French global superstar François Boucq, a Grand Prix winner of the Angoulême Festival in 1998 and a recipient of numerous other international awards, turned 70 this week.
Born in Lille on 28th November 1955, Boucq (rhymes with “Luke”) is best known for his satirical and surreal comics revolving around the character Jérôme Moucherot. He’s also worked in other media, creating drawings for the Antenne 2 TV show Si Ça Vous Change, on-the-spot drawings at the Cannes festival, illustrations for the magazines Corto, Science and Vie Junior, and the drawings for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s book of fables, Le Trésor de l’Ombre.
Although he began his career in press illustration, creating caricatures for renowned magazines such as Le Point, L’Expansion, and Privé, achieving remarkable success in political caricature and absurd comedy, it was in comics that François Boucq truly made his mark.
In the late 1970s, he dedicated himself to graphic novels and, together with his friend, screenwriter Philippe Delan, created Rock Mastard, first published in 1983 in two volumes: Échec à la gestapo and Pas de deo gratias pour Rock Mastard, revived in 2004 with stories by written by Boucq’s longtime collaborator, Karim Belkrouf.
Building on past experience, he has retained a strong affinity for expressive faces and detailed drawing, enhanced by an uncommon sense of framing and composition. He is well known for his humorous stories, where the absurd often vies with parody.
His best known creation, Jérôme Moucherot is a character like no other: an insurance agent unlike any other, navigating the jungle of existence in a leopard-print suit.
Boucq is gifted with an extraordinary work ethic, Paul Gravett noting in his 2015 profile that his daily ritual involves working in his studio from 8.30am to 9.00 at night, and no later.
“You can’t work in comics if you don’t work hard,” Boucq, who has sometimes drawn up to two pages a day, without ever compromising the quality for which he is known, said. “Drawing is a state of being… of being both active and meditative, so to finish your work well, you need calm.”
François Boucq readily sets aside humour to dedicate himself to more realistic narratives. He thus adapted the works of the American novelist Jerome Charyn (La Femme du magicien (“The Magician’s Wife”), earned them the Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Best Album in 1986, Bouche du Diable (“Devil’s Mouth”) and New York Cannibals), explored the Western genre with Alejandro Jodorowsky in the pages of Bouncer, and delved into the Vatican’s secret services with Yves Sente in The Janitor.
Considered a direct heir to Giraud, Boucq has opened new doors in realistic drawing. Over the years, this synthesis of caricature and rigor, legibility and precision of drawing, has given birth to a unique style, allowing him to bring all genres of storytelling to life with equal brilliance.
This style is evident in Little Tulip, his return with Jerome Charyn to French publisher Éditions du Lombard, who have been simultaneously re-releasing all his albums.
After studying judo as a boy, he tried aikido when he was thirty, moving to kendo, or Japanese fencing, advancing as far as a fifth dan black belt.
A martial art and comics art have parallels, Boucq has previously said. “In kendo, there’s no room for hesitation. When you have to strike a blow, you strike. It’s the same with drawing – the line must be just right.”
• François Boucq is making an appearance at Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Place de la République, 59000, Lille, France on Friday 12 December 2025.
The event – details here – offers a unique visit to the museum and the exhibition “A Brief History of Giants“. A captivating dive into the imagination of an extraordinary artist. The visit is followed by an autograph session at the bookshop | Buy tickets here
Head downthetubes for…
• François Boucq: Official Art Gallery
• Follow François Boucq on Facebook | Instagram
• Lambiek Profile: François Boucq
• The Magician’s Wife (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
“A dark, menacingly brilliant tale, tinged with the erotic.” – LA Times.
Spanning multiple decades and continents, this phantasmagorical epic is the result of a unique collaboration between an award-winning American author and the famous French illustrator of Face de Lune. Writer Jerome Charyn and artist François Boucq combine their talents to recount a surrealistic tale about the wife of a philandering magician and her struggles with terrifying demons, both real and imaginary.
Originally published as La Femme du magicien, The Magician’s Wife was awarded the 1986 Prix Alfred (Angoulême) and the Grand Prix (Sierre). The English-language version had been out of print for three decades until its republication in 2015, during which time the graphic novel has developed a cult following.
“The story and the art are both eerie and erotic,” declared Publishers Weekly upon the book’s initial publication.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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