François Bourgeon

François Bourgeon (born 5 July 1945 in Paris) is a French comics artist working within the Franco-Belgian bande dessinée tradition. Trained originally as a stained glass craftsman, he is best known for two historical adventure sagas with strong female protagonists: The Passengers of the Wind and The Companions of the Dusk. His work, noted for its careful research, is among the reference points of late twentieth-century European comics.

After working in stained glass, Bourgeon began in 1971 to publish illustrations in children's magazines such as Nade and Lisette, often on texts by Henriette Bichonnier. His first comic, L'ennemi vient de la mer, written by Cécile Romancère, appeared in 1972. Between 1974 and 1975 he contributed to the youth weekly Djin, and in 1978 he drew a story for Pif gadget about cathedral builders. In the same years he started his first long series, Brunelle et Colin, written by Robert Génin; he drew only its first episodes before handing it over to Didier Convard.

In 1979, for the magazine Circus, he launched The Passengers of the Wind, set in the eighteenth century. The series brought him wide recognition, and in 1980 he won the prize for best artist at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. He then returned to the medieval world of Brunelle with The Companions of the Dusk, published from 1984. In 1993 he began La Source et la sonde in the magazine A suivre, the first volume of the Cyann saga, a futuristic story made with Claude Lacroix.

The researcher Antoni Guiral identifies three constants in his work: fidelity to the historical setting, the purity of its dialogue and the harshness of its approach. His legacy lies mainly in giving female characters the lead in large-scale adventures, and in a slow, documented working method that influenced several generations of authors.