Baru

Because his communist parents were convinced there was no bread to be earned in drawing, Baru first became a gym teacher before embarking on a career in comics. In his early thirties, he decided to devote his time to making comics, drawing subject matter from his teenage years in France and his travels in the 1960s. Soon, he proved his parents wrong by becoming a full-time, established comic artist, making his debut in the magazine Pilote in 1982.

Thoroughly influenced by the raw humor of Reiser and the expressionist drawings of Muñoz, Baru's album debut, 'Quéqette Blues' was an instant classic. A moving semi-autobiographical tale of everyday life of French working class youth, it represented all Baru's later work in a nutshell. Two other episodes of 'Quéquette Blues' appeared at Dargaud. At the publishing house Futuropolis, he produced works like 'La Communion du Mino' (1985) and 'Vive la Classe' (1987).

For the magazine L'Écho des Savanes, he drew 'Cours Camarade', followed by 'Le Chemin de l'Amérique' (with Jean-Marc Thévenet). In 1995, Baru finally broke through to a larger comics audience with the stunning Euro-manga 'L'Autoroute du Soleil', which won the prestigious Alph' Art award for the best original French language comic.

Baru then continued his comics output with the impressive sixties tribute, 'Sur la Route Encore', the cynical apocalyptic drama, 'Bonne Année', and the series 'Les Années Spoutnik'. For the Aire Libre collection of the publishing house Dupuis, he created 'L'Enragé', about an enraged boxer, in 2005.