Jean-Claude Mézières

Infobox Comics creator
name = Jean-Claude Mézières

---

imagesize =
caption = Jean-Claude Mézières photographed in February 2007
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|df=yes|1938|9|23
location = Saint-Mandé,
Val-de-Marne, France
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = French
area = artist, illustrator
alias = Mézières, Mezi
notable works = "Valérian and Laureline" "Lady Polaris"
"Canal Choc"
awards = full list

Jean-Claude Mézières (born 23 September 1938) is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis. Educated at the Institut des Arts Appliqués, upon graduation he worked as an illustrator for books and magazines as well as in advertising. A lifelong interest in the Wild West led him to travel to the United States in 1965 in search of adventure as a cowboy, an experience that would prove influential on his later work.

Returning to France, Mézières teamed up with his childhood friend, Pierre Christin, to create "Valérian and Laureline", the popular, long-running science fiction comics series for which he is best known and which has proved to be influential to many science fiction and fantasy films, including "Star Wars". Mézières has also worked as a conceptual designer on several motion picture projects – most notably the 1997 Luc Besson film, "The Fifth Element" – as well as continuing to work as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines and in advertising. He has also taught courses on the production of comics at the .

Mézières has received international recognition through a number of prestigious awards, most notably the 1984 Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême award.

Biography

Early life and career

Raised in the Saint-Mandé area in the suburbs of Paris, Jean-Claude Mézières met his friend and frequent collaborator Pierre Christin at the age of two in an air-raid shelter during World War II.cite journal|author=Maltret, Olivier|title=Dossier Mezieres|journal=Les Dossiers de la Bande Dessinée (DBD)|month=August | year=2001|issue=12|pages=1–40|url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/bio/dbd.htm|accessdate=2006-09-01] cite journal |last=Kane |first=Gil |authorlink=Gil Kane |coauthors=Groth, Gary |year=2004 |month=May/June |title=Recognition: A Conversation with Jean-Claude Mézières |journal=The Comics Journal |issue=260 |pages=88–112 |publisher=Fantagraphics Books id=ISSN: 0194-7869] He was first inspired to draw by the influence of his older brother who, aged fourteen, had a drawing published in the magazine "OK".cite web|title=Première période (avant 1967) |work=Tout (ou presque) sur Jean-Claude Mézières... |url=http://ludogrid.free.fr/Mezieres/mezieres1.htm |accessdate=2006-09-20] Mézières' initial inspiration came from such "OK" strips as "Arys Buck" by Uderzo, "Kaza the Martian" by Kline and "Crochemaille" by Erik. Later he was exposed to Hergé's "Tintin", Franquin's period on "Spirou et Fantasio" and, his favourite of all, Morris' "Lucky Luke". He had his first drawings published in 1951, at the age of thirteen, in the magazine "Le journal des jeunes", published by "Le Figaro". A year later, "completely fascinated by Tintin", he created an eleven page strip, "Tintin in California", which features an unusually muscle-bound "Arys Buck"-influenced Tintin. This was followed, at the age of sixteen, by "La Grande Poursuite", a Western influenced by "Tintin", "Lucky Luke" and "Roy Rogers" which he sent to Hergé in the hope of getting published. Hergé sent a reply encouraging him to keep up his efforts.

In 1953, aged fifteen, Mézières enrolled at the Institut des Arts Appliqués in Paris for four years. Also in his class were two other aspiring artists who would go on to find success in the field of comics – Patrick (Pat) Mallet and Jean “Moebius” Giraud. It was also at this time that he restarted his friendship with Pierre Christin who was attending the high school next door to the Arts Appliqués, the pair bonding over a mutual interest in jazz and cinema. While at college, Mézières published illustrations and strips for magazines such as "Coeurs Valliants", " Fripounet et Marisette" and "Spirou".

Following art college, Mézières entered military service, which lasted twenty-eight months, including a tour of duty based in Tlemcen, Algeria during the Algerian War, returning to France just fifteen days before the Algiers putsch.

