Les Voyages d'Alix: 'Nîmes - Le Pont du Gard'.
Jacques Denoël is a Belgian comic artist, best known for drawing historical comic series. He has worked for Jacques Martin on productions like 'Arno' (1994-1997) and 'Les Voyages d'Alix' (1999-2012), and created his own series, 'Les Déesses' (2005-2007), with Michel Pierret.
Early life and career
Jacques Denoël was born in 1963 in Tilff, Esneux, in the province of Liège. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège and made his debut with 'Le Jeu de Kermadec', the sole album starring the explorer Valérie (Glénat, 1991). By 1992, he also collaborated on the monthly magazine Le Bouquine by Bayard Presse. Denoël originally planned to create a follow-up to 'Les Aventures de Valérie', but in 1992 he received an offer to work with the Franco-Belgian comics legend Jacques Martin, which he couldn't refuse.
Arno #5 - 'L'Orgresse'.
Arno/Alix
In Martin's team, Denoël replaced André Juillard as the artist of the historical comic series 'Arno' (1994-1997), which through its title character chronicled all historic events from the French Revolution up until the end of the Napoleonic Empire. Arno is a Venetian musician who gets involved with the revolutionary movement in 1789 and is eventually recruited in Napoleon Bonaparte's army. Denoël drew three albums for this series, namely '18 Brumaire' (1994), 'L'Orgresse' (1995) and 'Chesapeake' (1997), after which the series was canceled. Denoël also assisted Martin with his signature series 'Alix', though not on the main series, but an educational spin-off book series named 'Les Voyages d'Alix'. These books provide expert writings by historians about Ancient Antiquity for which Denoël and other co-workers of Martin, like Rafael Moralès, Gilles Chaillet and Pierre de Broche, provided the illustrations. Denoël illustrated the three volumes about ancient costumes (1999-2002), the two about Etruscan civilization (2004, 2007) and the installment about the city of Nîmes (2012).
Les Déeses
Denoël also teamed up with writer Michel Pierret to create the historical series 'Les Déesses', of which two books were published by Glénat in 2005 and 2007. Set during the 1930s, this comic followed the old archeologist Devenc and his pupil Mackenzie who meet the young couple Pylos and Asinée, who come from Ancient Greece and have survived for centuries.
Graphic contributions
Jacques Denoël has participated on a few collective comic and illustration projects, such as 'Flash Back' (COMIC! Events, 1995),'Carrément Bruxelles' (Glénat, 2005) and the tribute book 'Walthéries' (GPROD, 2012), celebrating the 50th anniversary of François Walthéry's career as a comic artist.
In addition to his work as a comic creator, Jacques Denoël has worked as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège.
Les Déesses #1 - 'La Grande Île'.