Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) was born in 1962 in Brussels. Starting out as a teacher, he began writing books and songs for children in the early '90s. In 1991, he met the illustrator Godi with whom he created "L'Elève Ducobu" (Le Lombard 1997, "Ducoboo, " Cinebook 2006). And thus his career as a comics writer began! He created numerous series for children and teenagers, from "Crannibales" to "Tamara" and "Sac à Puces, " all with Dupuis, as well as "Scott Zombi, " published by Casterman.
Zidrou also took over the series "La Ribambelle" (Dargaud). In addition, he is the author of the more realistic but no less sensitive "La Peau de l'ours" (Dargaud 2012, "Bearskin" Europe Comics 2015), "Le Client" (Dargaud 2013; "The Client, " Europe Comics 2018 in English), "Lydie" (Dargaud 2010; Europe Comics 2018), "Les Folies Bergère" (Dargaud 2012, Europe Comics 2015), "La Mondaine" (Dargaud 2014, "Vice Squad" Europe Comics 2016), and "Les 3 Fruits" (Dargaud 2015).
In 2015, Zidrou was back in fine form with three new titles published by Dargaud, across multiple genres: "Bouffon, " with Francis Porcel; a new family series called "Les Beaux Étés, " with Jordi Lafebre ("Glorious Summers, " Europe Comics 2018); and, in collaboration with Philippe Berthet, a thriller set in the deepest and darkest regions of Australia, "Le Crime qui est le tien" (Europe Comics 2018).
Most recently, with Le Lombard he has also completed the "African Trilogy" with artist Raphaël Beuchot, including "Le Montreur d'histoires" (2011; "Once Upon a Time in Africa, " Europe Comics 2017), "Tourne-disque" (2014; "Record Player, " Europe Comics 2017) and "Un tout petit bout d'elles" (2016, Europe Comics 2017), as well as rebooting the classic thriller series "Ric Hochet" alongside artist Simon Van Liemt (2015; Europe Comics in English 2017).
In 2017, he embarked on yet another new series with José Homs, the fantastic adventure saga "Shi" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English) stretching across two centuries in England, and his bibliography grew further with the publication of the wonderfully surreal "Natures mortes" (Dargaud 2017; "The Muse, " Europe Comics 2018).
Despite his name, Simon Van Liemt is French, not Belgian, although he would learn his trade as in artist in Liège, at the Saint-Luc Institute.
He remained in the north for a time after completing his studies as well, working at the "Parfois j'ai dur" workshop alongside future comics stars Ralph Meyer and Bruno Gazzotti. There he learned the basics of narrating a story and quickly made a name for himself, becoming a contributor to the French comics monthly "Lanfeust Mag, " and subsequently joining their workshop Gottferdom upon his return to his native France.
His meeting with author Christophe Derrien later allowed him to begin working on longer stories, starting with the three-part series "Incantations" (Glénat) before going on to create "Poker" with Le Lombard. All along the way, Van Liemt's fluid illustration style allowed him to create remarkably sharp and deep frames, and he clearly isn't done, having now teamed up with Zidrou to take on "Les nouvelles enquêtes de Ric Hochet, " a reboot of the classic series (Le Lombard 2015; "The Mighty Return of Ric Hochet, " Europe Comics 2017 in English).
