To many readers André Juillard was a time machine. Every page crafted by his hand would transport readers to distant eras – from the 12th century Near East to the 17th century France of Louis XIII, the Napoleonic era of the 19th century and the wars of the 20th century. A master of the historical fiction genre, he died July 31 at the age of 76.
Looking at his work you are immediately drawn to his characters. Posture, gait, the tilt of a head, and direction of the eyes, conveying so much beneath the surface – even when expressionless. His lines are deliberate, usually clean and uncluttered yet with enough detail to give the impression of realism. His backgrounds relied on essential (often well researched) detail except when dramatic effect or scene setting was necessary. And his women – he loved to draw beautiful women, but he drew them in such a way that they felt like real human beings with agency. It’s perhaps for this reason that some of his most popular or intriguing works featured them as central figures. To top it all off, his grasp of color made every page vibrantly entrancing.
André Juillard was born June 6, 1948, in Paris to a veterinarian father and English teacher mother. The eldest of three siblings, when he was 3 years old his mother would succumb to cancer. Since his father was still setting up his veterinary practice in the rural Auvergne region of central France, the children were raised by their mother’s family – in a household that would include his maternal grandmother and his mother’s sisters. His grandmother was the principal of a girls school in the 17th arrondissement and when André was old enough he would attend it. Only on school holidays would he be able to visit his father and paternal grandparents in Auvergne.
Very early on he picked up a passion for reading and drawing – making great use of the school library. He was particularly fascinated by a series of books published by Nathan that would recount the folklore from different French regions. While his grandmother discouraged young André from reading comics, he would nevertheless read those of his friends, enjoying the various series in Journals de Spirou and Tintin. At school he was particularly fascinated with history, especially that of antiquity, and would often try to sketch the various statues and figures. His mother’s youngest sister – who would later become his stepmother – noticed his artistic inclinations and actively encouraged them, taking him on regular trips to the Louvre. Another artistic – and scholarly – inspiration for André in his formative years was spending time with his paternal grandfather who was a local historian of Auvergne and would paint recreationally.
After his father’s remarriage, the boy (age 12) and his siblings would move from the Paris suburbs to Auvergne. He would bounce between different schools, eventually ending up at a religious mixed high school in Clermont-Ferrand, the largest commune in the region, at age 15. There he met his future wife Anne. Despite being a drawing daydreamer, he eventually applied himself to his studies and would go on to do two years of medical school in Lyon. He would drop out after two years, realizing his true passion lay with art. His next move was to enroll in the visual communication course at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, also referred to as Arts Déco, in Paris. In 1971, he and Anne would marry and move into an apartment in the Paris suburbs. Their children, Claire and Alexandre, were born in 1975 and 1977. To help make ends meet during his studies the newlyweds would depend on parental assistance and Anne would work in the press office of a perfumer.
Although he would remain at Arts Déco for the full four years, Juillard was initially disappointed in his studies as they tended toward the academic over the practical. However a single sociology class devoted to comics would open his eyes to what he truly wanted to do: Become a comics artist. Immediately he would go out to explore the various titles available at tabacs and track down collections of classic or rare titles in specialist stores.
And it was the perfect time to do it – the French comics scene was booming. Off the back of the growing success of already established titles, new magazines and new artistic talents were emerging. He was immediately drawn to the work of Philippe Druillet, whose Lone Sloane stories were being published in weekly Pilote magazine and his adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s Elric stories in Le Nouveau Planète. Juillard would eagerly try to copy Druillet’s sense of page design and approach to anatomy.
Juillard soon heard of a night school in comics at the Université Libre de Vincennes run by Valérian & Laureline co-creator and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. He eagerly signed up. Taking great interest in the ambitious young Juillard, Mézières would provide critical feedback and direct him to colleagues around Paris in the hopes of further guidance. First Juillard was sent to Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, who was reportedly hard at work on Arzach at the time. Giraud was unable to provide much advice – nor prepared to teach – but he was very encouraging. Juillard had better luck with his next potential mentor: Joseph Gillain (aka Jijé).
