Born in 1969, Sylvain Savoia and Jean-David Morvan both grew up in Reims, and discovered comic books together through avidly following the fanzine “Hors Gabarit.” In 1989, they both registered at the Saint-Luc art school in Brussels. Over the next three years of training, Savoia worked with Zygus magazine and published some drawings in Jet, a monthly publication founded by Le Lombard, open to new artists.
In 1993, Savoia published his first album, “Reflets perdus,” with Zenda publishing and Morvan writing the script. This little publishing house was soon thereafter bought by Glénat. Savoia then brought Phillipe Buchet onto the team, a former artistic director of a communications agency specialized in comics. Savoia and Buchet worked together on the artwork of the first two albums of the “Nomad” series (“Mémoire vive” in 1994 and “Gai Jin” in 1995), again written by Morvan. Savoia later illustrated the next three albums (“Mémoire morte,” “Tiourma,” “Mémoire cachée,” from 1996 to 2000 with Glénat), this time by himself.
To ensure the consistency of their output, Morvan, Buchet, and Savoia opened Studio 510 TTC in Reims in 1994. Alongside his work on the “Nomad” series, Savoia worked regularly on advertising products, posters, corporate communications and professional training books.
In 2003, he and Morvan started the crime series “Al’Togo” with Dargaud. The next year his partner, Marzena Sowa, asked him to illustrate “Marzi,” an autobiographical work about her childhood memories of Poland. He developed a whole new graphic style for the series, the first volume of which was published by Dupuis in 2004 (Europe Comics 2017).
After the international success of “Marzi,” Savoia brought his readers yet another magnificent lesson in humanity with “Les ésclaves oubliés de Tromelin” (2015 Dupuis, 2016 Europe Comics, “The Forgotten Slaves of Tromelin”). Savoia produced this book after having been invited to participate in a month-long expedition to Tromelin. The book flits between the tragic history of Tromelin Island from the perspective of a young slave girl, and Savoia’s own experience on the island during the archeological excavation. Most recently, Savoia has also joined with author and historian Fabrice Erre to create the series “Le fil de l’histoire” (Dupuis; “On the History Trail,” Europe Comics), set on bringing the past to vivid life for younger readers.