Yann Balac'h was born and raised in Brittany, developing a particular passion for Breton culture and traditions over his school years, and spent much of his spare time playing the Breton pipe and practicing Breton wrestling. At the age of 23, he had an epiphany while visiting the Saint Tugdual church at Concarneau: he decided to become a craftsman of stained-glass windows. He got his qualifications and tried to make a living from his art.
But job openings were few and far between! So he did a master's degree on 'Mab Kagn, ' the kelp gatherers in the Trépassés Bay at Pointe du Raz in the 17th century, but he sadly never found a publisher for his thesis.
That's when he discovered comic books at the Saint-Mayeux festival, thanks to Fournier's album "L'Ankou." So he launched himself into his very first comic book creation: "Les exploits de la patrouille des Macareux, " which was unfortunately turned down by the newspaper Ouest-France, but was eventually published in an obscure Belgian weekly...
named 'Spirou.' That's where he met the artist Hislaire, with whom he started working on "Sambre, " which was initially set in Brittany... until Hislaire decided he'd prefer it to be in the South of France. Disappointed by this 'betrayal, ' Yann abandoned comic books and started competing in Breton wrestling tournaments, and soon found considerable success. Unfortunately, following a dodgy leg-lock, he had to give it all up!
Disillusioned with the Celtic world in general, he made his way over to the US, where he found a new passion for 'nose art' techniques (the decoration of airplane cockpits) by the side of ex-US Air Force pilots.
But there aren't so many job openings in that either.
After a rather dark (and derelict) time in his life, he somehow got embroiled in borderline legal diamond trafficking, between Anvers, Las Vegas and Rabat Gan in Israel. He learnt to distinguish a Tsavorite from a Boart in just a glance, and to spot the tiniest imperfection in any gem.
When the police get wind of his activities, he had no choice but to flee to Australia where he got into seeking and exporting meteorites...
but the competition was pretty stiff! The years went by, and he became increasingly bitter towards the sense of his own failure. At the Saint-Malo festival of "Surprising Travelers, " as he was signing his autobiography, he met artist Joel Parnotte, who was doing a signing of his own work "Les Aquanautes." The two of them hit it off, and decided to create the "Sang des Porphyre" saga, based on a true story about the Rotheneuf family, bloodthirsty pirates who terrorized the coast of Saint-Malo in the 18th century.
He later partnered up with André Juillard for "Mezek" (Le Lombard 2011, Europe Comics 2016), a fast-moving drama about mercenary fighters at the dawn of the Israeli state.
And later that year, he published the tenth volume in the striking historical fiction series "Pin-Up" (Dargaud 1994, Europe Comics 2017), alongside artist Philippe Berthet. Also in 2011, Yann contributed his writing talents to the legendary series "Thorgal, " giving rise to the sub-series "Louve" and, a few years later, "Thorgal - The Early Years" (Le Lombard; Europe Comics in English), in tandem with artist Roman Surzhenko.
Fascinated by these artists' superb images, Yann has now fully returned to his early passions, weighing anchor once and for all in the magical world of comics!
Born outside of Paris on September 22nd, 1956, Philippe Berthet learned about drawing cartoons in Brussels from 1974 onwards, by attending courses held by Eddy Paape at the Saint-Gilles Academy and by Claude Renard at the Saint-Luc Institute.
Adopting the temporary pseudonym of "Philibert" for his first test pieces in "Le 9e rêve" in 1979, an anthology of the best work of the members of Atelier R, he then worked with his friend and fellow student, Antonio Cossu, on the magazine "Aïe!, " and then on "Spatial." He was taken on by the magazine "Spirou" in 1981 for "Couleur café" (based on a script by Antoine Andrieu), followed by "Hiver 51" and "Été 60" (written by Andréas), the "Privé d'Hollywood" trilogy, based on the detective stories by François Rivière and José-Louis Bocquet, "L'oeil du chasseur" with Philippe Foerster, and "La Dame, le cygne et l'ombre" with Dominique David.
In 1991, he illustrated a script by Tome ("Sur la route de Selma") for the prestigious Aire Libre collection at Dupuis and two years later, he presented "Halona, " his first complete work as an author. At the same time Berthet was working with his friend Cossu on producing the series "Marchand d'idées" at Glénat, a peculiar mix of two different styles. In 1994, his clear, linear drawing and sharp framing was used for the series "Pin-up" at Dargaud (Europe Comics in English, 2017), alongside the author Yann.
The story is a fictionalized account of the world of Betty Page, the queen of erotic photos in the 1940s and '50s. Deliciously retro, this series was initially intended to be a tribute to Milton Caniff and his comic strip "Male Call, " meant to entertain the GIs at war. More recently, Berthet has also collaborated with Zidrou on a tale of Australian crime fiction, "Le Crime qui est le tien" (Dargaud 2015, Europe Comics in English 2018), as well as Sylvain Runberg on the thriller "Motorcity" (Dargaud, Europe Comics 2017).
And in 2018, he teamed with scriptwriter Raule to explore the streets of Barcelona in "L'Art de mourir" (Dargaud; "The Art of Dying, " Europe Comics).
