'Les Chroniques de la Lune Noir', artwork by Cyril Pontet.
François Froideval is a French comic writer, specialized in heroic fantasy, but also in fiction in general. Born François Marcela-Froideval in, e wrote his first stories in the mid-1970s. He cooperated on the launch of the Jeux et Stratégie magazine, for which he wrote editorial texts and developed several game pages. Froideval is largely responsible for the introduction of roleplaying games in France. He was editor-in-chief of the RPG magazine Casus Belli periodical until his departure for the USA in 1982. In the States, he worked with Gary Gygax in the game animation field, like on the 'Donjons & Dragons' cycle.
In March 1988, Froideval turned to comics, with some comics for Pilote et Charlie ('Le Ninja de la Nuit' and 'Cauchemar', drawn by Henry Bismuth and Tignous). A year later, he started the fantasy cycle 'Les Chroniques de la Lune Noire' with Olivier Ledroit. After five episodes, the artwork on the series was taken over by Cyril Pontet. Books were published by Dargaud from 1989. A spin-off series called 'Les Arances de la Lune Noir', was started in 2001, and contains artwork by several artists.
Les Chroniques de la Lune Noir, artwork by Ledroit
In 1991, Manini teamed up with Jack Manini to create 'L'Archimage Robert' for Zenda publishers. At the same publisher, he came up with '666' two years later, drawn by Frank Tacito. From 1996 Froideval multiplied his collaborations, writing for Patrick Larme and Francard ('Les Fées et Fatum'), Wing K. Law ('Sakura'), Guillaume Sorel ('Mens Magna'), Fabrice Angleraud ('Atlantis'), Stéphane Collignon ('Lex'), and Nicolas Bournay ('Nexus'). For publisher Albin Michel, he launched the series 'Methraton' (with Fabrice Druet in 2001) and 'Harkhanges' (with Sylvain Guinebaud in 2002). In 2003, he started 'Hyrknoss' with Andreï Arinouchkine at Casterman.
'666', artwork by Frank Tacito.