EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 31 © 2020 Book Palace Books * 96 PAGES in FULL edition

51 Luc Cornillon BornatRive-de-Gier (in the Loire department) in France, on June 7, 1957, Luc Cornillon, like most French children, grew up reading comic books. He studied at the Fine Arts school of Saint-Étienne, where he met future comic book colleagues Yves Chaland, Jacques Terpant and Jean-François Biard (among the students was also Isabelle Beaumenay- Joannet who would later marry Chaland, and was the colourist for Moebius’ work on the ‘Incal’ series, among many others). Along with Serge Clerc, Ted Benoit, Floc’h, and later François Avril, he would form part of a new gener‐ ation of comic artists that would take the adult Science Fiction comics magazine Métal Hurlant to a different level stylistically, using the ‘ligne claire’ style. The term meaning ‘Clear Line’ was defined by Dutch artist Joost Swarte to de‐ scribe the graphic style of Belgian artist Hergé, whose unclut‐ tered and clear drawings showed only the outlines of the figures and objects, and kept free fromany stippling or cross- hatching, and included simple flat colours. “Although they sometimes assimilated my drawings to that graphic style, I vaguely used it in some of my stories,” Cornillon added. “I was using a simpler style to better accommodate a relatively simple story.” Cornillon, who did comics of different genres, is also known for having created a pastiche of 1950s French comic magazines with ‘Captivant’, a book he did with his friend and frequent collaborator Yves Chaland (who unfor‐ tunately left us too soon in 1990, leaving behind what had begun to be a very promising career). Besides his work for Métal Hurlant , Cornillon also worked for the other French comic magazines of the day. He wrote thewar series ‘Branle Bas deCombat’ [1], illustrated by his friend Jacques Terpant. Cornillon also drew adaptations of two Oscar Wilde stories for Fripounet [2], and did one of last covers for Pilote [3] before the legendary magazine closed definitively in 1989.Nowadays Cornillon does com‐ mercial artwork but still hopes that one day he will get around to doing comics of genres he hasn’t touched yet, such as martial arts or anything taking place on a beach. What were the first comics you ever read? The usual, Tintin [4] and Spirou [5]. FACING PAGE: Attack of the X- Mas Creatures From Outer Space , brush, ink and watercolour on board, 1987. Done for the ‘Bonne Année’ collection book featuring various artists. Inspired by the Wally Wood covers for EC comics’ Science Fiction titles. BELOW: Dino , brush, ink and watercolour on board, 1991. Fripounet [2] magazine cover. (Since many Franco-Belgian series and authors are mentioned in the following interview, we’ve included footnotes at the end of the feature to explain who and what they are-Ed.)