François Bourgeon
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François Bourgeon (born 5 July 1945,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) is a French
comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literar ...
, who creates his work in the Franco-Belgian "''
Bande Dessinée (singular ; literally 'drawn strips'), abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics (), are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition ...
''" (BD) tradition.


Biography

Bourgeon was originally educated as a master
stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
artist, but difficulties in finding employment and a passion for drawing altered his course onto a different career. Getting illustrations published in magazines from 1971 eventually led him to pursue
graphic storytelling In comics studies, sequential art is a term proposed by comics artist Will EisnerWill Eisner, ''Comics and Sequential Art'', Poorhouse Press, 1990 (1st ed.: 1985), p. 5. to describe art forms that use images deployed in a specific order for the pur ...
and to develop his craft over the next few years. His first major BD work became the first two, 1976-77, outings in the
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
series ', whose two subsequent
comic album a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicat ...
formats were published by publisher
Glénat Editions Glénat can refer to: * Glénat, Cantal, a commune in the Cantal ''département'', France * Glénat Éditions, a French publisher, specialising in comics and manga {{disambig ...
in 1979-80, in the process becoming Bourgeon's very first BD books thus released. These two titles already foreshadowed his later, more grim medieval epic ' (''The Companions of the Dusk''), both thematically as well as art-wise. When the likewise by Glénat published ' (''The Passengers of the Wind'') series, for which Bourgeon abandoned ''Brunelle et Colin'', was serialized in ' magazine in the time period July 1979-June 1984, it became recognized as one of the most important European comic series of its era. His graphic novels have ranged from
nautical Seamanship is the art, competence, and knowledge of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, or practice of handling a ship or boat at sea." It involves topic ...
and medieval historical fiction to
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
, and characteristically, within settings of
violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
and
sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...
, epic stories revolve around strong female characters. Brunelle, Isa, Mariotte and Cyann are the heroines of each their series, ''Brunelle et Colin'', ''The Passagers of the Wind, The Twilight Companions'' and ''The Cyann Saga'', respectively. Over the course of his career, Bourgeon became in his home country honored for his BD work with no less than four awards from the
Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (AICF; ) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lucca Comics & Games and the Comiket of Japan. It has occur ...
, Europe's second largest, but most prestigious BD festival. Bourgeon is noted as a thorough researcher and his drawings, from 17th-century ships to 14th-century clothing, have a reputation for historical accuracy. For example, when working on ''The Passengers of the Wind'', he did a vast amount of background reading, consulted academic specialists and visited the Maritime Museum in Nantes. For this series he also made scale models both of colonial architectural structures and one of the ships on which the main characters sail, in order to ensure that the dimensions and the interior layouts were correct. The same approach has been used for other works too. In ''The Cyann Saga'' he built models of the machines and buildings seen in the series, so he could walk around them and see them from different perspectives and light conditions. His time-consuming and meticulous research has resulted in that his body of work is relatively modest in comparison to the ones created by his major contemporaries such as Jean "Mœbius" Giraud,
Hermann Huppen Hermann Huppen (born 17 July 1938) is a Belgian comic book creator. He is better known under his pen-name Hermann. He is most famous for his post-apocalyptic comic ''Jeremiah'' which was made into a television series. Biography Hermann was bor ...
or
André Juillard André Juillard (9 June 1948 – 31 July 2024) was a French comics artist. Biography Born in Paris, Juillard was one of the most prolific artists of historical comics in France. His career began in 1974. After studies in the School of Decorativ ...
. After Bourgeon had finished up on the last volume of ''Les Passagers du vent'' saga in 2022, he retired from creating BDs and decided to donate his entire body of work, both BD art originals and associated research materials, to the museum, France's preeminent BD institution and Europe's largest comics museum, located in the French town of
Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; ) is a small city in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Charente, of which it is the Prefectures of France, prefecture. Located on a plateau overlooking a meander of ...
. He did so in the conviction that this would secure his BD legacy for posterity. The museum responded with the large year-long (August 22, 2023–May 5, 2024) "François Bourgeon et la traversée des mondes" exposition, celebrating his career as a BD artist. Bourgeon has lived for most of his life in
Cornouaille Cornouaille (; , ) is a historical region on the west coast of Brittany in West France. The name is cognate with Cornwall in neighbouring Great Britain. This can be explained by the settlement of Cornouaille by migrant princes from Cornwall ...
in
Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
– explaining his specific 2023
Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...
BD award listed
below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fred Belo ...
.


