Raptors

Enrico Marini, an Italian national, was born on August 13th, 1969, in Switzerland, where he studied illustration at the Basel Academy of Fine Arts. His style is influenced by American comics, Italian fumetti, French bande dessinée and Japanese manga, and he is an admirer of authors such as Milton Caniff, Alex Toth, John Romita Sr., Mike Mignola, Hermann, Jordi Bernet, Hergé, Giraud and Otomo. His career was launched at the 1987 Festival de la Bande Dessinée in Sierre, where he would compete with the most promising emerging talents. His own talent was recognized immediately, and he was entrusted with his first series, "Olivier Varèse," based on a script by Thierry Smolderen, produced by Alpen Publishing. In 1992, Marini and Smolderen tried their hand at something totally different with "Gipsy" ("Gypsy"), a flesh-and-blood sci-fi adventure with a real badass hero. Marini would then enter the realm of vampires with "Rapaces" (Europe Comics, "Raptors"), this time alongside Jean Dufaux. With Stephen Desberg, he fulfilled his childhood dream of creating a western-style comic, "L'Étoile du désert" (Europe Comics, "Desert Star"). Together they co-wrote "Le Scorpion" ("The Scorpion," Cinebook), a massive swashbuckling adventure series. More recently, since 2007, Marini, now a full-fledged writer, has been bringing ancient civilizations back to life with the epic saga of "Les Aigles de Rome" (Europe Comics, "The Eagles of Rome"). He followed that with "Batman: The Dark Prince Charming" (published by DC), one of his most ambitious projects to date. His latest work includes the gritty and beautiful graphic novel "Noir burlesque" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English). He is known to be one of the rare comic artists who inks and paints his original art by hand directly on the page.

Jean Dufaux has always told stories that bring together words and images. Initially attracted by the 7th art, he studied film production at the Institut des Arts et Diffusion in Brussels. But words remained such an important part of his life that he became a journalist, playwright and novelist, before once and for all embracing his true calling as a comic book author. Over his career, Jean Dufaux has produced a massive body of work, comprising some 200 titles and counting. His work is original and fiercely independent of trends, holding more complexity than might be apparent at first glance: "Complainte des landes perdues" (Dargaud, "Lament of the Lost Moors" Cinebook), "Double masque" (Dargaud, "Game of Masks" Europe Comics), "Murena" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), "Rapaces" (Dargaud, "Raptors" Europe Comics), "Djinn" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), "Croisade" (Le Lombard, "Crusade" Cinebook), "Barracuda" (Dargaud, Cinebook in English), "Sortilèges" (Dargaud, "Spellbound" Europe Comics), "Loup de Pluie" (Dargaud, "Rain Wolf" Europe Comics), Dixie Road (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), "Saga Valta" (Le Lombard, Europe Comics in English), "Conquistador" (Glénat)... The list goes on. This immense mosaic that rejects neither the exhilaration of the paperback novel nor the narrative ellipses of cinema aims above all to be a work of pleasure and of enchantment, in the fantastic and occult sense of the term. His wildly successful series, selling millions of copies and garnering numerous prizes and awards, have been published across Europe, Japan, and the United States. Jean Dufaux is president of the jury for the Diagonale Prize, awarded annually in Belgium to outstanding comic book artists, and in France Jean Dufaux was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2009.