Born in 1958 in Namur, Denis Lapière started his sociology studies after having had a taste of the thrills of motor racing. In the mid 1980s he was one of the founders of the Tropica BD bookstore in Charleroi, which became the meeting point for many artists. Once he started getting some contacts, Lapière started writing scripts, which gradually found their place in the editorial landscape. He started at Spirou, producing short stories.
He then published his first album in 1987: "Mauro Caldi" (Éditions Michel Constant Mirror). In 1990, he started "Charly" with Magda, a fantasy thriller that had Spirou readers on the edge of their seats. In the years that followed, Denis wrote scripts for several titles in the Aire Libre collection, a new means of expression for adult comics at Dupuis. With Jean-Philippe Stassen, he created "Le Bar du Vieux Français", which won numerous awards around the world.
For Paul Gillon, he wrote "The Last of Cinemas" about the fate of a film producer during the twentieth century. While continuing his adult comics collaborations (with Pellejero and Mezzomo in particular), Lapière continued to work on more family-orientated strips like "Ludo" (with Bailly and Mathy), "Oscar" (with Durieux) and the reboot of "Tif et Tondu" (with Sikorski). In the 2000s, Denis Lapière had several experiences as a film screenwriter (with Pierre-Paul Renders).
He also tried out an editorial role (launching collections Punaise" and "Puceron at Dupuis). In early 2010 he led two major projects: a collaborative work called "Alter Ego" and the new adventures of "Michel Vaillant", which he co-wrote with Philippe Graton. With nearly one hundred albums under his belt, Denis Lapière is one of today's most accomplished writers.
Born in 1963 in Brussels, Pierre-Paul Renders graduated in classical philology at the Université catholique de Louvain and earned a diploma in directing (Institut des arts de diffusion [IAD], Louvain-la-Neuve).
Having left the IAD, he and his five classmates started a production company (AA Belgians Films). They created their first collective feature film, with a very Belgian surrealist style, "Les Sept Péchés Capitaux" (1992), based on which Renders created the short film "La Tendresse." After a brief detour with television and documentaries (mainly for Doctors Without Borders), he directed "Thomas est amoureux" (2001), his first feature film, with a screenplay by Philippe Blasband.
A unique piece that's difficult to categorize, the film received awards at film festivals in Venice, Montreal, Angers, Gerardmer, Paris, Espoo (Finland), and Buenos Aires. In collaboration with Denis Lapière he wrote "Comme tout le monde, " a script that was simultaneously turned into a romantic comedy (Khalid Maadour, Caroline Dhavernas, Thierry Lhermitte, Chantal Lauby et al., 2006) and a graphic novel (illustrated by Rudy Spiessert and published in 2007 by Dupuis).
In 2006, he created the concept for the series "Alter Ego" (Dupuis; Europe Comics, 2015) and presented it to Denis Lapière.
In recent years he has been writing and directing workshops for students at the IAD, and he also runs courses for film actors and does the odd bit of script-doctoring. He also writes a comics column for the "Journal du Médecin, " a magazine for general practitioners and specialists. He is currently working on the dystopian series "U4" (Dupuis; Europe Comics) with Denis Lapière and Adrián Huelva.
Efa was born in Sabadell, Spain.
At the age of 16 he quit his studies to enjoy... life. In 1995 he created his first fanzine with some friends: Realitat Virtual. From there, he worked in a cartoon studio as well as working as a freelance illustrator. He entered the world of comics in 2001, in collaboration with the writer Toni Termens, with the series "Les Icariades" (3 volumes and a complete edition published by Paquet). In 2002 he began his solo series - "Rodiguez" (two volumes also published by Paquet).
In 2004 (still with Paquet) he published "L'Âme du vin, " a very personal album that he wrote and illustrated. Between 2007 and 2009, he illustrated and colored the series "Kia Ora" (3 volumes with Vents d'Ouest, script by Olivier Jouvray and Virginia Ollagnier). In 2008 he joined the "Alter Ego" team, joining forces with Mathieu Reynès, a previous contact from Paquet. In 2017, he collaborated with Salva Rubio on "Monet, nomade de la lumière" ("Monet: Itinerant of Light, " NBM) and they also worked together in 2021 on "Degas, la danse de la solitude" ("Degas: The Dance of Solitude, " Europe Comics).
Luca Erbetta was born in Genoa on April 27, 1979.
He graduated from the high school Artistique Ego Bianchi Cuneo. He then studied at the Plastic Arts school in Nice. After collaborating with the Italian motorcycle magazine Tuttomoto as an illustrator, he published his first comic (scripted by Luca Blengino) in France (Editions Semic). From 2005 to 2008 he worked on the series "Watch" (6 volumes, Editions Delcourt). With Luca Blengino he also co-wrote the series "Flamingo" and "Gaijin" (Delcourt).
In 2008 he joined the even more cosmopolitan team of the "Alter Ego" project, where he worked in tandem with the other illustrators and Efa. In 2010, he illustrated a four chapter story called "The Writer" as part of the "Sam and Twitch" series, produced by the American publisher, Image.
