Loïs #3 - 'Le Code Noir'.
Olivier Pâques is a Belgian comic artist, best known for drawing the historical comic 'Loïs' for Jacques Martin since 2003.
Early life and career
Pâques was born in 1977 in Uccle, and attended the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels. His neighbour, comic artist Pascal Zanon, introduced him to Jacques Martin, who took him under his wings. His first assignment was assisting Christophe Simon on the backgrounds of his two albums in the series 'Lefranc' in 2001 and 2002.
Loïs
After this apprenticeship, Martin asked him to illustrate 'Loïs', a series about a young painter at the court of Louis XIV in Versailles. Pâques quickly settled in a classical drawing style, with a specialization in the detailed depiction of boats. His drawings clearly echo the work of his tutor, but also of comic artists like Marc-Renier, Félicísimo Coria and Jacques Denoël.
Loïs #4 - 'Monsieur, frère du Roi'.
The first album of 'Loïs', 'Le Roi-Soleil' (Casterman, 2003), already earned him the Prix d'Avenir for most promising artist at the 2004 Saint-Gilles comic festival. He made another album in cooperation with Martin, after which Patrick Weber gradually took over the writing duties. Pierre Valmour in turn succeeded Weber from the 6th album on in 2013. Pâques also provided the illustrations for the first installment of the educational spin-off series 'Les Voyages de Loïs' (2006), which dealt with the history of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIII. The second installment of the collection (2010) dealt with Portugal and was drawn by the Portuguese illustrator Luís Diferr. In addition to their work for the Jacques Martin productions, Pâques and Weber made a comics biography of Leonardo da Vinci for the Glénat collection 'Les Grands Peintres' in 2015.
'Les Grands Peintres' - 'Léonard de Vinci'.