| Alain Ayroles | |
|---|---|
 Alain Ayroles | |
| Born | 25 January 1968 Saint-Céré, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist |
Notable works |
|
| Collaborators | Bruno Maïorana, Jean-Luc Masbou, Juanjo Guarnido |
Alain Ayroles (born 25 January 1968) is a French author, playwright, screenwriter and translator known best for his graphic novels Garulfo , De cape et de crocs and Les Indes Fourbes.
Alain Ayroles studied sequential art at the School of Fine Arts in Angoulême, France, where time spent as role-playing game gamemaster to fellow students Jean-Luc Masbou and Bruno Maïorana laid the foundations for future collaborations on a series of highly successful graphic novel projects. For these games he created Contes et Racontars, a fantasy universe that combined swashbuckling adventure with traditional legends, in which one of the players plays a wolf and another a fox, and where the gamemaster plays a non-player character in the guise of a rabbit. This universe would become the inspiration for two series: fairy tale Garulfo and the epic De cape et de crocs . [1]
Ayroles got his break when a small publishing house, recently created by the young Guy Delcourt, hired Ayroles and several of his classmates to work on The Children of the Nile. This publication helped launch the professional careers of authors such as Turf, Joel Mouclier, Claire Wendling and Christophe Gibelin, and Jean-Luc Masbou. Following this Ayroles began writing the scripts to his future graphic novels and spent much of his time researching French literature and poetry as well as 13th century vocabulary. In the meantime, he took a position at French animation studio IDDH to work on layouts, character creation and the scripts to their animated series'. Maoïrana, Masbou and Thierry Leprévost also worked at IDDH for a time. [1] [2]
With Garulfo Ayroles wanted to turn the idea of the classic fairy tale on its head. With the script to the first two instalments and some draft drawings, he pitched the idea to a number of publishing houses. However, editors advised him to find someone to collaborate with as the boards did not meet with approval. [3] [4] So Ayroles approached Maïorana and together they pitched it to Delcourt who agreed to publish the story. Volume 1 was released in 1995. [5] The series proved a commercial and critical success until it ended after six albums in 2002. [3] [4]
In parallel to Garulfo, Ayroles and Masbou pitched a second series to Delcourt, which would prove even more successful. De cape et de crocs is a 17th-century theatrical comedy of fable and adventure full of references to French classical literature. [6] Volume 1 was released in 1995, and success led to another 11 volumes being published over the next 21 years. [7] Critical reception was positive, described by Actua BD as "becoming more and more of a classic". [8] a series which mixes "comic, novel, theatre and cinema" that is "rich in a thousand and one references, expertly distilled by authors who are as cultivated as they are mischievous". [9] The series ended in 2016. [10]
In 1998 Ayroles was awarded the Petit Robert prize for best comics writer at Quai des Bulles for Garulfo and De cape et de crocs. [11]
Skill with words proves useful in translating the Bone series of comic books by Jeff Smith, whom Ayroles had been a fan of since the early 90s, and had brought to the attention of Delcourt. He worked on the first five volumes of the French version in collaboration with Anne Capuron. [1]
In 2008, his collaboration with Luigi Critone Seven Missionaries drew positive reviews, according to Actua BD the album is "particularly well-crafted from a scripted point of view" and littered with "provocative humour". [12] Seven Missionaries recounts the adventures of seven not-so-Catholic priests who have to counter the Viking invasions in Ireland. Ayroles proved to be one of the few authors working on the Sept series to develop seven characters and a complete story in a single volume. [1]
From 2009, he published a new series with Maïorana and Thierry Leprévost, D, which was inspired by the gothic world of vampires in a plot set in Victorian Britain. [13] [14]
Teaming up with Juanjo Guarnido, he wrote Les Indes Fourbes (The treacherous Indies [15] ), published in 2019, about the adventures of Pablos de Segovia, a character from the novel by Francisco de Quevedo El Buscon . [16] The album immediately met with great critical and public success, collecting three awards in France. [17] [18]
In 2020 he worked with Fabien Nury, Benjamin Adam and Thibault Valetoux on the screenplay to Paris Police 1900 , a period drama series for French television, featuring eight episodes of 52 minutes, broadcast on Canal+. [1]
In 2021 he collaborated on a spin-off of Alex Alice's Castle of the stars series. The Chimeras of Venus is a five-chapter story drawn and colored by Étienne Jung. This steampunk-oriented space epic is developed in the same universe as the source series, between volumes 13 and 17, which Ayroles is also credited for. [1]
Illustrated by Bruno Maïorana, colors by Thierry Leprévost.
Illustrated by Jean-Luc Masbou
Illustrated by Luigi Critone, colors by Lorenzo Pieri
Illustrated by Bruno Maïorana, colors by Thierry Leprévost
Illustrated by Juanjo Guarnido
Illustrated by Etienne Jung
Illustrated by Richard Guérineau.
Joann Sfar is a French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director.
Gradimir Smudja is a Serbian cartoonist/painter in Italy and France. He is currently resident of Lucca, Tuscany, (Italy).
This Prize Awarded by the Audience - Cultura is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival since 1989.
The Prize for a Series is one of the prizes awarded by the Angoulême International Comics Festival. This prize was first awarded in 2004, then after two more years was cancelled. It was reinstated in 2010 and has been awarded ever since.
Juanjo Guarnido is a Spanish illustrator and the co-author of the comic book series Blacksad.
Juan Díaz Canales is a Spanish comics artist and an animated film director, known as the co-creator of Blacksad.
The Prix Saint-Michel is a series of comic awards presented by the city of Brussels, with a focus on Franco-Belgian comics. They were first awarded in 1971, and although often said to be the oldest European comics awards, they are actually the second oldest comics award in Europe still presented, behind the Adamson Awards. Their history is quite erratic though, with a long pause between 1986 and 2002.
This is a list of awards and prizes formerly awarded at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
Guy Delcourt is a French editor, founder of the Delcourt publishing house in 1986. It has since grown into one of the largest publishers of comics in France.
Jean-Luc Masbou is a French cartoonist.
Boulet, the pen name for Gilles Roussel, is a French comic book creator and cartoonist born 1 February 1975 in Meaux, France. He was among the first French cartoonists to become famous by publishing a blog BD, starting in July 2004.
The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon was the first of three satirical novels written by Cyrano de Bergerac. It was published posthumously in 1657 and, along with its companion work The States and Empires of the Sun, is considered one of the earliest published science fiction stories. Arthur C. Clarke credited the book with the first description of rocket-powered spaceflight, and with the invention of the ramjet.
Pascal Mesenburg, pen name Mezzo, is a French cartoonist born in Drancy, France in 1960.
Garulfo is a six-volume fantasy graphic novel created by writer Alain Ayroles, cartoonist Bruno Maïorana and colorist Thierry Leprévost.
Bruno Maïorana is a French cartoonist and illustrator who quit the comics industry in 2014, at the height of his popularity.
Chloé Cruchaudet is a French comic book illustrator, author and colorist.
Fabien Toulmé is a French comic book author.
Sandrine Revel is a French bande dessinée illustrator and author of comics.
Nathalie Ferlut is a French bande dessinée cartoonist who works as a comic book illustrator, scriptwriter, and colorist.
Virginie Augustin is a French comics book artist. She has also worked on animated features with Walt Disney Animation Studios and France 3.
