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).
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).