Answering an advertisement in "Le Figaro" after his discharge from the army, Mézières was employed by the publishing house Hachette as an illustrator on a series of books titled "Histoire des Civilizations" ("History of Civilization"). Intended to run to twenty volumes, "Histoire des Civilizations" folded after just five.

Introduced to Benoit Gillain (son of the famous comics artist Jijé) by Jean Giraud, Mézières and Gillain entered into a partnership and opened a studio in 1963. Working mainly in advertising, Mézières acted as a photographer, model maker and graphic designer. He also assisted Gillain with the setting up of "Totale Journal", a publication he would later work for again upon his return from America.

Work in the United States

Mézières had been fascinated by the American Old West since he was a little boy through exposure to Western genre films starring the likes of Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster and James Stewart and comics such as "Lucky Luke" and "Jerry Spring".cite book |last=Mézières |first=Jean-Claude |editor=Dean, John and Gabillet, Jean Paul (eds.) |others= trans. John Dean and John-Paul Gabillet |title=European Readings of American Popular Culture (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture, Number 50) |accessdate=2006-09-21 |year=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |id=ISBN 0-313-29429-1 |doi=10.1336/0313294291 |pages=p41-48 |chapter=My Very Own America |chapterurl= http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/travaux/galerie.asp?large=650&haut=650&serie=amerique&nbr=8&num=1&rep=amerique2&titre=Mon%20am%E9rique%20%E0%20moi] At the age of sixteen, he had attempted to travel to Mexico with Jean Giraud, whose mother lived there, but was prevented by his parents.

In 1965, Mézières arranged a working visa though a friend of Jijé's who had a factory in Houston, Texas. In the end, however, he never took up the job in Houston. After staying in New York for a few months, the call of the West proved too strong and eventually he ended up hitchhiking across the country, first to Seattle and then to Montana (where he worked on a ranch driving tractors, laying posts and cleaning stables) before ending up in San Francisco. His initial plan was to find work in an advertising agency in San Francisco but he ran foul of the Immigration Service who told him that his visa was good for working in the factory in Houston and nowhere else. He quickly left San Francisco in search of an authentic "Wild West" cowboy experience. Arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah with no money, he sought out Pierre Christin, who was living there while teaching at the University of Utah, and turned up on his doorstep asking him if he could sleep on his settee. To make ends meet, Mézières produced some illustrations for a small advertising agency in Salt Lake City and for a Mormon children's magazine called "Children's Friend" as well as selling some photographs he had taken while working on the ranch in Montana. After a few months, he found work on a ranch in Utah: this time succeeding in his aspiration of living the life of a cowboy, an experience he described as "better than in my dreams".

When winter came and there was no work available on the ranches, he collaborated with Christin on a six page strip called "Le Rhum du Punch", a copy of which he sent to Jean Giraud who was by now writing and illustrating "Blueberry" for the comics magazine "Pilote". Giraud showed the strip to "Pilote"'s editor, Rene Goscinny, who agreed to publish it (issue 335, 24 March 1966). This was followed by another collaboration titled "Comment réussir en affaires en se donnant un mal fou" ("How to succeed in business through pure evil") which was also published in "Pilote" (issue 351, 14 July 1966). By this stage Mézières visa was almost expired and so he used the money from these strips to pay for his ticket home. In leaving America, Mézières also left behind a young woman, Linda, one of Christin's students: she followed him to France some months later and is now his wife.cite book |last=Gabillet |first=Jean-Paul |editor=Dean, John and Gabillet, Jean-Paul (eds.) |title=European Readings of American Popular Culture (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture, Number 50) |accessdate=2006-09-16 |year=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |id=ISBN 0-313-29429-1 |doi=10.1336/0313294291|pages=23-43 |chapter=A Comics Interlude |chapterurl=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/extras/articles/jd01.htm]

