His Name Was Ptirou: Volume 0

Laurent Verron was born in Grenoble on May 25th, 1962, and began his professional life in 1985 as a layout artist for an advertising agency. Self-taught, Verron displays influences from a number of comics greats, ranging from artists from the "Journal de Mickey" to the contributors of the magazine "Spirou." These two forces, Disney and the Franco-Belgian all-time greats, would stoke his passion for comics and shape his artistic career. Verron's first breakthrough came when he learned that Jean Roba, the creator of "Boule et Bill" (Dupuis; "Billy and Buddy," Cinebook), was looking for a new partner, and he wrote to the author, including a few of his sketches. To his great surprise, his work was noticed, and he was invited to meet Roba in Brussels. They hit it off, and the two would work together from 1986 to 1989, with Verron working on backgrounds and lettering. In his words, this apprenticeship helped him learn greater precision and develop a more dynamic drawing style. The next step for Verron was clearly to make his own comic books, and he set off down this path with "Le Maltais" (Claude Lefranque Éditeur, 1991), a three-part series written by Loup Durand, followed by several short stories for Spirou. He then went to work alongside author Yann on the comedic adventure series "Odilon Verjus," published by Le Lombard between 1996 and 2006. Around that time, Verron's career started to take off, with his bibliography growing with each passing year. In 2003, he became the full-time artist for "Boule & Bill," taking over for his mentor. Since then, Verron has continued to publish a new "Boule & Bill" story every two years, in parallel with numerous other projects. Most recently, together with author Yves Sente, he took on the origin story of the legendary character Spirou, in the adventure one shot "Il s'appelait Ptirou" (Dupuis, 2017; "His Name Was Ptirou," Europe Comics 2018).

Yves Sente was born in Brussels in 1964. When he was little, he read "La Marque Jaune," Jacobs' masterpiece, over and over again. Little did he know at that age that "The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer" would determine his destiny...! In 1998, while he was working for Le Lombard, he collaborated with artist André Juillard on the script of "La machination Voronov," a new episode of the "Blake and Mortimer" series, a Cold War story acclaimed by critics and the public. Yves Sente then went on to write "Les Sarcophages du 6e continent," where he reveals the young life of Professor Mortimer. He confirmed his writing talents with "La Vengeance du Comte Skarbek" (Dargaud) and then "Thorgal" (Le Lombard) alongside Rosinski. He then began the series "Le Janitor" (Dargaud; "The Keeper," Europe Comics in English) with François Boucq in 2007, before going back once again to "Blake and Mortimer" in the "Le Sanctuaire du Gondwana," in the heart of Africa. In 2011, he started on yet another project: the adventures of "XIII" with Iouri Jigounov. In 2012, Yves Sente brought "Blake and Mortimer" to England for "Le Serment des cinq Lords" and later "Le Baton de Plutarque." His most recent projects include the transatlantic adventure "Il s'appelait Ptirou" (Dupuis, 2017; "His Name Was Ptirou," Europe Comics 2018), which recounts the origins of the character Spirou, and the spectacular graphic novel "Cinq branches de coton noir" (Dupuis, 2018; "Black Cotton Star," Europe Comics), an historical war drama. 2018 is also the year of a new Blake & Mortimer with Peter van Dongen and Teun Berserik : La Vallée des Immortels.