Léo

Léo is a Brazilian comic artist, who lives and works in France on popular science-fiction sagas like 'Aldebran' and 'Bételgeuse'. Born Luís Eduardo de Oliveira Filho in Rio de Janeiro, Léo got his degree as mechanical engineer in Puerto Alegre in 1968. He worked in this profession for a government firm for three years, but was forced to flee the country because of his political activities during the military dictatorship.

He went to Chile, then headed for Argentina after the coup, and eventually returned to Brazil illegally in 1974. At this time, he started an anonymous job as an advertising artist in Sao Paulo. He did his first comic art for the magazine O Bicho. De Oliveira moved to Paris in 1981 to pursue a more professional career in the field of comics. Unfortunately, the golden days of European comics had just passed, so he earned his money by working in the advertising industry again.

From time to time, he made short stories for magazines like L'Écho des Savanes and Pilote, in which he showed his talent for the science-fiction genre. In 1986, Jean-Claude Forest asked him to draw a few stories for Okapi, which led to a regular collaboration with the publishing group Bayard Presse. He illustrated short stories, and did a comics biography of 'Gandi' with Benoît Marchon for Astrapi in 1988.

In that same year, Léo started his longduring association with the scriptwriter Rodolphe. Their first collaboration was the series about the Canadese Mounty 'Trent', that was published by Dargaud between 1991 and 2000. They subsequently made 'Kenya', a fantasy series set in Africa during the 1940s. Léo was by now also involved in the scriptwriting. In 2010, Rodolphe and Léo made a second cycle of their series, called 'Namibia', which is drawn by Bertrand Marchal.

In addition to his series with Rodolphe, Léo first proved himself an allround author with 'Aldébran', his science-fiction series published by Dargaud between 1994 and 1998. It was followed by further cycles like 'Bételgeuse' (2000-2005) and 'Antarès' (2007-) as well as the spin-off 'Survivants' (2011). All these series stand out for their imaginative alien worlds and animals.

Léo also took on scriptwriting for other artists, like Sergio Garcia ('Dexter London', 2000-05) and Icar ('Terres Lointaines', 2009-).