Olivier Schwartz

Born in France in 1963, Olivier Schwartz started making comics in 1963 by participating as a young self-taught illustrator in the fanzine Plein la gueule pour pas un rond, (PLGPPUR then became PLG) in which other authors also got their start, such as Dupuy & Berberian, Eric Liberge, Colonel Moutarde, Emmanuel Moynot and Joe G. Pinelli. His natural talent and his style, close to the ligne claire of Yves Chaland, Ted Benoit and Joost Swarte, were first noticed by children’s publishers in France; Milan published his first comic in 1986 with a script by Claude Ecken (Pierre, Sophie et Robbie), which was followed by many children's books. Starting in 1988, and for the next 20 years, he illustrated Les enquêtes de l’inspecteur Bayard (Bayard) written by Jean-Louis Fontenau. But it is the scriptwriter Yann who got him his start at Spirou and Dupuis. In the 2000s, the duo tried a few projects that were aborted (like a reboot of the Dupuis classic Gil Jourdan) before convincing Dupuis to entrust them with an adventure of Spirou and Fantasio. It was Le Groom vert-de-gris in 2009, one of the most successful of the series, reconnecting with the character invented by Rob-Vel and taken over by Jijé. Then followed the first volume of Gringos Locos (Dupuis, 2012), retracing the amazing adventure of Jijé, Franquin and Morris in the United-States and Mexico, and La femme-léopard (Dupuis, 2014), the second adventure of Spirou and Fantasio by Yann and Schwartz. Oliver Schwartz has now become one of the publisher’s most dependable artists. His most recent work includes Atom Agency (Europe Comics in English), published in 2018.