Pierre Christin

Pierre Christin ranks among the best present-day comics writers. Christin studied languages and politics and then taught French for a while at an American university. In the States, he met his childhood friend Jean-Claude Mézières again, with whom he made a small film for a local television station. Christin and Mézières then tried their hand at comics, and made a story for Pilote magazine. At the time, Christin still worked under the pseudonym of Linus. Back in France, Christin continued his comics writing and contributed to such magazines as Pilote and Tout Journal. He worked with such artists as Jean Giraud, Jijé, Mazel, Jean Torton, Florenci Clavé, Raymond Poïvet and Alexis.

Along with Mézières, Christin created his first series. The science-fiction saga 'Valérian' was launched in 1970 and became quite popular over the years. While writing comics, Pierre Christin returned to teaching, this time at a university in Bordeaux. He expanded his comics activities throughout the 1970s, and wrote for Claude Auclair ('Jason Muller'), Jean Vern ('En Douce le Bonheur', 'La Maison du Temps qui Passe', etc.), Jacques Tardi ('Rumeurs sur le Rouergue') and Enki Bilal ('La Croisière des Oubliés', 'La Vaisseau de Pierre', 'Les Phalanges de l'Ordre', etc.). The 1980s brought new collaborations, with Annie Goetzinger, François Boucq (the humorous 'Les Leçons du Professeur Bourremou'), Patrick Lesueur, Jacques-Henri Tournadre and Bernard Puchulu.

Pierre Christin is also the writer of several "graphic novels", like 'Los Angeles', 'Coeurs Sanglants' (both with Bilal), 'Lady Polaris' (with Mézières), and 'Le Tango du Disparu' (with Goetzinger). In 1990 he launched another series with Mézières, 'Canal Choc'. They also teamed up to make a television series of their 'Valérian' series. Christin also continued his comics writing activities with scenarios for Daniel Ceppi, Max Cabanes, Philippe Aymond, Jacques Ferrandez and Jean-Claude Denis. In addition to his comics work, Pierre Christin is the author of several novels and he has done some theatre work.