Katanga: Diplomacy

Sylvain Vallée was born in France in 1972. Having earned his art degree from the Saint-Luc Institute in Brussels, he got his start in the field as a freelancer, working in advertising and communication, and as a press artist. In parallel, he developed set designs and decors for numerous temporary expositions. His entry into comics dates back to 1997, when writer Jean-Charles Kraehn invited him to collaborate on "Gil St. André" (Glénat). In 2006, Vallée had once of his greatest successes with "Il était une fois en France" (Glénat), created in tandem with scriptwriter Fabien Nury. The book earned them, among other prizes, the award for best series at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Then, in 2014, Vallée tried his hand at one of the most legendary Franco-Belgian comics series, the thriller "XIII," illustrating the seventh volume in the "XIII Mystery" sub-series, alongside author Joël Callède (Dargaud; Europe Comics/Cinebook in English). And in 2017, teaming back up with Fabien Nury, Vallée struck again with the hard-hitting historical fiction series "Katanga" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English 2018), which takes place in 1960 in the post-colonial Congo.

Born in 1976, Fabien Nury began his career by co-writing with Xavier Dorison the script of "W.E.S.T" (Dargaud; "Spooks," Cinebook), a hit series illustrated by Christian Rossi. Nury independently wrote "Je suis légion" (Humanoïdes Associés), a trilogy illustrated by the American John Cassaday, and in 2007 he also started working on "Le maître de Benson Gate" (Dargaud) with Renaud Garreta. From 2007 to 2012, Nury wrote the script for the six volumes of "Il était une fois en France" (Glénat), a historical series illustrated by Sylvain Vallée that received both critical and public acclaim (over 850,000 copies sold). Since then Fabien Nury has been gaining success in various genres, with the historical dark comedy "The Death of Stalin" (Dargaud; Titan Comics in English), illustrated by Thierry Robin; the thriller "Steve Rowland," volume 5 of the "XIII Mystery" series (Dargaud, illustrations by Richard Guérineau); and the literary adaptation "Atar Gull" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), illustrated by Brüno. In 2013, Nury and Brüno went on to collaborate on the noir graphic novel "Tyler Cross" (Dargaud, Titan Comics in English). Alongside Thierry Robin, Nury also created the two-part series "Death to the Tsar" (Dargaud, Titan Comics in English), and in 2014, with Eric Henninot, he published "A Son of the Sun" (Dargaud, Europe Comics), an adventure album adapted from two novels by Jack London. More recently, in 2017, alongside artist Sylvain Vallée, Nury struck again with the hard-hitting historical fiction series "Katanga" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), which takes place in 1960 in the post-colonial Congo.