Frank Giroud, born on the 3rd of May, 1956 in Toulouse, simultaneously manages three careers: the career of a former student of the École des Chartes de Paris, obtaining a degree in history, teaching history first at the lycée français in Milan and then in Grenoble; the career of tour guide with organised trips which enabled him to visit numerous countries ranging from Israel to India, from Tunisia to Thailand; and the career he has always wanted, the one of comic strip scriptwriter.
Although the success of the series he creates with Jean-Paul Dethorey, “Louis la Guigne” soon puts him in a position to live off his work and drop everything else, he never sees any contradiction between his various activities. Which is not surprising to those who know that his Master’s thesis bore the title “Knights in realistic French-Belgian comic strips”. The chartist and the historian gather information for the scriptwriter, the traveller discovers the world of which the author tells in the manner of a great reporter.
Since his early days at Larousse, in 1978, for the collections “L’Histoire du Farwest” and “La Découverte du monde”, he juggles with eras and boundaries: the 17th century of “Missouri” (three books with Carpentrie for Repérages Dupuis) and of “Pieter Hoorn” (with Norma at Glénat), the 18th century of “Patriotes” (with Lacaf for Glénat) and the 20th century in the prestigious collection Aire Libre, with three dramatic stories illustrated by Lax, strong works in which he tells of the Indo-China of the “Oubliés d’Annam”, the Romania of “La Fille aux ibis” and the Algeria of “Azrayen”.
History plays a leading role in all his stories, demonstrating the philosophical vision of this committed man who tries to reconstruct the real past of people beyond the myths and propaganda stories. Giroud is also a comedian and a cabaret performer, and has written musicals. He died on 13 July 2018.
