'L'Affaire du Collier' (from: Idéfix et les Irréductibles #2, 2022).
Jean Bastide is a French comic artist and colorist, with a varied body of work. He has worked on historical series like Yslaire's 'La Guerre des Sambre' (2007-2009) and the Victor Hugo adaptation 'Notre Dame' (2012-2014) with writer Robin Recht, as well as more humorous work on popular youth franchise's like the family gag comic 'Boule et Bill' (2016- ) and the 'Astérix' spin-off 'Idéfix' (2020- ).
Early life and education
Jean Bastide was born in 1982 in Albi, a commune in the South-West of France. As a child, he loved reading the 'Lucky Luke' comics by Morris, and he later moved over to manga series like Akira Toriyama's 'Dragon Ball'. On the side, he enjoyed himself with creating his own comics. At the Lycee du Sidobre in Castres, Bastide got his vocational and professional training in the field of construction. While still a student, Bastide regularly participated in the school category Alph'Art contests in Angoulême. In 2003, a jury headed by Jean Solé, awarded him the prize at the 30th Angoulême International Comics Festival. In the following year, he headed for Brussels, where he enrolled at the Sint-Lukas School of Arts.
'Hugo & Iris' #1, artwork by Bastide and Mézil.
Historical comics
Bastide's talent was noted by Yslaire, who hired the young man to work on one of his series about the Sambre dynasty. Together with his high school friend Vincent Mézil, Jean Bastide was tasked to draw the 'Hugo & Iris' trilogy in the series 'La Guerre des Sambre', a historical romance story set in 1830. The duo illustrated and colored the three books, published between 2007 and 2009 by Futuropolis/Glénat. Bastide subsequently teamed up with scriptwriter Robin Recht to create 'Notre Dame' (2012-2014) at Glénat Caractère, a lightweight and free adaptation of Victor Hugo's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'. The series was intended to consist of three albums, but only two were published.
Colorist
In the meantime, Bastide worked as a colorist for other comics, often in the thriller or fantasy genres. He has participated in the production of comics like to 'Elric' (Glénat Grafica, 2013-2017) by Julien Blondel, Robin Recht, Didier Poli and others, 'Alice Matheson' (Soleil, 2015) by Jean-luc Istin, Phil Vandaële and Zivorad Radivojevic, 'Griffe Blanche' (Dargaud, 2015) by Serge Le Tendre and TaDuc and 'Katanga' (Dargaud, 2017) by Fabien Nury and Sylvain Vallée, among other series.
'Notre Dame' #1.
Boule et Bill
By 2016, Laurent Verron left the gag series 'Boule et Bill' to pursue other projects. Publisher Dargaud hired Jean Bastide to replace him, with gag comic specialist Christophe Cazenove becoming the new writer of the classic gag comic about the kid Boule and his Cocker Spaniel Bill. Switching from a semi-realistic to a humorous drawing style, Bastide decided to stay true to the style and tone of the series' creator, Jean Roba. Instead of continuing in line with Verron's gags, Bastide's main inspiration became the Roba episodes from the 1980s. Bastide and Cazenove's first album was the 37th installment in the series, published in 2016. Highlights of their tenure have been the publication of the comic's 40th album and the series' festive 60th anniversary in 2019.
Idéfix
In 2020, Jean Bastide also tackled another famous four-legged friend of European comics. Together with writer Matthieu Choquet and in alternation with fellow artist Philippe Fenech, he has worked on a spin-off comic with 'Idéfix', the dog from the 'Astérix' comics created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. The first story appeared in the Winter 2020 issue of the quarterly magazine Astérix Max! (#10). The series ties in with the 3D-animated 'Idéfix et les Irréductibles' TV series ('Dogmatix and the Indomitables', 2021) and takes place before the regular 'Astérix' stories. In this prequel, Idéfix is part of a rebel gang of animals, who stubbornly resist the Roman occupation of Lutetia (present-day Paris). After participating in the production of two albums of the comic book series, Bastide left the feature and was replaced by David Étien. In 2024, he returned to the series drawing the sixth album, 'La Forêt Lumière', containing three new stories.
Made in France
In addition to his own cartooning work, Jean Bastide has been promoting Franco-Belgian comics in the USA through the Made in France association, headed by Sylvie Joseph-Julien. In November 2018, he first visisted the country on an invitation by Made in France, and during his first visit, he went to several French-American schools in Seattle. He also visited the Seattle Pacific University and Seattle University campuses, where he talked to bilingual students about his profession. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Jean Bastide presided the opening ceremony of two editions of the online Seattle Comic Arts Festival with virtual exhibitions and workshops. Through Made in France, Jean Bastide has been the patron of the French-Belgian Comic Arts Festival on the USA West Coast, first held in Passadena, California, in November 2022.
'Boule et Bill'.