BD album bibliography

Source: In Europe, it had been customary for a series to first see a serialized
comic magazine Comic magazine or comics magazine may refer to: * A comic book * A comics anthology * ''Comic Magazine'', a 1986 Japanese film * Comic Magazines, the parent company of Quality Comics * British comics * List of Franco-Belgian comics magazines, Franc ...
pre-publication, before each individual volume was released in its entirety as a comic book, or rather comic album in Europe's case. In France, Bourgeon's two ''Brunelle et Colin'' volumes were serialized by in their BD periodical ''Djinn'' from November 1976 onward. His second major series, ''Les Passagers du vent'' was serialized by publisher Glénat in its ''Circus'' comic magazine as referenced above, whereas Bourgeon's third major series, ''Les Compagnons du crépuscule'', became serialized by publisher
Casterman Casterman is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, specializing in comic books and children's literature. The company is based in Tournai, 90 kilometres southwest of the centre of Brussels, Belgium. History The company was founded in 1780 by Don ...
in its ''(
À Suivre ''À Suivre'' or ''(A SUIVRE)'' (English translation: "To Be Continued") was a Belgian comics magazine published from February 1978 to December 1997 by the Casterman publishing house, and was preceded by a "0", or test, issue in October 1977. A ...
)'' comics magazine in the period October 1985-January 1990. The comic magazine pre-publication format though, became largely defunct in the 1990s because of the waning interest in the format. This resulted in that Bourgeon's work was afterwards directly released by the various publishers in the album format.


Brunelle et Colin

(with ) *1. ''Le vol noir'' (1979, ) *2. ''Yglinga'' (1980, )


Les Passagers du vent (The Passengers of the Wind)

*1. ''La fille sous la dunette'' (1980, ) *2. ''Le ponton'' (1980, ) *3. ''Le comptoir de Juda'' (1981, ) *4. ''L'heure du serpent'' (1982, ) *5. ''Le bois d'ébène'' (1984, ) *6. ''La petite fille Bois-Caïman - Livre 1'' (2009, ) *7. ''La petite fille Bois-Caïman - Livre 2'' (2010, ) *8. ''Le sang des cerises - Livre 1: Rue de l'Abreuvoir'' (2018, ) *9. ''Le sang des cerises - Livre 2: Rue des Martyrs'' (2022, ) *HS. ''Les chantiers d'une aventure'' (1994, with Michel Thiébaut, ) *HS. ''Le chemin de l'Atchafalaya'' (2010, with Michel Thiébaut, )


Les Compagnons du crépuscule (The Companions of the Dusk)

*1. ''Le sortilège du bois des brumes'' (1983, ) *2. ''Les yeux d'étain de la ville glauque'' (1986, ) *3. ''Le dernier chant des Malaterre'' (1990, ) *HS ''Dans le sillage des sirènes'' (1992, with Michel Thiébaut, )


Le Cycle de Cyann (The Cyann Saga)

(with Claude Lacroix) *1. ''La sOurce et la sOnde'' (1993, ) *2. ''Six saisons sur ilO'' (1997, ) *3. ''Aïeïa d'Aldaal'' (2005, ) *4. ''Les couleurs de Marcade'' (2007, ) *5. ''Les couloirs de l'Entretemps'' (2012, ) *6. ''Les aubes douces d'Aldalarann'' (2014) *HS. ''La clef des confins: D'Olh à ilO et au-delà'' (1997, )


Cyann Saga background information

A prolonged legal battle caused significant release delays of the individual volumes in Bourgeon's Cyann science fiction saga, further bogging down his already slow BD production pace. :;The Cyann Saga affair :When Bourgeon's usual publisher since 1983, the family-owned company Casterman, was bought by the large corporation
Groupe Flammarion Groupe Flammarion () is a French publishing group, comprising many units, including its namesake, founded in 1876 by Ernest Flammarion, as well as units in distribution, sales, printing and bookshops ( La Hune and Flammarion Center). Flammarion ...
, legal problems over financial remunerations ensued. Bourgeon and Lacroix claimed that Flammarion had altered the sales numbers to slow down royalty payments to the authors, and then committed other irregularities. The authors took Flammarion to court in 1999. Flammarion countersued separately, charging the authors over failure to produce a new album of the Cyann series in less than three years. The contract between the authors and Casterman had never specified a fixed date or time period for producing any album, but despite this, on 30 October 2001 a court decided in favor of Flammarion and ordered the authors to produce an album (the third of the series), with a fine of €1000 per each day's delay. On 27 April 2004 an appeals court finally overturned the judgment of the previous court. In the meantime these litigations had become a "cause célèbre" in France, because of the intellectual freedom questions and
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
issues they raised in literary circles. In the end, the authors got their liberty and their rights and the third album of the cycle finally came out in 2005, eight years after the previous one, through a different publishing house, – currently part of Bourgeon's former alma mater publisher Glénat. :;Nature of collaboration with Claude Lacroix :In an interview in the "Dare-Dare" program of Radio Suisse Romande, as wall as a February 2007 interview on the launch of "Les couleurs de Marcade" installment in the "Cycle de Cyann" series, François Bourgeon revealed the nature of the collaboration between him and Claude Lacroix. For this most recent album as well as the others in the Cyann series Lacroix had the task of creating nearly all of the complex decors, natural or man made be they planets or islands, cities or buildings. In this way he created for Bourgeon the futuristic equivalent of the thorough documentation which had always been the basis for his previous series.
:Lacroix, an old friend and collaborator of Bourgeon from times pre-dating those of his other series, created the decors and many of the more important objects of the Cyann series by making sketches and drawings and paintings, and also a few solid three-dimensional models at times. The solid model for the city in "Les couleurs de Marcade" took up several meters of space at Lacroix's home. The process for this universe-making was always interactive and non-exclusive. In some instances Bourgeon would choose to make himself some of those background sketches, and he would later show them to Lacroix for his opinion. Regardless of who initiated a sketch or large drawing, the two would exchange comments at all steps as the decor went from early sketch form to finished product within the BD.


