Artwork by Emre Orhun, from 'Les Vies Imaginaires'.
Emre Orhun is a Turkish-French book illustrator, photographer and comic artist. He is most notable for his graphic novels 'Erzsebet' (2010) and 'La Malédiction du Titanic' (2012), about respectively Hungarian "blood countess" Elizabeth Bathory and the Titanic disaster. His body of work is notable for its macabre scratchboard artwork, featuring disturbing imagery.
Early life
Emre Orhun was born in 1976 in Beijing, China, as a child of Turkish parents. During his early childhood, he moved around a lot, living in Belgrade (Yugoslavia, nowadays Serbia), Brussels (Belgium), Stockholm (Sweden), Oslo (Norway) and Ankara (Turkey). In 1993, he was adopted and moved to Lyon, France. From a young age, he preferred drawing lessons over regular classes. When people asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he always answered janitor or garbageman, because he preferred to be left alone and just doodle in the background. Art school was a relief to him, since teachers didn't yell at him for drawing during their lectures. Among his main graphic influences have been Katsuhiro Otomo, Thomas Ott and Roland Topor. After studying architecture for two years in France, Orhun studied art and graduated at the École Emile Cohl in Lyon. Since 2005, he has been a teacher in Narrative Illustration at his old school.
Comic strip by Emre Orhun.
Book illustrations
In 1999, Orhun received an award at the Book Fair in Bologna, which increased his notability and launched his career as a book illustrator. Among the books he lent his graphic skills to have been Yves Pinguilly's 'La Corne de l'Afrique' (Nathan, 2002), Michel Piquemal's 'L'Empereur Astronome' (Nathan, 2002), Nacer Khémir's 'Le Chant des Génies' (Actes Sud, 2001) and 'Hassan de Samarkand' (Actes Sud, 2003), Emmanuel Bourdier's 'J'Aurai ta Peau' (Nathan, 2005), Vincent Cuvellier's 'Pierre Noël' (Sarbacane, 2006), Thierry Magnier's 'Baba Yaga' (2006), Nora Aceval's 'L'Élève du Magicien' (Sorbier, 2007) and Anne Montagne's 'Kim, Le Gardien de la Terre' (Actes Sud, 2007).
He also made graphic adaptations of literary classics like 'L'Empereur de la Lune' (Nathan, 1999), 'Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves' (retold by Luc Lefort, Nathan, 2000), 'Contes et Récits des Héros de la Rome Antique' (retold by Jean-Pierre Andrevon, Nathan, 2001), Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' (Grimm Press, 2002), Henrik Ibsen's 'Peer Gynt' (Actes Sud Junior, 2003), Victor Hugo's 'Les Misérables' (Grimm Press, Taiwan, 2004), Jules Verne's 'Les Mirifiques Aventures de Maître Antifer' (Actes Sud Junior, 2004) and 'Le Monde Illustré de Jules Verne' (Actes de Sud, 2005), and Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels' (Albin Michel, 2005).
Orhun is a regular illustrator for the Turkish novelist Hakan Günday, for whom he frequently designs book covers, among them 'Kinyas ve Kayra' (Doğan Kitapçılık, 2000), 'Piç' (2003), 'Malafa' (2005), 'Azil' (2007), 'Ziyan' (2009) and 'Zamir' (2021). Orhun has also livened up Gunday's monthly column in the cultural magazine Ot.
'Erszebet'.
Career in comics
For a long time, Orhun was perfectly content with being a book illustrator, despite friends' efforts to convince him to work for newspapers. One day, he decided to apply to the newspaper Libération just for the heck of it and was given two articles to illustrate. Being used to working slowly and in a detailed style, Orhun found it difficult to make a simple, striking image within a short timespan. But he eventually liked the challenge and became one of the regular contributors to Libération, later also appearing in Le Monde.
'La Malédiction du Titanic' (2012).
Together with scriptwriter Cédric Rassat, Orhun made the graphic novels 'Erzsebet' (2010) and 'La Malédiction du Titanic' (2012), both published by Glénat. 'Erzsebet' is based on the infamous 16th-century Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory who became notorious for her sadistic treatment of servants and passersby. According to legend, she literally bathed in her victims' blood and indulged in orgies. 'Le Malédiction du Titanic' was released in the same year the centennial of the famous Titanic maritime disaster was commemorated. It chronicled the doomed voyage of the ship. Both books portray these gruesome historic events in stark black-and-white imagery.
Orhun's 'Les Vies Imaginaires' (Le Dernier Cri-Marseille, 2013) is a series of haunting portraits of eccentric individuals. In 2016, he released his graphic novel 'Medley' (Même Pas Mal, 2016), a nightmarish tale about a long-nosed man who finds himself in several loosely connected situations. One day, he wakes up in a dark alley with a wounded knee. A disturbing clown spots him and offers help. The two big-nosed characters soon enter a strange, uncomfortable world filled with obscene monsters, pirates, bondage cults and other odd people.
Artwork for a short story about hobos.
Style
Interviewed by Hey Magazine (issue #15, September 2013), Orhun acknowledged a certain "clumsiness" in his drawings, which he has used to his advantage. In his opinion, drawing shouldn't be an accurate representation of reality, which he considers uninteresting. Instead, it should reflect an inner reality. Even in bad, incoherent or boring drawings he can still spot a certain honesty and authenticity: "A kind of copy of yourself at a certain moment, a feeling we might never be able to find back, because when it has been written, it is chased out and no longer belongs to us."
Interviewed by Anil Yurdakul for the magazine Evrensel (2 July 2019), Orhun stated that, even though he has to earn money to survive, it's important for an artist to just work because of the art. He makes an effort to contribute as often as possible to publications outside the commercial world. Orhun has also claimed that the universes he creates are born from his subconscious, leading him to strange but intriguing places. Inspired by the art of Thomas Ott, Orhun often uses scratchboard technique to make illustrations.
Career in photography
Orhun is also active as a photographer for various fanzines. He has additionally made erotic photography, based on the Japanese bondage technique "kinbaku". Customers can both order kinbaku photos or have private kinbaku sessions.
Album cover art by Emre Orhun.
Graphic contributions
In 2002, Orhun was one of the contributors to the collective comic book 'Chansons de Téléphone en Bandes Dessinées' (Petit à Petit), visualizing well-known songs about telephone calls in comic strip format. In collaboration with scriptwriter Kris, Orhun picked out the song 'Ordinaire'. On the occasion of the 14th album of the gag comic 'Titeuf' (2015), Orhun was one of several cartoonists creating a special graphic homage to the series by drawing Zep's character as an adolescent. Orhun additionally designed the music album covers for 'Highway to Jail' (2006) by Spade & Archer, 'Hunting Demons' (2015) by Mosca Violenta & Mombu and 'Forgotten Rites' (2024) by The Fakirs.
Recognition
Emre Orhun's art has often been exhibited in Paris and Lyon. In June-July 2013, he was part of a collective 'Scratchboard' exhibition at La Dernière Cri in Marseille, alongside the artists Marcel Ruijters, Matti Hagelberg, Matthias Lehmann and Gwen Tomahawk. Orhun's work is also admired by his colleague Maria Surducan.
From: 'Medley'.