La Compagnie des Cochons
Born in Brittany, Arnaud Floc'h spent his childhood in Cameroon and Niger until he returned to Brest at age 16. In 1984 he settled in Paris to pursue a career as an artist. Although he started out working for the Ministry of Housing, he made his first illustrations for their publications. He then illustrated an encyclopedia for Larousse before he contributed short stories to two collective books by publisher Glénat, using the pseudonym Arnaud Fontaine. He opened up his own advertising studio in Montargis in 1988 and eventually headed for Africa once again. Since 1998, he has done illustration work for Éditions Triskel.
Floc'h has worked with Thomas Priou on 'Chat s'en va' (2008) and 'Chat Revient' (2009), with Yves Pinguily on 'Zalissa et Yamba', 'Sous l'Arbre à Palabres' and 'L'Esclave du Fleuve des Fleurves'. Floc'h regularly visits the Mali capital Bamako, that served as inspiration and setting for his graphic novel 'La Compagnie des Cochons' (Ed. Delcourt, 2009). He is furthermore the author of one-shots like 'Xavier, un Film entre nous' (Ed. Carabas, 2007), 'La Vallée des Papillons' (Des Ronds dans l'O, 2011) and 'Les Otages' (Futuropolis, 2012). In 2008 he also made the diptych 'Les Épines du Christ' for Editions Carabas. In 2015 publisher Sarbacane released his comic book about Emmett Till, the African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14.
Besides writing and drawing his own books, Floc'h has also written for other artists. Among his cooperations are 'Le Camion des Yeux' with Jean-Louis Floch (no relation) at BFB Éditions in 2004, 'Le Poission-Chat' with Thierry Murat at Delcourt in 2008, and 'Le Carrefour de l'Étoile Rouge' with Grégory Charlet at Librairie Bulle/Bamboo in 2015. Arnaud Floc'h is the initiator of the Montargis comic festival.
Emmett Till