Joann Sfar

Joann Sfar entered the comic world in 1994 with 'Les Aventures d' Ossour Hyrsidoux'. He became one of the regular artists of the renewing publishing house l'Association, publishing his comics in Lapin. Soon, some small albums followed in the collection Patte de Mouche. In 1996, he met Pierre Dubois, with whom he made his first color comic, 'Petrus Barbygère', for Delcourt. For that same publisher, Sfar became the scriptwriter of 'Les Potamoks' (drawn by José-Luis Munuera) and 'Troll' (in cooperation with Jean-David Morvan, drawn by O.G. Boiscommun). He started 'Les Dossiers du professeur Bell' series as both writer and illustrator.

With Lewis Trondheim, he launched the 'Donjon' saga in 1998, which became a hype in the comics world. This series, about a fictive kingdom, has been added up with several sub-series. Where Sfar and Trondheim did both scenario and the artwork on the main series, several befriended artists were assigned to draw the spin-offs. Christophe Blain did the 'Donjon Potron-Minet' series, situated 100 years before the main title, now called 'Donjon Zénith'. The 'Donjon Crépuscule' series was situated in the future, and drawn by Sfar. 'Donjon Parade', is set between two first 'Zénith' stories, and drawn by Manu Larcenet. 'Donjon Monstres' features stories about the several side characters, and is drawn by several guest artists, such as Menu, Mazan and Andreas.

Joan Sfar populates his stories with very colorful personalities, such as in 'La Fille du Professeur', which he wrote for Emmanuel Guibert. This album, about the love between a mummy and the daughter of a professor, has won several prizes. In 2002, Sfar created the new comics series 'Le Chat du Rabbin'. He continued his collaboration with Emmanuel Guibert with the 'Les Olives Noires' series, a modern story of a young Jewish child travelling through Judea in the days of Jesus Christ.