In foreign translation

In large swaths of the rest of continental Europe, Bourgeon's work became highly appreciated as well (as brought home by the multiple non-french honors listed
below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fred Belo ...
), and he saw his work translated in Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish. Unlike in native France, almost all European countries saw the bulk of Bourgeon's work published in the direct-to-album publication format. The only known exceptions concerned the into Dutch translated ''De Gezellen van de Schemering'' (''Les Compagnons du crépuscule'') series which was serialized in ''Wordt Vervolgd'' – Casterman's Dutch-language counterpart version of ''(À Suivre!)'' – in the same time period the French-language serialized magazine publication was (save for the second part of volume 3 due to the Dutch-language magazine variant becoming defunct in the summer of 1989 way ahead of its French-language counterpart), as well as the into Portuguese translated ''Os Passageiros do Vento'' (''Les Passagers du vent'') whose first four volumes were serialized in
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's ''Jornal da BD'' comics magazine in the period 1983-85. ;In English Despite the acclaim Bourgeon has received for his work in native France and the rest of mainland Europe, virtually none of his work has seen translations into English as of 2025, save one. US publisher
Catalan Communications Catalan Communications was a New York City publishing company that existed from 1983 to 1991. Operated by Bernd Metz, it mainly focused on English-language translations of European graphic novels presented in a series of high-quality trade paperba ...
had planned to release his medieval epic ''Les Compagnons du crépuscule'' as ''The Companions of the Dusk'' in 1991, but only the first volume of the series was released as such, as the publisher went bankrupt shortly thereafter. #''The Companions of the Dusk'': "The Spell of the Misty Forest", 48 pages, July 1991 paperback, Catalan Communications USA, (translation Elizabeth Bell).


Awards

* 1980: Angoulême «Best Artist» Award at the
Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (AICF; ) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lucca Comics & Games and the Comiket of Japan. It has occur ...
for "La Fille sous la dunette". * 1984: «Best Foreign Artist»
Yellow Kid Award The Yellow Kid Awards (Italian: ''Premio Yellow Kid'') are comic book awards presented in Italy from 1970 to 1992 at Salone Internazionale dei Comics in Lucca, then from 1994 to 2005 at the Salone Internazionale dei Comics in Rome. The Yellow Kid ...
at the
Lucca Comics & Games Lucca Comics & Games is an annual Comic book convention, comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with All Saints' Day. It is the largest comics festival in Europe, and the secon ...
convention (Europe's largest comics festival) for entire body of work. * 1985: Angoulême «FM-BD» Award for "Le Bois d'ébène". * 1988: «Best Long Comic Strip and Best Drawing»
Haxtur Award The Haxtur Award (''Premios Haxtur'') is a Spanish award for Spanish comics. It is awarded annually at the Salón Internacional del Cómic del Principado de Asturias (International Comics Convention of the Principality of Asturias). It takes its n ...
nomination at the . * 1990: «Best Translated Comic»
Sproing Award The Sproing Award is awarded by Norsk Tegneserieforum (NTF), an organisation to promote interest and understanding for comics in Norway. Since 1987, the award has been presented for the ''Best Norwegian Strips'', a comic strip or comic book by a No ...
from the for ''Skumringens venner'' (''Les compagnons de crépuscule''). * 1991: Angoulême «Best Audience» Award for "Le dernier chant des Malaterre". * 1991: «Best Translated Title» Urhunden Prize from Seriefrämjandet for "Sirenens Sång" ("Le Dernier Chant des Malaterre")'. * 1998: «Best Francophone Bande Dessinée» from the French quarterly (and named after its progenitor ''Ozone''
fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...
) for "Six saisons sur ilO". * 1998: Angoulême «Alph-Art du Public» Award for "Six saisons sur ilO". * 2002: «Grand Boum-Caisse d'Épargne» Award at the
Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the mos ...
comics festival. * 2021: Induction in the "Le Panthéon de la BD - Franco-Belge" hall of fame. * 2022: «Best International Comic-Strip r comic bookCartoonist» Adamson Award from the Svenska Serieakademien for entire body of work. * 2023: «BD Bretonne» Award at the
Quimper Quimper (, ; ; or ) is a Communes of France, commune and Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Finistère Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the ...
Penn ar BD comics festival for "Le Sang des cerises - Livre 2".


References


External links


François Bourgeon biography
on Casterman

on Vents d'Ouest

on Lambiek Comiclopedia

Article from ''Image & Narrative'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourgeon, Francois 1945 births French comics artists French comics writers French science fiction writers French science fiction artists Living people French male writers Comics colorists