12. BLANCHARD, Frédéric (Born 1966) - Lot 12

12. BLANCHARD, Frédéric (Born 1966) Ran Corvo, original plate (1990) Album selected as a children's album at the Angoulême Festival; published by Zenda in 1990 on a script by Doug Headline and Stéphane Salvetti) Signed, with text tracing. The colors were done with colored pencils on tinted paper, then cut out and pasted onto a white background. 44x32.5 cm. Fred Blanchard was born in Agen on September 26, 1966. In 1988, after 4 years' training at ESAG (École supérieure d'arts graphiques de Penninghen), he began working regularly as a freelance illustrator for magazines. His first album for Éditions Zenda, Ran Corvo, based on a script by Doug Headline, and his participation in the Japanese magazine Morning, shortly precede his meeting with Olivier Vatine in 1990, with whom he will work on volume 4 of the Aquablue series. This marked the start of a long and fruitful collaboration. In 1995, they set up the "Série B" label for Éditions Delcourt, reviving genre comics with young authors and launching series such as Carmen Mc Callum, Golden City, Travis, Nash and Arcanes. In 1995, they drew Star Wars together in comics for the American publisher Dark Horse, since translated by Delcourt, and also created designs for Snark, a feature film project by Marc Caro. Still in the film industry, Fred Blanchard joined Story in 1991 as a cartoon set designer. He then joined director Pascal Morelli at Gangster, for whom he supervised the set design department on various series, including Arsène Lupin and Calamity Jane. This collaboration continued on the cartoon adaptation of Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese for Ellipse Animation. Fred Blanchard designed almost all the sets for La Cour secrète des arcanes and supervised the sets for the TV series. Having continued to work as an illustrator for various magazines and organizations, he also continues to enrich the "Série B" label with his art-of, Surplus Universalis, released at the end of 2007. Also for Delcourt, he recently drew the storyboard with Gess for Marc Caro's first solo film, Dante 01. At the end of 2007, he took over solo management of the "Série B" label from Olivier Vatine. His influences range from American cartoonists like Geof Darrow and Mignola, to Japanese artists like Miyazaki and Shirow, and Europeans like Mœbius and Franquin, making Fred Blanchard one of today's most creative and essential cartoonists. Text © Delcourt