'Charly', artwork by Magda.
Denis Lapière is a prominent scenario writer of contemporary European comics, most of which have been published by Dupuis. Born in Namur, he ran a bookshop in Charleroi before turning to comic scriptwriting in the 1980s. His first output were a couple of short stories drawn by Éric Maltaite for Spirou, followed by 'Mono Jim' for l'Echo de Savanes in 1987. For that same magazine, he also worked with Jean-Philippe Stassen on 'Bahamas' and 'Bullwhite'. Lapière soon expanded his collaborations and wrote 'Mauro Caldi' for Michel Constant (Éditions Alpen) and 'Jerry et Line' for Peter Pluut (Dargaud).
He returned to Spirou in 1989 where he became one of the main scriptwriters of the 1990s and 2000s, starting with the series 'Alice et Léopold' (art by Olivier Wozniak) and most notably 'Charly' (art by Magda). Lapière and artist Alain Sikorski succeeded Will and Desberg as the authors of 'Tif et Tondu' in 1991. After completing the final era of this classic series, the duo continued their work in the detective genre with the series 'La Clé du Mystère' between 2000 and 2005.
With Gilles Mezzomo, he made the final installments of the comic adaptation of Sulitzer's 'Le Roi Vert', before creating 'Luka' from 1996 to 2006. He turned to Casterman to create 'Clara' with Chauzy between 1999 and 2001. After making a couple of comic stories with only Pierre Bailly for the small publishing house La Cafetière as well as 'La Saison des Anguilles' for Dargaud, the duo is accompanied by Vincent Mathy to create the charming children's series 'Ludo' in Spirou in 1997. In the same genre, he created 'Oscar' with Christian Durieux in 2000.
Lapière has also written various books for Dupuis' Aire Libre collection in the 1990s and 2000s, starting with 'Le Bar du Vieux Français' with Jean-Philippe Stassen in 1992. This was followed by 'La Dernière des Salles Obscures' with Paul Gillon in 1996 and 1998. In the 2000s he had a fruitful collaboration with Ruben Pellejero for 'Un Peu de Fumée Bleue', 'Le Tour de Valse' and 'L'Impertinence d'un Été', while also working with Pierre Bailly for 'Agadamgorok', with Clarke for 'Luna Almaden' and with Olivier Grenson for 'La Femme Accident'.
He has worked as a co-scriptwriter with Pierre-Paul Renders on several projects since 2006, starting with the series 'Comme tout le monde' for the Expresso collection of Dupuis, drawn by Rudy Spiessert. Lapière and Renders also set up the 'Alter Ego' series for Dupuis in 2011, of which nearly every installment was drawn by another artist. Since 2012 Lapière is the co-author of the new 'Michel Vaillant' series with Philippe Graton. Denis Lapière has won several prizes for his work and it is said that he has also written under a pseudonym, that he doesn't want to reveal.
'Comme tout le monde', art by Rudy Spiessert.