Motorcity

Sylvain Runberg, born in 1971, divides his time between Stockholm, Provence, and Paris. He has a diploma in Plastic Arts and an MA in Political History. Before he started writing, Runberg worked for publishing house Humanoides Associés, as the editor for Moebius & Enki Bilal, among others. His first book was launched in 2004 and since then Sylvain Runberg has had more than 50 books published by the largest French publishers (Glénat, Le Lombard, Dupuis, Dargaud, Casterman, Soleil, Futuropolis) and is now translated into 15 languages, having sold in total over 1 million copies worldwide. Very quickly recognized as one of the most talented writers of his generation, Sylvain Runberg is characterized by the variety of the worlds that he creates: space opera ("Orbital," "Warship Jolly Roger"), speculative fiction ("Drones"), psychological thrillers ("Cases Blanches," "Face Cachée," of which the first volume was awarded the Silver Prize of the 4th International Manga Awards in Tokyo), horror ("Sonar"), historical adventures tinged with fantasy ("Darwin's Diaries" [Le Lombard/Cinebook], "Conquests" [Le Lombard/Europe Comics], "Hammerfall"), dark fantasy, crime stories ("Motorcity" [Dargaud/Europe Comics], "Interpol" [Dupuis/Europe Comics]), and political thrillers, all characterized by his realistic style. Runberg has also adapted the Stieg Larsson trilogy "Millennium" ("The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo") with illustrators Homs and Man. Sylvain Runberg is currently working on several new comics projects that will be published in the years to come in Europe and the US (he has always claimed that the US comics scene was a great source of inspiration for him). He's also working on a TV project of his own creation, as well as other projects linked to television and other famous licenses.

Born outside of Paris on September 22nd, 1956, Philippe Berthet learned about drawing cartoons in Brussels from 1974 onwards, by attending courses held by Eddy Paape at the Saint-Gilles Academy and by Claude Renard at the Saint-Luc Institute. Adopting the temporary pseudonym of "Philibert" for his first test pieces in "Le 9e rêve" in 1979, an anthology of the best work of the members of Atelier R, he then worked with his friend and fellow student, Antonio Cossu, on the magazine "Aïe!," and then on "Spatial." He was taken on by the magazine "Spirou" in 1981 for "Couleur café" (based on a script by Antoine Andrieu), followed by "Hiver 51" and "Été 60" (written by Andréas), the "Privé d'Hollywood" trilogy, based on the detective stories by François Rivière and José-Louis Bocquet, "L'oeil du chasseur" with Philippe Foerster, and "La Dame, le cygne et l'ombre" with Dominique David. In 1991, he illustrated a script by Tome ("Sur la route de Selma") for the prestigious Aire Libre collection at Dupuis and two years later, he presented "Halona," his first complete work as an author. At the same time Berthet was working with his friend Cossu on producing the series "Marchand d'idées" at Glénat, a peculiar mix of two different styles. In 1994, his clear, linear drawing and sharp framing was used for the series "Pin-up" at Dargaud (Europe Comics in English, 2017), alongside the author Yann. The story is a fictionalized account of the world of Betty Page, the queen of erotic photos in the 1940s and '50s. Deliciously retro, this series was initially intended to be a tribute to Milton Caniff and his comic strip "Male Call," meant to entertain the GIs at war. More recently, Berthet has also collaborated with Zidrou on a tale of Australian crime fiction, "Le Crime qui est le tien" (Dargaud 2015, Europe Comics in English 2018), as well as Sylvain Runberg on the thriller "Motorcity" (Dargaud, Europe Comics 2017). And in 2018, he teamed with scriptwriter Raule to explore the streets of Barcelona in "L'Art de mourir" (Dargaud; "The Art of Dying," Europe Comics).