Jean-Claude Mezieres

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Jean-Claude Mezieres (2017)

Jean-Claude Mézières ( September 23, 1938 - January 23, 2022 ) was a French artist and comic artist . Mézières became popular through his comic series Valerian & Veronique , for which he was honored with the Grand Prix of the Festival in Angoulême (“Prix Alfred”) in 1984.

Life

He first met the boy next door and his future partner , Pierre Christin , in an air raid shelter during World War II . Mézières attended the Institut des Arts Appliqués from 1953 , where he met Jean Giraud . Mézières and Giraud were close friends until his death. Already during his studies he drew for various French and Belgian comic magazines, for the first time in 1955 for Coeurs Vaillant and later also for Spirou . After his service in the French military, he first became a professional artist and accepted commissioned work, but in 1965 he moved to the USA to work in Montana and inArizona to work as a cowboy for a while. Unable to raise the money to travel back to France on his own, Mézières contacted his old friend Christin, who was then teaching French in Salt Lake City , Utah . The first collaboration of the duo Mézières/Christin were two short stories: Le Rhum du Punch and Comment réussir en affaires en se donnant un mal fou! were published in Pilote magazine in 1966 , the fee was enough for the ticket home.

The following year, Mézières and Christin co -created the science fiction series Valérian et Laureline (German: Valerian & Veronique ), also for Pilote . 23 albums have been released so far from this successful ongoing story. According to Le Figaro , the work of the Mézières/Christin duo completely reshaped the image of science fiction in French comics of the 1960s. In 2017, Luc Besson filmed the comic series under the title Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes (German: Valerian - The City of a Thousand Planets ). "All of this is pervaded by a smug lack of seriousness, matching the surreal spirit of the comic book," wrote Der Tagesspiegel at the time of the cinema release.

Jean-Claude Mézières had already developed the design for the film The Fifth Element together with Jean Giraud.

In 2018, Mézières received the Max and Moritz Prize for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement .

Publications (selection)

  • Mézi avant Mézières . Pepperland, Brussels, 1981.
  • with Pierre Christin: Lady Polaris. Autrement, Paris, 1987, new edition Castermann, Brussels and Paris, 2008, ISBN 978-2-203-00944-8 .
  • Les Extras de Mezieres. Dargaud, Paris, 1995.
  • with Pierre Christin: Adieu rêve américain. Dargaud, Paris, 2002.

web links

Commons : Jean-Claude Mézières  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ Valérian et Laureline en deuil: Jean-Claude Mézières est mort. In: La Nouvelle Republique. January 24, 2022, retrieved January 24, 2022 (French).
  2. ↑ Marius Chapuis: BD: mort de Jean-Claude Mézières, cow-boy de l'espace. In: Liberation. January 23, 2022, retrieved January 24, 2022 (French).
  3. ↑ Thierry Noisette: Jean-Claude Mézières, co-creator de Valérian et Laureline, est mort. In: L'OBS. January 23, 2022, retrieved January 24, 2022 (French).
  4. ↑ Frédéric Potet: Jean-Claude Mézières, dessinateur de "Valérian et Laureline", est mort. In: Le Monde. January 23, 2022, retrieved January 24, 2022 (French).
  5. ↑ Pluie d'hommages pour "l'immense dessinateur" Jean-Claude Mézières, "une reférence de la BD". In: Le Figaro. January 24, 2022, retrieved January 24, 2022 (French).
  6. ↑ Jörg Wunder: Save the lizard! Surreal in space: Luc Besson's sci-fi blockbuster "Valerian: The City of a Thousand Planets" impresses with creativity and irony. In: The daily mirror. 20 July 2017, retrieved 25 January 2022 .
  7. ↑ Information on The Fifth Element on the Mézières website (French)
personal data
SURNAME Mezieres, Jean-Claude
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French artist and comic artist
BIRTH DATE September 23, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 2022