Lax

Christian Lacroix, or Lax, was born in Lyon on the 2nd of January, 1949. He did not have to put up a fight with his parents to defend his vocation for drawing. His father encouraged him from early childhood to copy the images of Tintin and got him his first little illustrating jobs: he had always dreamed of a successful career in comic strips for his son. Enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts of Saint-Etienne, the young Christian cannot help but follow his family's and personal inclination. Since the age of 12, he had bombarded the school with small stories he wrote and illustrated himself. In 1975, Lax became known as an independent, publishing his first comic strip in the monthly L'Automobile before hitting Métal Hurlant, Fluide Glacial, Ère Comprimée, and Circus, with various complete stories, following these up with series in Mercredi and Fripounet. His first book, Ennui mortel, was published by Glénat in 1982, before he embarked on the four-part series La Marquise des lumières for publisher Vents d’Ouest. For Lax, every story must be a leap into the unknown, and it was in the prestigious Aire Libre collection at Dupuis that he found at last, in 1990, the dreamed of haven for his need for constant development and innovation. He collaborated with Giroud on such projects as Les Oubliés d'Annam before feeling an urge to create a character of his own, entering the 21st century with a peculiar French private detective, Le Choucas, published in the Repérages collection at Dupuis. In the years since, Lax has gone on to teach comic arts at the École d’Art Graphique Emile-Cohl in Lyon, and lives in the countryside with his family. Passionate about cycling, Lax occasionally offers himself the pleasure of taking on one of the mythical climbs of the Tour de France, and in 2005 he transformed this passion into the landmark graphic novel L'Aigle sans orteils (The Eagle With No Claws, Europe Comics).