'L'Esprit de Warren'.
Stéphane Servain is a French comic artist and animator. His best known series is 'L'Espirit de Warren' (1996-1998, 2005).
Early life and career
Stéphane Servain was born in 1970 in the Alps, and spent the first eighteen years of his life in Briançon, dividing his time between artistic and sporting activities. His passion for drawing was fuelled by realistic authors like Victor de la Fuente and Raymond Poïvet, whose work appeared in Okapi magazine. Servain was only fifteen years old when he released a comic album about the history of Briançon in commission of the region's Young Economic Chamber. At this point he'd also developed an interest in the work of Cosey, Hermann, Franz and Alfonso Font, who remained a large influence on his subsequent work. He also took inspiration from sci-fi and fantasy novelists like Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Dan Simmons and J.R.R. Tolkien, and film directors like Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg.
In 1988 Servain enrolled at the comics school of Angoulême. During his formative years, he worked on projects with authors like Christophe Bec, Eric Hübsch and David Prudhomme. He also spent a few months in the team of the animation production company IDDH. In 1990, he was approached by the young publisher Guy Delcourt to take part in the second installment of 'Les Enfants du Nil', an album of short stories made by the students of the school under the direction of Fredéric Boilet.
Le Traque Mémoire
Servain made his official debut with the social sci-fi series 'La Traque Mémoire' in cooperation with Christophe Gibelin, of which Delcourt published two books in 1993 and 1994.
Interlude
After completing his military service, Servain started an atelier with colleagues Thierry Robin, Pierre-Yves Gabrion and Bertrand Antigny in 1995. Servain returned to animation and worked on the pre-production of the feature film 'Kirikou et la Sorcière' ('Kirikou and the Sorceress', 1998) by Michel Ocelot.
L'Espirit de Warren
Servain came back to comics for the artwork of the psychological thriller 'L'Esprit de Warren', which was written by Luc Brunschwig. Delcourt published the first three books in 1996, 1997 and 1998, and a final installment in 2005.
L'Histoire de Siloë
In 2000 and 2003 Servain made two books of 'L'Histoire de Siloë' with Serge Le Tendre, a science fiction series inspired by the works of novels Philip K. Dick. Between 2006 and 2009,
Graphic contributions
Servain worked on projects outside of the comic industry, with the exception of a couple of contributions to collective albums and the coloring of the series 'Les Guerriers du Silence' by Algésiras and Philippe Ogaki (2005-2006).
Comics in the 2010s
Servain was back at comics front as the artist of the esoteric fantasy diptych 'Le Livre de Skell' with Valérie Mangin (Quadrants, 2012-2013), and the fantasy thriller 'Holly Ann' with Kid Toussaint (Casterman, from 2015). He also participated in the artwork of the 13th album in Christophe Bec's science fiction comic 'Prométhee' in 2016.
'Holly Ann'.