Christophe Bec

Christophe Bec was born in 1969, in Rodez. He started out life in Morocco, due to his parents work for the French government, but spent most of his childhood in a little village in Southern France. He found his calling at the age of 10 when, bedridden for a fortnight at his grandparents’ house, he found a pile of old Asterix albums, which proved a total revelation.

At the age of 11, he drew a complete 46-page album entitled L’Enigme Bright. With his brother Guilhem (the artist behind Space Mounties, published by Le Lombard), he created the fanzine Esquiss. About fifty copies were printed and they attempted to sell them at various local events. In 1989, this developed into Esquisse, which was nominated best fanzine in 1990 at the Alph’art awards in Angoulême. He published a short three-page story entitled “Sous le Feu de l’Enfer," and was highly influenced by the style of Giraud/Moebius.

In 1990, he passed the entrance exam and began his studies at the comic book school in Angoulême. There he met other young authors: Eric Hübsch, Servain, David Prudhomme, Aristophane, etc. This would be a determining factor for him.In 1991, the Marvejols tourist office asked him to create a historical album about La Bête du Gévaudan. He completed the project in only four months, 3000 copies of the album were printed, and it won the Défi Jeune prize and was a great local success. He then decided to set up a studio in his house with other students from the school. A year later, he signed his first professional contract with up-and-coming publisher Soleil. His first professional album came out in 1993, entitled Dragan, Les Geôles D’Avade, based on a script by the prolific Eric Corbeyran.In 1997, he published the first volume of the series Zéro Absolu with Richard Marazano, still with the publisher Soleil, with which he made more of a name for himself; the series received much critical acclaim. Soon after this project, he settled in the Tarn, in the town of Albi, the home town of painter Toulouse Lautrec.Next up, he started work on the Sanctuaire series (2001-2004, Humanoïdes Associés) with Xavier Dorison writing the script.

It was an immediate success and soon became a best-seller. To date, more than 150,000 albums from the series have been sold. The third volume was nominated at the Cognac “Festival du Film Policier” and at the Jules Vernes Film Festival at the Grand Rex in Paris as the best comic book album of 2004. That same year, Raw Progressive Films, a Hollywood production company, took out an option on Sanctuaire with a view to adapting it to the big screen.That year he also released Anna, a 110-page black-and-white one-shot, published by a small publisher, La Boîte à Bulles, with a script by Stéphane Betbeder.Still in 2004, Christophe Bec wrote his first script for Italian Disney artist Paolo Mottura. The series was called Carême. The album received the Uderzo Prize 2005 and was nominated at numerous festivals, enjoying much critical success. He later continued his collaboration with Betbeder on the Bunker series, published by Dupuis between 2007 and 2012.