Itinerary of a cartoonist

Published 22 / 09 / 2021 Reading time: 6 min

Philippe Aymond, cartoonist since the age of 21, worked with Pierre Christin, the screenwriter of the famous series Valerian, but also with Jean Van Hamme and LF Bollé. The designer, now 53, also worked alone, doing both the script and the drawing. Also a colourist on his own boards, Philippe Aymond defines himself as a Swiss army knife of comics.

On the occasion of the BD d'Ambierle 2021 festival, Philippe Aymond is in the spotlight. He will be present at the Roanne Tourist Office, for a signing session, on Friday September 24 from 15 p.m. to 18 p.m. And on the spot of the BD festival, in Ambierle, on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 September.
An exhibition will also be dedicated to him from September 9 to 25 at the Roanne Tourist Office, 35 of his drawings will be exhibited.
In addition, a poster designed by Philippe Aymond will be on sale at the Roanne Tourist Office and at the BD festival in Ambierle. This poster represents the city of Roanne seen from the sky with the heroine Lady S in the foreground.

How did you go about developing the design for the town of Roanne?

For this drawing, I wanted an aerial view, that was the original idea. I love cities seen from the rooftops, and I love to draw perspectives. The more complicated it is, the more fun it is. I found on the internet a reconstruction of Roanne in 3D, and it served as a basis. Then I had to cheat to make a consistent image and make all the elements appear in the composition.

Tell us about your heroine Lady S

Lady S is a series that we created in 2004 with Jean Van Hamme (the screenwriter of XIII et Largo Winch). She is the adopted daughter of an American diplomat, who becomes a spy in spite of herself. She is hired by a European secret service, CIRCAT, which acts within the framework of the fight against terrorism, and which forces her to spy for him, by blackmailing her. Because she has a long history of burglar on the French Riviera. It was her childhood friend, Anton Grivenko, also a former burglar, who taught her theft to survive, when she was twelve years old and found herself an orphan. Anton's specialty is opening safes. Like Lady S, he is one of the agents recruited by CIRCAT. And both must complete secret missions for this service.

I can do just about anything, in a realistic style. I worked on the series Canal Choc, The 4X4, AD Grand-Rivière, ApocalypseMania, Lady S, Highlands, Bruno Brazil, as well as on several graphic novels and collective albums.

What are the different stages of the creation of a comic between the designer and the writer?

In general, it is the screenwriter who gives the first impetus. He has an idea that he develops in the form of a project, either as a series or as a complete story. Then, he seeks the designer capable of grafting on this idea. But sometimes, a project can arise from a discussion between the screenwriter and the designer on a common desire, if they already know each other.

Once the basics of the story are laid, the screenwriter carries out what is called cutting, that is to say the description page by page and box by box of the different sequences. The dialogues are also integrated in this division. It is often quite precise, and it is this document that the designer uses to work. From there, he first realizes what is called the storyboard, which is a general sketch of the board, without detail but with the essentials: the layout of the boxes, the wide shots, the big ones. shots, the movements of the characters… Then, he moves on to the final drawing stage. Traditionally, he first made a pencil drawing, ironed in ink.

The color was then carried out on a separate proof, and the whole was superimposed on the printing press. This working method still exists, but today, between the techniques of direct color in watercolor or acrylic and, of course, digital drawing, the working methods have diversified, and each designer has his own. way to proceed.

What are your sources of inspiration?

When I write a story, it can come from a lot of different things. But for Lady S specifically, whose screenplays I am now writing, I follow the geopolitical news a lot and, of course, the spy cases that come out in the press. Then, to me and my imagination to transform an idea found in the press into a romantic story, which adapts to the universe of Lady S.

For the drawing, I document myself enormously, because I work in a realistic style, which tries to restore a certain reality. I like that the readers find themselves there, recognize the places or the objects which they see in my drawings. The trips, the places, are also a great source of inspiration. The idea ofHighlands, which takes place in Scotland in the XVIII^e century, was born during a trip there. In the beginning, it was above all a graphic desire, a desire to draw these magnificent landscapes.

And in volume 13 of Lady S, I used Paris as a framework for my story, to be able to draw all the places I frequented when I was a child. But there is no set rule, and inspiration remains a mysterious mechanism.

Public chat ApocalypseMania, for example, which is a science fiction series, I worked a lot on dream visions, geometric constructions, impossible perspectives, almost abstract graphic experiments.

What are your current or future projects?

Currently I am drawing the 3^e tome of New Adventures of Bruno Brazil on screenplay by LF Bollée. Then there will be a new Lady S, or maybe the start of a new project. It takes at least nine months to make an album, and I don't like to project myself too far into the future. I make the most of the album I'm working on, without setting myself too long a goal.