'It Can't Be Possible'.
Yves Ker Ambrun was a French graphic artist who has mostly worked in the fields of advertisement and animation. He created the children's series 'Gaspard Le Lézard' and 'Basile Le Chien' in the magazine Toboggan. He was the author of the teen comic 'Flippo & Punkina' (1988), the SF series 'Mechaniko' (scripted by Antonia Pont, 2011-2012) and the webcomic 'The Beast in the Woods'. Ker Ambrun also created a graphic novel series about the writer 'Schnecksnyder'.
Early life and career
Yves Ker Ambrun was born in 1954 in Tours, France and made his comics debut at the early age of thirteen. His first work was 'Mesa Boum', one of the first French underground comix, which he made together with Yves Laumonier. At age 17, he began his education at the Pratt Institute in New York City. He later also attended the School of Fine Arts in Paris, France. He had his first success as a comic artist with the funny animal comics about the lizard 'Gaspard le Lézard' and the dog 'Basile le Chien'. Their adventures appeared in Toboggan, a children's magazine for 5-8 year old children by Éditions Milan. In 1985 Ker Ambrun was also present in Tintin magazine with three short stories about the female heroine 'Virgule'. Another early comics creation by Ker Ambrun was the sci-fi rocket pilot HB-Scott and his android sidekick Booboo.
'Gaspard and Basile'.
Animation
In the mid-1980s Ker Ambrun subsequently went to work as a character designer and art director for the animation industry. He was affiliated with both European and US companies, most notably the Disney Studios in California. The company posted him in Germany as a creative director for its Central & Eastern Europe division. As a character artist, he has designed, developped and supported all the production steps of thousands of Disney products during a period of eight years. His art also appeared in the German Disney magazine Micky Maus.
'Flippo & Punkina'.
Years in Germany
In the late 1980s, Ker Ambrun returned to comic art, starting with the teen series 'Flippo & Punkina' (1988) by commission of the German Sparkasse bank. Flippo is a dumb, arrogant blonde teen whose hair always hangs in front of his eyes. His best friend, Punkina, wears her hair in a palm tree-like haircut and is much smarter. The series was followed by several other comic strips, mostly created for commercial clients, such as 'Welli Wellino'. Ker Ambrun settled in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1991 and operated through his own comics and illustration studio Skydog from 2000 onwards. Yves Ker Ambrun was one out of only three artists permitted to draw André Franquin's Marsupilami in Europe for merchandising purposes. He has made model sheets and concepts for a proposed Playstation 3D-game based on pop idol DJ Bobo. Among Skydog's many clients are DMBB, Havas, Herlitz, Bully, Nintendo, Egmont-Ehapa Verlag, Carlsen Verlag, Faber-Castell, Metro, Sparkasse, Braun, Nestlé, Ferrero, Lufthansa, Lego, RTL-Plus, Berliner Kurier and IWF-Goettingen.
'Mechaniko wird Erschaffen' and 'Die Mechanismen der Macht!'.
Personal comics
A more personal project by Yves Ker Ambrun was his semi-realistic comic series about the writer 'Schnecksnyder'. Schecknsnyder starred in the socio-ecological ironic graphic novel 'It Can't Be Possible', published in the USA in 2010, and then in Germany as 'Es darf nicht wahr sein' through his own Skydog Verlag in June 2011. Through Skydog he also produced the political science fiction allegory 'Mechaniko' (2011-2012), which he co-wrote with his wife and business partner Antonia Pont. He also produced the webcomic 'The Beast in the Woods'.
Death
Yves Ker Ambrun passed away on 6 December 2017.
