christin's time in the US and in Cold War-era Europe, behind the Iron Curtain.

Pierre Christin was born in suburban Paris in 1938, and studied at both the Sorbonne and Sciences Po in Paris. Alongside his jazz music and his first jobs in journalism, he set off to America's West Coast in the '60s, where he discovered the joys of life on a ranch and the open highway, as well as sci-fi, crime fiction, and the richness of African-American music. In 1967, he and Jean-Claude Mézières released the first of many "Valerian" adventures. From 1970 to 1980, with "Pilote" magazine, he wrote for various aritists, including Tardi and Boucq—totaling nearly 60 comics—dealing with all kinds of themes, adapting his style to each collaborator. He always kept his optimistic, even utopian, side for his old friend Mézières, whose narrative clarity and humor he always enjoyed working with. Christin tended to save his more serious subjects for Enki Bilal, producing such classics as "Les Phalanges de l'Ordre Noir" and "Partie de chasse." Yet his range was greater still, and he explored other themes with Annie Goetzinger, crafting detailed and intimate portraits of women in "La Demoiselle de la Légion d'Honneur" (1980), "Paquebot" (1999), "La Sultane Blanche" (1996 Dargaud; "The White Sultana," 2016 Europe Comics), and "Hardy Agency" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English). Christin is also a seasoned traveler, completing a world tour between 1992 and 1999, an experience he writes about in "L'homme qui fait le tour du Monde," with Philippe Aymond. The two would later pair up again for "Est-Ouest" (Dupuis; "East-West," Europe Comics), which chronicles his time in the US and in Cold War-era Europe, behind the Iron Curtain. His travels in Eastern Europe also provided the spark for the three-part series "Lena" (Dargaud, Europe Comics), alongside André Juillard.