Mézières experiences in the United States have provided the inspiration for several magazine articles [cite web|url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/travaux/western2.htm |title=Western |accessdate=2006-09-23 |last= Mézières |first= Jean-Claude |work=Le site officiel de Jean-Claude Mézières |language=French] published in "Pilote", "Tintin Magazine" and "GEO" as well as two books – "Olivier chez les cow-boys" ("Olivier with the Cowboys"), a children's book written by Pierre Christin with photographs and illustrations by Mézières about a visit Christin's son Olivier paid to the ranch Mézières worked on in Utah [cite book |last=Mezieres |first=Jean-Claude |coauthors=Christin, Pierre |title=Olivier chez les cow-boys |year=1969 |publisher=Dargaud |location=Paris |language=French |url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/travaux/galerie.asp?large=450&haut=650&serie=O&nbr=19&num=1&rep=olivier&titre=Olivier%20chez%20les%20cowboys |accessdate=2006-09-23] and "Adieu, rêve américain..." ("Farewell, American dreams..."), again written by Christin with photographs and illustrations by Mézières, a nostalgic look back at their time in the United States. [cite book |last=Christin |first=Pierre |coauthors=Mézières, Jean-Claude |title=Les Correspondances de Pierre Christin: Adieu rêve américain |year=2002 |publisher=Dargaud |location=Paris |language=French |id=ISBN 2-205-04904-6]

Valérian

On his return from the United States, Mézières visited the offices of "Pilote" magazine to see René Goscinny and Jean-Michel Charlier. Goscinny put him to work on "L'extraordinaire et Troublante Aventure de Mr. August Faust" ("The Extraordinary and Troubling Adventure of Mr August Faust"), written by Fred. This would be the first serialised strip that Mézières would work on. Due to the lack of artistic freedom he was given (because Fred's script came with all the strip panels already blocked out), Mézières found this a difficult assignment.

By this time Pierre Christin was dividing his time between Paris and Bordeaux, where he was working on founding the school of journalism at the Institut Universitaire de Technologie (IUT). Meeting up with Mézières one day, Christin suggested that they work on creating a comic strip together. Both had their experiences in the American West to draw upon but felt, thanks to "Lucky Luke", "Jerry Spring" and "Blueberry", that the market for Westerns was already crowded. Instead, Christin suggested that they turn their hands to science fiction, a genre that, at that time, was not prevalent in French comics. Although Goscinny was not a science fiction fan, he wanted to promote innovation and originality in "Pilote" and so commissioned them to produce a strip.

Drawing on influences from literary science fiction, Mézières and Christin devised the character of Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent from the 28th century employed by Galaxity, the capital of the future Earth, to protect space and time from interference. Neither Mézières nor Christin had any interest in making Valérian into a clean-cut hero of the type that appeared in French comics of the time. Instead they sought to create an anti-hero, "a banal character [without] any extraordinary means of action".cite journal|last=Pomerleau|first=Luc|year=1989|month=May|title=Pierre Christin and Enki Bilal, Called to Comics|journal=The Comics Journal|issue=129|pages=62–67|url=http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:6PNhy9YY_hUJ:www.rpkbd.com/bilal/tcj129.htm+%22called+to+comics%22+bilal&hl=en&gl=ie&ct=clnk&cd=3|accessdate=2006-09-02]