Jijé was a Belgian comics creator of great renown. As a young artist during the onset of war in Europe and Belgium’s Nazi occupation period (1940-1944), he was practically keeping Dupuis’ Journal de Spirou going despite the specter of censorship and a shortage of local artists to fill the pages. He built his career on reliability, versatility, and craftsmanship, and already had experience in guiding the next generation, who would leave an indelible mark on European comics. Among his proteges were Mézières, Morris (creator of Lucky Luke), André Franquin (creator of Marsupilami and Gaston Lagaffe), and Moebius. Then in his fifties, Jijé lived a short distance from Juillard in the Paris suburbs. He saw promise in the young artist and put Juillard through a rigorous apprenticeship, teaching him every element of comics production, from pencilling, page layout, narrative design, inking, lettering, color, and more.
Within a year Juillard tested his skills by entering a comics competition run by Catholic publishers Bayard Presse and Fleurus. While he didn't win, he visited Fleurus’ comics magazine offices to retrieve his original artwork and the editorial secretary Jacques Josselin immediately encouraged him to come back with a portfolio. In two weeks the editor-in-chief Claude Verrien had offered Juillard a job.
At this time Fleurus was in a state of transition, revamping its longstanding weekly Cœurs Vaillants for the second time (after a prior rename and rebrand in 1963) to Formule 1 and in need of new creative talent. From 1974 on, Juillard would work on covers and a number of short series for both Formule 1 and the revamp of weekly girls title mes Vaillantes, renamed Djin – including Westerns and an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet (July-September 1975), scripted by Jacques Josselin.
In 1976 he is offered his first major series for Formule 1, Les Chevaliers du désert (Knights of the Desert). Inspired by the 1974 Arthurian-era French movie Lancelot du Lac, directed by Robert Bresson, Claude Verrien came up with a story set during the 12th-century First Crusade, focusing on the French knight Bohémond de Saint-Gilles. It would become Juillard’s first full entry into the historical fiction genre.
Les Chevaliers du désert was a tremendous learning curve for the still-green comics artist. Barely two years into working at Fleurus, he would have to learn new skills to juggle the continued development of his artistic process, visual reference research, and meeting the weekly deadline. For visual references he would cast his net wide, drawing from children’s book illustrations, classical art, and even Harold Foster’s Prince Valiant. It would run in Formule 1 from April to June 1976 and was popular with readers.
A new series was commissioned, and a new baptism of fire was thrown Juillard’s way with the sudden death of series writer (and editor-in-chief) Claude Verrien in October of that year, leaving only an outline of the plot. With one episode already completed, Juillard would be left to work on the entire series solo - using the late Verrien’s synopsis as a guidepost. Sortilèges à Malte (Spells in Malta) would run May to July 1977. From the third volume the new editor-in-chief of Formule 1, Pierre Marrin, would take over writing. The exploits of Bohémond de Saint-Gilles would only continue until the fourth volume as Juillard would depart Fleurus for pastures new.
In 1978, Juillard started another popular series in the pages of Pif Gadget, a children’s weekly whose publisher was closely linked to the French communist party. With writer Patrick Cothias1 they cocreated Masquerouge (Red Mask), a masked adventurer fighting the corrupt nobility in 17th-century France. Together they would work on three albums of material before the pair decided to shift track and take the premise in a new direction, one which would re-energize historical fiction comics.
In 1982 they debuted Les 7 Vies de L’Épervier (The 7 Lives of the Sparrowhawk) in the pages of Glénat’s Circus anthology. Partly a prequel to the events of Masquerouge, it broadens the scope of the story to look at the intertwined fates of a noble house and the royal family – particularly focusing on the life and trials of Arianne de Troïl. It took a new approach to historical fiction, which had traditionally used a period setting as window dressing for a story. In Les 7 Vies de L’Épervier characters would be embedded in their historical context – affected by and part of the events of their time.
Les 7 Vies de L’Épervier was also a significant shift for Juillard. For the eight years of his professional life in comics, he had been forced to work at a frenetic pace to meet deadlines. The original serialization for this series was in a monthly format anthology, giving him the chance to slow down his process. With more time to work on a page with care, his ligne claire-influenced realist style was sharpened, and his colours were free of noise. Compared to his prior work it was a revelation. He was also enamoured with the period and its setting, the Auvergne countryside. He was able to draw upon the scholarly work of his paternal grandfather and the stories he would tell.
