Syberia #1 - 'Hans' (2017).
Johann Blais is a French illustrator and concept artist for video games, also known as Papayou. In 2017, he made the comic book adaptation of Benoît Sokal's video game 'Syberia' with writer Hugo Sokal.
Early life and education
Born in Tours, Johann Blais spent his childhood reading comics and playing video games. Between 2006 and 2010, he studied Visual Communication at the École Brassart, followed in 2011 by a masterclass in Concept Art from the digital arts training studio FuturePoly.
Video games & movie industry
Based in Lyon, Johann "Papayou" Blais has worked as a concept artist and art director for the audiovisual productions. As an intern, he had his first job doing concept art for the roleplaying game based on the popular fantasy book and TV series 'Game of Thrones' for Cyanide studio. Then through BUF Compagnie, he was a 2D and visual effects artist on movies like 'Thor' (2011), 'The Darkest Hour' (2011) and 'Sur la Piste du Marsupilami' (2012). He has since then worked freelance for studios like Mirkros Image, Ivory Tower, Owlient, Two Dots, Wild Sheep Studio, Phoenix Realities and Elder Craft, working on videogames like 'Dragow', 'Styx Shards of Darkness', and the indie game 'HORA'. Blais also worked for print media, making cover illustrations for The Game Magazine (2015-2018) and for the final three French J'ai Lu editions of the 'Black Company' book series in omnibus format (2015-2016).
Syberia
In 2017, he worked with Benoît and Hugo Sokal on a comic book based on the cult video game series 'Syberia' (2002, 2004, 2017). Developed by Benoît Sokal for Microïds studio, the game plot revolves around a U.S. lawyer who travels through Europe and Russia to find the brother of an recently deceased automaton toy factory owner. Presenting an alternate version of the story, the comic book 'Hans' (Lombard, 2017) was released as a prelude to 'Syberia 3'. Since 2019, Blais makes his own heroic fantasy series, 'Illyne' for Webtoon Factory, the digital imprint for mobile devices of Éditions Dupuis.
'Illyne'.