The first "Valérian" adventure, "Les Mauvais Rêves" ("Bad Dreams") appeared in "Pilote" in 1967, with the first installment of the story published on 9 November in issue 420, and ran for fifteen issues, concluding in issue 434 on 15 February 1968.cite web|url=http://www.bdoubliees.com/journalpilote/annees/index.html |accessdate=2006-09-24 |title=Le journal Pilote et les publications Dargaud par année |language=French] "Bad Dreams" shares an artistic style similar to that of Mézières and Christin's earlier collaborations for "Pilote", with influences from Franquin, Morris and Mad magazine artist Jack Davis.cite journal|last=Perez|first=Pepo|title=Tierra de Gigantes|journal=U|issue=23|pages=–|month=February | year=2002|url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/extras/articles/U23.htm|accessdate=2006-09-16] Also introduced in this story was Laureline, a peasant girl from the Middle Ages. Originally intended to appear in only one story, the popular reaction to the character meant that she was retained for subsequent stories and she has since become elevated to the main star of the series.cite journal|last=Andrevon|first=Jean-Pierre|authorlink=Jean-Pierre Andrevon|year=1971|month=December|title=L'Empire des Mille Planètes|journal=Fiction|issue=216|pages=–|url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/extras/articles/val02crit01.htm|accessdate=2006-09-17]

"Bad Dreams" was followed by "La Cité des Eaux Mouvantes" ("The City of Moving Waters") and its sequel "Terre en Flammes" ("Earth in Flames") in 1968 and 1969 respectively. These two stories show some evolution in Mézières' art but also retain the cartoonish influences of "Bad Dreams".cite journal|last=Andrevon|first=Jean-Pierre|authorlink=Jean-Pierre Andrevon|year=1970|month=December|title=La Cité des eaux mouvantes|journal=Fiction|issue=204|pages=–|url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/extras/articles/val01crit01.htm|accessdate=2006-09-17] Jean-Pierre Andrevon best sums up Mézières' style at this time in his 1970 review of the story where he describes Valérian as a "kind of "Lucky Luke" of space-time". "The City of the Moving Waters" and "Earth in Flames" were collected together in one volume in 1970 under the title "The City of the Moving Waters". This became the first "Valérian" album – "Bad Dreams" was skipped because of its short length – thirty pages – relative to the usual album length of around 46 pages. Every "Valérian" story up to and including "The Rage of Hypsis" in 1985 would debut in serial form in "Pilote" before being published as an album.

"L'Empire des Mille Planètes" ("Empire of a Thousand Planets") premiered in "Pilote" in 1969 and marked a further development for the "Valérian" series and for Mézières art. This story was the series' first full-blown attempt at space opera and it set out for the first time the two main signature elements of "Valérian": the use of science fiction as a political allegory and Mézières' meticulously detailed depictions of alien worlds. The follow-up story "World Without Stars" saw the final evolution of Mézières' art into the style that would become prevalent in the "Valerian" stories of the 1970s and 1980s with the first realistic renderings of Valérian and Laureline as opposed to the caricatures of the earlier stories.

Mézières' style on "Valérian" remained fairly consistent until 1980's "Métro Châtelet, Direction Cassiopeia" which mixed the space-opera with scenes set on contemporary Earth. This style continued for five albums until 1990's "The Living Weapons" which saw a change in Mézières' style back towards the cartoonish style of the earlier stories. This style has remained with the series up to the most recently published (January 2007) album, "The Order of the Stones".

"Valérian" is Mézières' best known work, translated into at least thirteen languages, and continues to this day. [cite web|title=Valerian eri kielillä - Valérian in different languages|url=http://www.saunalahti.fi/~alatera/Valerian/eri_kielet.html|accessdate=2006-09-16] It is one of publisher Dargaud's top five best selling comics series. Various attempts were made from the late 1970s onwards to adapt "Valérian" for film or television and an animated series, titled "", finally made its debut in 2007. [cite web|title=Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline – Official website |publisher=Dargaud|url=http://www.valerian-et-laureline.com/|accessdate=2008-09-08]

Work in film and television

Mézières was always as interested in the cinema as he was in drawing. In 1957, he began work with Jean Giraud on creating an animated Western. Dissatisfied with the results, the project was abandoned after 45 seconds of animation had been completed. The same year he shot a short, ten minute, 8mm film, " La vie d'un Rêve" ("Life is a Dream"), with Pierre Christin.