The series was a hit. It proved so popular that it has since expanded into new cycles and spinoffs that encompass over fifty albums by various artistic collaborators, all written by co-creator Patrick Cothias. André Juillard’s role remained significant. The world could shift in many directions but the life of heroine Arianne de Troïl would remain under his brush. After the initial seven volumes (published in album format between 1983 and 1991) he would return for the four-volume sequel Plume aux vents (Feather in the Wind), published between 1995 and 2002; and the first two albums of its most recent follow up – published by Dargaud in 2014 and 2021 – before passing the reins over to Serbian artist Milan Jovanović. In total Juillard would contribute sixteen tales in the wider “Masquerouge-verse”, including those three original albums of Masquerouge from Pif Gadget (republished by Glénat in 1984).
It wasn’t the only major series he would become associated with in the public imagination. Having initially turned down the opportunity some years before, Juillard got the call to join Belgian writer Yves Sente on Dargaud’s continuation of Edgar P. Jacobs iconic series Blake & Mortimer, starting with La Machination Voronov (The Voronov Plot) in 2000. The Blake & Mortimer series proved another perfect home for Juillard. Edgar P. Jacobs beloved Franco-Belgian adventure series was a childhood favorite of the artist. The genre-bending adventures of British duo Professor Philip Mortimer and man of action Captain Francis Blake having entranced readers since their debut in the pages of Journal de Tintin in 1946.
After the death of their creator in 1987, Juillard had been offered to complete Jacobs’ final story Les Trois Formules du professeur Satō (Professor Satō's Three Formulae) whose first part had been published in 1977 and left unfinished by the time of his death. At the time Juillard felt ill-prepared for such a responsibility – not least of trying to mimic Jacobs distinctive ligne claire style.2 By the late ‘90s the call came again and he was ready – and had the assistance of Dider Convard on colours. The Voronov Plot was the second installment in the Blake & Mortimer continuation, kicked off by Jean Van Hamme and Ted Benoit’s L’Affaire Francis Blake (The Francis Blake Affair) in 1996. Juillard, Sente and Convard would regularly partner again on future albums in the series – with the most recent, Signé Olrik (Signed Olrik), set to be posthumously released this October. At eight instalments Juillard has become Blake & Mortimer’s biggest artistic contributor, expertly adapting his own style of simplified realism to the iconic ligne claire style pioneered by Hergé and Jacobs – basking in the opportunity to visually explore the 1950s Cold War era in which the series now takes place.
Sandwiched between these two major series, Juillard was keen to stretch his wings. For many years he had become closely associated with the historical fiction genre and always working alongside a writer. While he enjoyed the collaboration, he wanted to see what he could produce alone. The result was Le Cahier Bleu (The Blue Notebook). Often identified as a graphic novel, many refer to the album as a diptych of two parallel narratives of strangers obsessed with the same woman. It debuted in the renowned Casterman-published monthly anthology À suivre, whose raison d'être was to feature distinctive authorial work – most notable contributors being Hugo Pratt, Milo Manara, and Jacques Tardi.
When the completed story was published in 1994 it drew immense critical acclaim, would win the Alph’Art for Best French album at Angoulême (now called the Fauve d’or) in 1995 and Juillard would receive the highest industry honor by winning the Grand Prix the following year. It would also receive a Special Jury Selection at Sierre International Comics Festival in Switzerland, and the inaugural prize of the Charleroi Festival in Belgium. Juillard would later produce another book, a loose sequel, Après la pluie (After the Rain). NBM would publish both books in English in 1997 and 1999, with After the Rain being nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Foreign Work in 2000.
