François Bourgeon

Infobox Comics creator
name = François Bourgeon


imagesize =
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1945|7|5
location = Paris, France
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = French
area = artist, writer, colourist
alias = Bourgeon
notable works = "Les Passagers du vent" "Les Compagnons du crépuscule" "Le Cycle de Cyann"
awards = full list

François Bourgeon (born July 5 1945, Paris) is a French comics artist, author of several noted European comic books.

Biography

Bourgeon was originally educated as a master stained glass 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 and to develop his craft over the next few years. When the "Les passagers du vent" ("The Passengers of the Wind") series was serialised in "Circus" magazine in 1979, it became recognised as one of the most important European comic series of its era. His graphic novels have ranged from nautical and medieval historical fiction to science fiction, and characteristically, within settings of violence and sexuality, epic stories revolve around strong female characters. Isa, Mariotte and Cyann are the heroines of each their series, "The Passagers of the Wind, The Twilight Companions" and "The Cyann Saga", respectively. Bourgeon is noted as a thorough researcher and his drawings, of 17th-century ships, for example, or 14th-century clothing, have a reputation for historical accuracy. He lives in Cornouaille in Brittany.

The Cyann Saga affair

When Bourgeon's usual editor since 1983, the family owned company Casterman, was bought by the large corporation Flammarion, problems arose.cite web | last = Deppey | first = Dirk | title = François Bourgeon's war | publisher = The Comics Journal | date = 2003-12-05| url =http://www.tcj.com/journalista/zarch200312A.html ] 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 October 30th, 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 April 27, 2004 an appeals court finally overturned the judgment of the previous court.cite web | last =Anspach | first =Nicolas | title =Bourgeon et Lacroix, enfin libres de créer à nouveau ? | publisher = actuabd.com | date = 2004-05-21 | url =http://www.actuabd.com/article.php3?id_article=1500 fr_icon] In the meantime these litigations had become a "cause célèbre" in France, because of the intellectual freedom questions and copyright 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, Vents d'Ouest.

Nature of collaboration with Claude Lacroix

In an interview in the "Dare-Dare" program of Radio Suisse Romande (available on their Web site) and an interview on the Auracan.com site on the occasion of the February 2007 launch of "Les couleurs de Marcade" the most recent album 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.

elected bibliography

Les Passagers du vent

*1. "La fille sous la dunette" (1980, ISBN 2-7234-0132-4)
*2. "Le ponton" (1980, ISBN 2-7234-0164-2)
*3. "Le comptoir de Juda" (1981, ISBN 2-7234-0215-0)
*4. "L'heure du serpent" (1982, ISBN 2-7234-0290-8)
*5. "Le bois d'ébène" (1984, ISBN 2-7234-0440-4)
*HS. "Les chantiers d'une aventure" (1994, with Michel Thiebaut, ISBN 2-203-38023-3)

Les Compagnons du crépuscule

*1. "Le sortilège du bois des brumes" (1983, ISBN 2-203-33516-5)
*2. "Les yeux d'étain de la ville glauque" (1986, ISBN 2-203-33811-3)
*3. "Le dernier chant des Malaterre" (1990, ISBN 2-203-33830-X)
*HS "Dans le sillage des sirènes" (1992, with Michel Thiebaut, ISBN 2-203-38021-7)

Le Cycle de Cyann

(with Claude Lacroix)
*1. "La sOurce et la sOnde" (1993, ISBN 2-203-38857-9)
*2. "Six saisons sur ilO" (1997, ISBN 2-203-38894-3)
*3. "Aïeïa d'Aldaal" (2005, ISBN 2-7493-0218-8)
*4. "Les couleurs de Marcade" (2007, ISBN 978-2-7493-0239-3)
*HS. "La clef des confins: D'Olh à ilO et au-delà" (1997, ISBN 2-203-38030-6)

Awards

* 1980: Best Artist at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, France
* 1985: FM-BD Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
* 1988: nominated for Best Long Comic Strip and Best Drawing at the Haxtur Awards, Spain
* 1991: Angoulême Audience Award for "Le dernier chant des Malaterre"
* 1998: Prix Ozone, Bande dessinée francophone for "Six saisons sur IlO"
* 1998: Angoulême Prix Alph-Art du Public for "Le Cycle de Cyann-Six saisons sur IlO"

References

* [http://bdoubliees.com/circusvecu/auteurs1/bourgeon.htm Bourgeon publications in "Circus"] and [http://bdoubliees.com/asuivre/auteurs1/bourgeon.htm "(A SUIVRE)"] BDoubliées fr_icon
* [http://www.bedetheque.com/auteur-16-BD-Bourgeon-Fran%E7ois.html Bourgeon albums] Bedetheque fr_icon

Footnotes

External links

* [http://bd.casterman.com/bio/BourgeonFr/?r=castaut François Bourgeon biography] on Casterman fr_icon
* [http://www.ventsdouest.com/dyn/ventsdouest/08pleinecran/accueil2.asp?url=http%3A//www.ventsdouest.com/francois-bourgeon-000000026943-091.htm François Bourgeon biography] on Vents d'Ouest fr_icon
* [http://lambiek.net/artists/b/bourgeon.htm François Bourgeon biography] on Lambiek Comiclopedia
* [http://www.imageandnarrative.be/gender/ankegilleir.htm History and Femininity in François Bourgeon's "Les compagnons du crépuscule"] Article from "Image & Narrative"