The success of Valérian, however, has led to Mézières becoming involved in a number of, mainly science fiction, film and television projects. The first of these was "Billet Doux" ("Love Letter"), a 1984 television series starring Pierre Mondy as a comic strip editor for which Mézières mocked up comic book covers and characters.

Also in 1984 he produced designs for director Jeremy Kagan who was attempting to adapt René Barjavel's novel "La Nuit des temps" ("The Ice People"). Due to difficulties experienced by the film's Iranian producer as a result of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the film was never made. Some of Mézières' production art was published in "Les Extras de Mézières".cite book|first=Jean-Claude|last=Mézières |year=1995 |title=Les Extras de Mézières |publisher=Dargaud |location=Paris |language=French|id=ISBN 2-205-04443-5]

In October 1985, Mézières was contacted by the German director Peter Fleischmann who proposed to adapt Russians Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1964 novel "Hard to Be a God" into a film. This was to be the first major German-Soviet co-production. Mézières travelled to Moscow to join the production team and also to Uzbekistan where it was proposed to shoot the film. Travelling from there to Munich, he produced several concept drawings and paintings over a three month period before the project was suspended due to funding difficulties. At this point Mézières left the production and returned to France. Filming was eventually scheduled to begin in April 1986 in Kiev and Mézières re-joined the production, creating storyboards for some scenes. However, at this time the Chernobyl disaster occurred only 100km from Kiev and production was again halted. The film was eventually finished in 1989, but Mézières' concepts were barely used. Again, many of Mézières' designs were later published in "Les Extras de Mézières".

In December 1991, Mézières was approached by director Luc Besson, a lifelong fan of "Valérian", who wanted Mézières to work on designs for a science fiction film called "Zaltman Bléros". Along with his old friend Jean Giraud, who had also been approached by Besson, he began work producing concepts of buildings and vehicles for the futuristic New York depicted in the script. Interested by the flying taxi cabs that appeared in some of the drawings, Besson asked Mézières to draw more taxis and also a flying police car. By the start of 1993, production had stalled and Besson moved to the United States to work on the film "Léon". Mézières returned to "Valérian" for the album "The Circles of Power", published in 1994. This album made use of some of the concepts Mézières had worked on for "Zaltman Bléros" and featured a character, S'Traks, who drove a flying taxi around a great metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Mézières sent a copy of the album to Besson when it was finished. The commercial success of "Léon" led to "Zaltman Bléros", now re-titled "The Fifth Element", being green-lit for production. Mézières returned to the production and was amused to discover that the occupation of Korben Dallas, the film's main protagonist, had been changed from a worker in a rocket-ship factory to that of a taxi driver – obviously inspired by Mézières' drawings for the film and by "The Circles of Power". Mézières produced further designs for the film including more taxis as well as spaceships and sets including the Fhloston Paradise liner seen in the latter part of the film. "The Fifth Element" was finally completed and released in 1997. Mézières published many of his concept drawings for the film in " Les Extras de Mézières No. 2: Mon Cinquieme Element". [cite book|first=Jean-Claude|last=Mézières |year=1998 |title=Les Extras de Mézières No. 2. Mon Cinquieme Element. Decors pour la film de Luc Besson |publisher=Dargaud |location=Paris |language=French|id=ISBN 2-205-04751-5]

Other works

At the same time as he has been working on "Valérian" and various film and television projects, Mézières has worked extensively producing illustrations and comic strips for magazines and newspapers such as "Pilote", "Métal Hurlant" and "Le Monde", covers for books, art for advertising campaigns, etc. For Le Monde, in 1993, he was a regular illustrator for the "Heures Locales" column.

Mézières was also involved at one point in giving hands-on courses on the production of comic strips at the . Graduates of his course include André Juillard and Régis Loisel.

