Jean-Claude Mézières

• Born 1938-09-23 · Died 2022-01-23

Jean-Claude Mézières was a French comics artist and illustrator. He was introduced to drawing by his elder brother and influenced by comics artists such as [Hergé](app://creator/4862), [André Franquin](app://creator/14436) and [Morris](app://creator/9696) and later by [Jijé](app://creator/14927) and [Jack Davis](app://creator/5769). Educated at the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art, he worked upon graduation as an illustrator for books and magazines as well as in advertising. A lifelong interest in the Wild West led him to travel to the United States in 1965 in search of adventure as a cowboy, an experience that would prove influential on his later work. Returning to France, Mézières teamed up with his childhood friend, [Pierre Christin](app://creator/10642), to create Valérian, the popular, long-running science fiction comics series for which he is best known and which influenced many science fiction and fantasy films, including Star Wars. Mézières contributed as a conceptual designer on several motion picture projects, most notably the 1997 Luc Besson film, The Fifth Element, as well as continuing to work as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines and in advertising. He also taught courses on the production of comics at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis.