Born on 15 August 1952 in Liège, Marc Hardy starts his comic strip career at the age of fourteen. He polishes up his technique near Mittéi, Pierre Seron and Édouard Aidans. With the latter he illustrates in 1982 “La Prodigieuse histoire du Tour de France”, on a script by Yves Duval, and also contributes to the “Franval” series published in TINTIN.
He truly refines his lively and dynamic style when he gets to work for SPIROU. After a series of realistic stories of Oncle Paul in 1971, he successively brings to life the characters of “Badminton”, with scripts by Mittéi, “Garonne et Guitare” written by Mythic, and ‘Arkel” with Stephen Desberg.
When he and Raoul Cauvin bring black humour within everyone’s reach in 1982, with the launch of “Pierre Tombal”, his reputation is made. The series is hilarious in spite of the rather macabre subject – it describes in a completely unexpected manner the troubles of a cheerful gravedigger and cemetery caretaker with his tenants.
In the mean time, Hardy’s rich and dynamic style constantly evolves, attracting the attention of a new, more mature public. Yann writes for him, for Glénat, two series that willingly brave all taboos: “La Patrouille des Libellules” (a sarcastic view on the World War II and scouting) and “Lolo et Sucette” (featuring the oldest profession in the world). When these characters -excessively ahead of their time- are stopped abruptly, they continue with life after death in “Croqu’la vie” at Marsu-Productions in 1995.
In 1997 Pierre Tombal has become a true bestseller, and Hardy and Yann take up the misadventures of Lolo et Sucette again, their favourite streetwalkers, in the collection Humour Libre, where they get a warm reception …
Hardy works at night mostly, releasing his graphic genius when the world sleeps, his caricatures reaching an extremely high, nearly unparalleled level.
