Manu Larcenet

Emmanuel Larcenet, known as Manu Larcenet (born 6 May 1969) is a French cartoonist. He worked with Fluide Glacial magazine from 1995 to 2006 and with Spirou magazine from 1997 to 2004. He has also founded the French publisher Les Rêveurs in 1998. Since 2000, he mostly works with Dargaud. Emmanuel Larcenet, also known as Manu Larcenet, was born in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He studied graphic art at the Sèvres lycée and then went on to art school. While spending time as a singer in a punk-rock band, he published his first drawings in comics and rock fanzines. In October 1994, he was published in the French magazine Fluide Glacial (issue #220) with L'Expert comptable de la jungle, a first story rapidly followed by other complete ones, and republished later in comic books, in the series Soyons fous, La Loi des séries and Bill Baroud. Meanwhile, Larcenet was also actively working for "Les rêveurs de runes". For this magazine and label specialising in fantasy, he created games called Raoul, D'ac Raoul, and, in 1997, Dallas cowboy.

From that year on, alone first and then with Gaudelette, he worked for Spirou magazine, publishing Pedro le Coati, among others. In 1998, still for Dupuis but with Jean-Michel Thiriet, he created La vie est courte. His other drawings were independently collected and published in 1996 and 1998 in 30 millions d'imbéciles and Ni dieu, ni maître, ni croquettes by Glénat.

In 2000, he met Guy Vidal who would become responsible for the label Poisson Pilote at Dargaud. He became friends with him and started contributing to the Poisson Pilote label, drawing Les cosmonautes du futur based on a script by Lewis Trondheim, and later on Les Entremondes with his brother Patrice Larcenet. In June 2001, he left Paris for Lyon, keeping contact with Vidal. On a scenario by Jean-Yves Ferri, he participated in Le retour à la terre. Finally, he signed alone his next books : the Une aventure rocambolesque de..., Le combat ordinaire (this last one being granted an award by the Prize for Best Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival) and Nic Oumouk series.