Juillard partnered with great figures of Franco-Belgian comics over the course of his career. One notable period was his partnership with Jacques Martin on Arno. Widely considered a legend in Franco-Belgian comics, Martin was one of Hergé’s assistants that rose to fame as an artist in the pages of Journal de Tintin with Alix (first published 1948), set in the Roman era; and contemporary action adventure series Lefranc (first published 1952). For Juillard, who was keen on history and antiquity as a child, he was very much fascinated by the adventures of Alix. The chance to work with the comic’s creator as an adult was an exciting prospect. While Juillard later admitted he would have preferred a story set in the age of antiquity, the intriguing end result was Arno – about a Venetian musician recruited into the army of Napoleon. Each album was initially serialised through Glénat’s anthology magazines. First through Circus, in 1983, before moving to the publisher’s newly formed monthly historical fiction anthology Vécu in 1985. Juillard would work on three series of Arno’s adventures before parting ways with Martin in 1987 to focus on the growing success of Les 7 Vies de L’Épervier.
Another notable partnership was with prolific French comics writer and journalist Pierre Christin – who had co-created the classic Valerian & Laureline science fiction series alongside Juillard’s former mentor Jean-Claude Mézières. In a slight departure for Juillard, the pair would develop the contemporary Léna series – the first volume, Le Long Voyage de Léna, being a slow burn suspense thriller about a mysterious female courier who goes by the name of Léna. It's as much a tale of suspense as a mood piece focused on its central character. A total of three albums were produced between 2006 and 2020.
In 2011 and 2018, Juillard partnered with another writer, Yann, on two historical genre one-shots set in the twentieth century. The first, Mezek (Lombard, 2011) follows mercenary pilots hired to fight in the 1948 Arab-Israel War; the second, Double 7 (Dargaud, 2018) is a love story between a Russian pilot and a local militia woman amid the Spanish Civil War. Both series enabled Juillard to draw one of his other passions: aeroplanes.
Juillard didn’t wholly remain in the sphere of comics – in the past decades he built a considerable career as an illustrator with work for magazines and books. He had numerous gallery shows of his work, ranging from the world of comics to illustration and portraiture. The art gallery Huberty & Breyne featured a retrospective in 2015, Daniel Maghen followed suit in 2023. Even now – having opened mere weeks before his death – a small exhibition of his work is being shown at Tréguier’s Chapelle des Paulines in Brittany (running until Sept. 22).
Collectors love him. Auctions and sales of original pages and illustrations going for high prices in recent years. In 2023 Forbes France remarked that cumulative sales of his work had surpassed €1.8 million ($2 million) and a Christie’s auction of a single page from his award winning Le Cahier Bleu sold for over €80,000 (about $88,000) in 2019 – making him one of the highest earning comics artists on the European art circuit.
He has seemingly done it all. He followed his passion, made a decent living, tested his creative limits, made his mark on an entire genre, seemingly never put down his pencil, and was recognized in his lifetime. His work will continue to find and inspire new readers in bookstores and bedetheques across France and beyond. While no man is eternal, the artist known as André Juillard, renowned in the field of historical fiction comics, has well deserved his place in the chronicles of the 9th Art.
Special thanks to André Juillard biographer Philippe Tomblaine for his kind assistance
ANDRE JUILLARD IN ENGLISH
The entirety of the Blake & Mortimer series to date is available in English through Cinebook. Note that Cinebook does not follow the original publishing order of the series. André Juillard’s volumes (with Yves Sente) are:
- Vol. 8: The Voronov Plot
- Vol. 9: The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent (Part 1)
- Vol. 10: The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent (Part 2)
- Vol. 11: The Gondwana Shrine
- Vol. 18: The Oath of the Five Lords
- Vol. 21: Plutarch’s Staff
- Vol. 24: The Testament of William S.
Europe Comics has published:
- With Pierre Christin: Lena’s Odyssey, Lena and the Three Women, Lena: Into the Fire
- With Yann: Double 7, Mezek
Le Cahier Bleu/The Blue Notebook and its follow up Après la pluie/After the Rain were translated and released in English with NBM but are now out of print.
French language interviews
Two French language works exist on André Juillard’s career:
- André Juillard: Dessins d'histoires, by Philippe Tomblaine (Le Troisième Homme, 2018)
- Juillard: Une Monographie, by André Juillard (Mosquito, 1996)
The post André Juillard, 1948-2024 appeared first on The Comics Journal.
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