Born in Geneva on 15 December 1967, Zep has everything going for him. He is young, handsome, likeable, talented and Swiss. Moreover he reaps the fruits of the success of his character “Titeuf” in bookshops, on T-shirts and postcards. “Titeuf” is a cult character who displays great naivety and an insatiable curiosity while discovering life (and love in particular).
A lover of modern music and infected by the comic book virus from a very early age, he starts his own fanzine, which he calls ZEP in honour of Led Zeppelin, when he turns twelve. Expelled from school for misplaced humour in this publication, he adopts its title as a pseudonym!
Having completed his studies at the École des Arts décoratifs in his respectable home town of bankers, the budding artist joins SPIROU in 1985, where he takes his first steps as a professional in a number of more or less short-lived series, the most memorable of which is devoted to the blunders of a printer’s apprentice (“Victor”).
He soon refines his style and use of direct colour, appearing on the pages of CHAMPAGNE !, FEMMES D’AUJOURD’HUI, JEUDI-SPORTS MAGAZINE, SAUVE QUI PEUT, LA VIE, L’HEBDO and LE NOUVEAU QUOTIDIEN.
Form 1992 on, he launches his best-seller “Titeuf” series with Glénat, before being invited back by Éditions Dupuis to produce juicy pieces devoted to adolescent love (“Les Filles électriques”) and his experiences as a fan of pop concerts (“L’Enfer des concerts”), two very autobiographic subjects for the new “Humour Libre” collection. For the second volume of the “Sales petits contes” in the same collection, which was devoted to Charles Perrault, he succumbs to the temptation of a script about cats written by Yann : “Les Petits chats se cachent pour mourir”.
A complete artist, he is just as much a master of irony as of tenderness and has managed to develop a style and tone that are uniquely his own. A fan of Donald Duck and Bob Dylan, of the electric guitar and Mandryka, he is one of the new stars of the comic book genre, with his talent being acclaimed by the critics and the voting public alike!
