'Tamara'.
Christian Darasse was born in 1951 in Villars-Colmars in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence of France, but moved to Belgium in the early 1970s. His first published comic page was in the fanzine Magorie, and he subsequently published the stories 'L'Arbre du Vie' and 'Ténèbres' in Michel Desligne's Curiosity Magazine. By 1977, he joined Spirou magazine as the artist of 'Candice et les Crab's', a story written by Claude-Jean Legrand. He made editorial illustrations and teamed up with Bosse in the following year.
'Candice et les Crab's'. Dutch-language version.
Together with Bosse, Darasse created the poetic series 'Zowie' (1978-1983), and the short-lived sciencefiction comic 'Sin Glass' in 1982 (in Spirou). The duo also made the story 'Plume et Mutine' for Oxygène, and then joined Tintin between 1984 and 1987 for the heroic fantasy parody 'Donjons et Dragons'.
'Zowie'.
When Darasse and fellow artists Bernard Hislaire and Marc Michetz formed an atelier above a Mazda garage, it inspired a new comic series: 'Le Gang Mazda'. The first installments of 'Le Gang Mazda' were published in Spirou in 1987. The series parodies and exaggerates the characteristics of the three artists, and the first installments were written by Hislaire. Darasse then wrote the series himself for a short period before he began his association with Tome. Tome and Darasse also introduced Spirou's editor-in-chief in the comic, and this character got his own comic by Bercovici and Zidrou for many years.
'Le Gang Mazda'. Dutch-language version.
Following the end of 'Le Gang Mazda' in 1996, Darasse and Tome created 'Les Minoukinis' for Glénat in 1997. He continued to work for Spirou however, with several projects in cooperation with Zidrou. With this writer, he creates the adventures of the chubby teenage girl 'Tamara', his best-known series to date, from 2001.
Christian Darasse paid tribute to Nikita Mandryka in the collective comic book 'Tronches de Concombre' (Dupuis, 1995).
Self-portrait.