He has also collaborated with Pierre Christin on a number of non-"Valérian" projects. The first of these was "Lady Polaris" in 1987, an illustrated novel about the mysterious disappearance of a cargo vessel, the "Lady Polaris". The narrative comprises various documents related to the lost ship: comic strips, log books, even an investigative journalism account by a fictionalised Mézières and Christin. The action takes place against the backdrop of many of the great seaports of Europe. Mézières undertook considerable research in putting together this book, visiting the ports of Liverpool, Copenhagen, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Lübeck, Bordeaux, Bilbao and Genoa. [cite book|first=Jean-Claude|last=Mézières |coauthors=Christin, Pierre |year=1987 |title=Lady Polaris |publisher=Autrement |location=Paris |language=French|id=ISBN 2-862-60203-5]

Another collaboration with Christin was "Canal Choc", a series of four albums about a television news team investigating strange phenomena. Mézières did not draw these albums but supervised a team of artists including Philippe Aymond and Hugues Labiano.

In 2001, Mézières was approached by the city of Lille, which had been designated European Capital of Culture in 2004, to produce something for the celebrations. He created a series of futuristic arches, called "Chemin des Etoiles" ("The Way of the Stars") along the Rue Faidherbe in the city, similar to those seen at the Port Abyss spaceport depicted in the "Valérian" album "At the Edge of the Great Void" which was first published the same year. [cite web|url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/extras/lille2004.htm |title= Le chemin des étoiles à Lille 2004 ! |accessdate=2006-09-24 |last= Mézières |first= Jean-Claude |work=Le site officiel de Jean-Claude Mézières |language=French]

Legacy

Mézières' arrival on the French comics scene with "Valérian" was contemporaneous with the debuts of other notable French science fiction strips including "Luc Orient" by Greg and Eddy Paape and "Lone Sloane" by Philippe Druillet.cite book|first=Jean-Marc and Randy|last=Lofficier|year=2004|title=Shadowmen 2. Heroes and Villains of French Comics|publisher=Black Coat Press|location=Encino, California|id=ISBN 0-9740711-8-8|pages=p213-224, 229-236] The success of these strips would eventually lead to the creation of "Métal Hurlant", the highly influential French comics magazine dedicated to science fiction. [cite book|first=Paul|last=Gravett|year=2005|title=Graphic Novels. Stories to change your life|publisher=Aurum|location=London|id=ISBN 1-84513-068-5|pages=p88|chapter=Of Futures and Fables] Mézières' influence has been noticed in such strips as "Dani Futuro" by Víctor Mora and Carlos Giminéz and "Gigantik" by Mora and José Maria Cardona. His visual style has also had an impact on some American comics artists notably Walt Simonson and Gil Kane. Sometimes this has gone beyond mere influence – following a complaint by Mézières, the artist Angus McKie admitted that several panels of his strip "So Beautiful and So Dangerous" were copied from the "Valérian" album "Ambassador of the Shadows".

Outside of comics, Mézières' art has been particularly influential on science fiction and fantasy film. In particular, several commentators, such as Kim Thompson, [cite book|first=Kim|last=Thompson|year=2004|title=Valerian: The New Future Trilogy|chapter=Introduction|editor=Mézières, Jean-Claude and Christin, Pierre|pages=pp1-2|publisher=iBooks |location=New York|id=ISBN 0743486749] Jean-Philippe Guerand [cite journal|author=Geurand, Jean-Phillipe|title=Noirs dessins|journal=Le Nouveau Cinéma|month=November | year=1999|volume=–|pages=–|url=http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/extras/articles/jpg01.htm|accessdate=2006-09-01] and the newspaper ", kept a set of "Valérian" albums and "Les Extras de Mézières" in his library.

Mézières has also noticed similarities between some of the sets in the 1982 film "Conan the Barbarian" and the planet seen in "Birds of the Master" and between some of the production sketches for the alien fighters in the 1996 film "Independence Day" and Valérian and Laureline's astroship.

