Jean-François Miniac

Jean-François Miniac, better known under his pen name Solidor, is a French comic book creator (writer and artist.). He was born in Paris, to-date he lives in Saint-Malo, (Brittany), France.

After a few drawing lessons taken at Hergé from 1976 to 1978, in 1987 he had a formal training in the visual arts at Gobelins (school of image),in Paris.

In 1994, Claude Lefrancq, a Belgian comic publisher, asked to Rosalind Hicks to publish Hercule Poirot's comic book, showing to her the Blake and Mortimer's comic book, "Mortimer versus Mortimer". In 1995, with the novelist François Rivière, French Agatha Christie specialist, Miniac drawed his first cartoon series, "Agatha Christie", published at Lefrancq publishing, in Edgar P. Jacobs's spirit, in schematic style ( ligne claire drawning style ). The success is important, with ten translations in the world ( Spain, Italy, Germany, Turquey, Brazil...).

After the bankrupt of this Belgian comic publisher in 2000, EP publishers ( La Martinière group, Paris) published again these two success comic books, the first one in October 2002 and the second one in February 2003. In four years, 20 000 copies of each have been sold in France ( At the end of 2006, 148 000 copies for all the books ). In July 2007, "Death on the Nile" and "Murder on the Orient Express" were released by Harper Collins UK as a comic strip , adapted by François Rivière and illustrated by Solidor. These books will be published by Harper Collins in Australia the first November of this year.

Also, one Jean-François Miniac's ancestor is Louis Duchesne, a French historian (Académie française). Marc Tanguy, Saint-Malo's marksman, another ancestor was one of the survivors of the French 74-gun ship Redoutable at Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. At present, Miniac is writing his story.

Bibliography

Twelve comic strip books in French :

* Agatha Christie (Author), François Rivière (Editor) and Jean-François Miniac ( Artist), "Murder on the Orient Express", Lefrancq publishers, Bruxelles, 1995. ISBN 2-87153-161-7

* Christie A, Rivière F and Miniac JF, "Death on the Nile", Lefrancq publishers : Bruxelles, 1996. ISBN 2-87153-203-6

* Christie A, Rivière F and Solidor, "Death on the Nile", EP publishers : Paris, October 2002. ISBN 2-84810-007-9

* Christie A, Rivière F and Solidor, "Murder on the Orient Express", EP publishers : Paris, February 2003. ISBN 2-84810-013-3

* Rivière F (Author) and Miniac JF (Artist), cartoon series "Outsiders", Glénat publishers : Grenoble, 1998. ISBN 2-7234-2446-4

* Rivière F and Miniac JF, "Créatures de cauchemar", Glénat publishers : Grenoble, 1999. ISBN 2-7234-2748-X

* Rivière F and Miniac JF, "La revanche de Donald Blank", Glénat publishers : Grenoble, 2000. ISBN 2-7234-3082-0

* Gégé, Belom and Miniac JF, "Christophe", Vents d'ouest publishers : Issy-les-Moulineaux, 2005. ISBN 2-7493-0242-0

* Miniac JF, Casters Pauline and Dikeuss, "Amiante, chronique d'un crime social", Septième choc publishers : Paris, 2005. ISBN :2-914809-03-04

* Miniac JF (Author) and Emmanuel Delente (Artist), cartoon series "L'arche de Zoé", "Zoé sème la zizanie", Des ronds dans l'o publishers : Vincennes, 2006. ISBN 2-9523173-3-X

Comic strip books in English :

* Agatha Christie, François Rivière and Solidor, "Death on the Nile", Agatha Christie Comic strip ED edition, HarperCollins publishers, London,july 2007. ISBN 978-0007250585

* Agatha Christie, François Rivière and Solidor, "Murder on the Orient Express" , Agatha Comic Strip Ed edition, HarperCollins publishers, London, july 2007. ISBN 978-0007246588

* Agatha Christie, François Rivière and Solidor, Murder on the Orient-Express, Melbourne, Australia, november 2007. ISBN 978-0007246587

English press

* Mulholland Tara, International Herald Tribune, August 22, 2007.
* Lane Megan, BBC news, August 22, 2007.
* Beauman Ned, The Guardian, August 23, 2007.

"Need it be saide- the little grey cells solve once more the seemingly insoluble. Mrs Christie makes an improbable tale very real, and keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end." in Literatury suplement Times, 2007.

"The construction is flawless", Daily mail, 2007.

Awards

* 1997 : Public prize at Creil comics festival, France.
* 2006 : Tournesol prize at Angoulême International Comics Festival, France.( "Amiante, chronique d'un crime social" ).

References

French books :

* "Annuaire des dessinateurs de Bretagne", Conseil culturel de Bretagne : Rennes, 2000. ISBN 2-9515325-0-4
* Bera, Denni and Mello. "Trésor de la bande dessinée", Les éditions de l'amateur : Paris, 1998. ISBN 2-85917-258-0
* Filippini, Henri. "Dictionnaire encyclopédique des héros et auteurs de BD", Opéra mundi : Grenoble, 1998. ISBN 2-7234-2735-8
* Gaumer, Patrick. "Larousse de la BD", Larousse : Paris, 2004. ISBN 2-03-505416-8

External links

* Jean-François Miniac biography (http://lambiek.net/artists/m/miniac.htm) on Lambiek Comiclopedia.