In 1969, Derib, a close neighbour and the only Swiss professional cartoonist at the time, became both a friend and a teacher, thus opening a few doors to the young artist. Cosey published the adventures of “Paul Aroïd,” a reporter, in the Swiss daily newspaper “24 Heures” and illustrated three short episodes of “Monfreid et Tilbury,” with text by André-Paul Duchâteau, for “Le Soir Jeunesse” in Brussels.

Publishing & Copyright, a short-lived publisher, commissioned his first album in 1974: “Un Shampoing pour la couronne,” a story written by Jacques Ralf.

In 1975, these somewhat hesitant first steps led to Cosey’s first great creation, in both pictures and words: “Jonathan,” who strolls among the mountain peaks in “Tintin” magazine (Europe Comics in English, 2018). The mystic quest of this everyday hero rapidly produced a series of albums of increasing popularity for publisher Le Lombard.

With the same publisher, in 1984, he produced a story in two volumes in the “Histoires et Légendes” collection: “A la Recherche de Peter Pan” (Europe Comics in English, 2017). This work allowed Cosey to discover a scope more suited to his type of narration which involves small discrete and complementary touches, providing a perfect reflection of real life and gradually developing the psychology of his characters.

“Voyage en Italie” also appeared as a two-volume series in 1988 for the new “Aire Libre” collection at Dupuis, and became a bestseller. With the same publisher, which offered a wide range of possibilities, he then put out “Orchidea,” “Saigon-Hanoï,” “Joyeux Noël, May,” and “Zeke raconte des histoires.”

During the same period, for Albin Michel, he illustrated a text by Jacques Salomé (“L’Enfant Bouddha”), launched Le Lombard’s “Signé” collection with a book requested by the Swiss cooperation for development (“Zélie, Nord-Sud”) and, after more than ten years’ absence, revived good old Jonathan in 1997.