Awards

* 1984: Winner, Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, the most prestigious award given at the annual Angoulême International Comics Festival. [cite web |title=List of Grand Prix award winners |work=Official Website of the Angoulême International Comics Festival |url= http://www.bdangouleme.com/histoire/index.ideal |accessdate=2006-09-17
* 1987: Winner, with Pierre Christin, European Science Fiction Society award for "Valérian". [cite web |title=ESFS Awards 1987-89 |work=Official Website of the European Science Fiction Society |url= http://homepage.tinet.ie/~goudriaan/esfs-awards-1987.html |accessdate=2006-09-17
* 1992: Special mention by the jury, with Pierre Christin, Prix Jeunesse 9-12 ans (Youth Prize 9-12 years), at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, for "Les Habitants du Ciel", an encyclopaedia of the alien creatures that have appeared in the "Valérian" seties.cite web | url =http://www.toutenbd.com/article.php3?id_article=834 | title =Le Palmarès 1992 | work =ToutEnBD | accessdate =2007-04-08 | language = French ]
* 1995: Nominated, with Pierre Christin, for the Haxtur Award for Best Short Comic Strip, at the Salón Internacional del Cómic del Principado de Asturias (International Comics Convention of the Principality of Asturia, Spain), for the "Valérian" album "The Circles of Power". [cite web| title=Haxtur Award Nominees 1995 |work=Official Site of the Haxtur Awards |url= http://www.elwendigo.com/haxt1995.htm |accessdate=2006-09-29
* 1997: Winner, with Pierre Christin, Tournesol Award given to the comic that best reflects the ideals of the French Green Party, for the "Valérian" album "Hostages of the Ultralum". [cite web |title=Bandes dessinées et Prix Tournesol |work=Les Verts (Official site of the French Green Party) |url= http://lesverts.fr/article.php3?id_article=1875 |accessdate=2006-09-17

elected bibliography

* The "Valérian and Laureline" (1967 – present) – drawn by Mézières, written by Pierre Christin. The classic comic strip series depicting the adventures of spatio-temporal agent Valérian and his feisty redhead companion, Laureline, as they travel through space and time is Mézières' most widely known and best-selling work. Seven of the albums have been translated into English.
* "Mon Amérique à moi" ("My Very Own America") (1974) – an 8 page autobiographical strip, first published in "Pilote", recounting Mézières' time in America in the mid 1960s. An English translation was published in black and white in 1996 as a part of "European Readings of American Popular Culture" an academic publication edited by John Dean and Jean-Paul Gabillet.
* "Mezi avant Mézières" (1981) – a collection of Mézières' early work for magazines such as "Pilote".
* "Mézières et Christin avec..." (1983) – compilation of early work, including the first publication of the "Valérian" story "Bad Dreams" in an album as well as "Mon Amérique à moi" and the strips Mézières produced for "Métal Hurlant".
* "Lady Polaris" (1987) – an illustrated novel written by Pierre Christin, set against the backdrop of the great seaports of Europe, about the mysterious sinking of the cargo vessel, the Lady Polaris.
* "Les Extras de Mézières" ("Mézières' Extras") (1995) – a miscellaneous collection of works Mézières produced in the 1980s and early 1990s. Includes examples of Mézières' advertising work as well as concept designs for film projects.
* "Les Extras de Mézières No. 2: Mon Cinquieme Element" ("Mézières' Extras No. 2: My Fifth Element") (1998) – a collection of the concept drawings Mézières produced for the film "The Fifth Element".
* "Adieu rêve américain" ("Farewell American Dreams") – part of the "Correspondences de Pierre Christin" series. Mézières and Christin reminisce about their American adventures.

References

External links

* [http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/ Jean-Claude Mézières official site]
* [http://lambiek.net/artists/m/mezieres.htm Mézières biography] on Lambiek Comiclopedia
* [http://ludogrid.free.fr/Mezieres/sommaireMez0.htm Tout (ou presque) sur Jean-Claude Mézières...] chronology of his work fr_icon

Persondata
NAME=Mézières, Jean-Claude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Mezi
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Comic book artist, illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH=23 September 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH=Saint-Mandé, Paris, France
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=