'The Shadow and the Mysterious #3'.
Stanislas Manoukian and Vincent Roucher are two French comic authors, who publish under the collective pseudonym Stan & Vince. Their best-known series is the science fiction saga 'Vortex' (1993-2003). In the mid-1990s, they worked for Dark Horse Comics. The duo made several science fiction one-shot comics with comedian Benoît Deléphine. Scripted by Zep, they made the children's comic 'Les Chronokids' (2008-2014), while with Lewis Trondheim as writer, they made the series 'Density' (2017-2021).
Early life and career
Both artists were born in Paris in 1969; Vince in August and Stan in October. They enrolled at the Estienne art school in 1985, where they quickly joined forces. The duo started working together after their graduation in 1988, doing designs for the press, concept and character design for animation projects and animated films. Among their creations were the designs for the characters and backgrounds of the puppet series 'Les Bestioles' on France 3.
Vortex - 'Campbell, Voyageur du Temps', drawn by Stan (1993).
Early comics
In 1992, Stan published the fantasy comic book 'Parasite', while Vince released 'Eden'. Both solo releases were published by Zenda.
Vortex
In 1993, Stan & Vince released their first comic book collaboration: 'Vortex' (Delcourt). For a full decade, they released nine albums of the science fiction series. The main characters, Campbell and Tess Wood, are time travellers who fight Nazis. Each story is presented in an unusual way, once from the perspective of Campbell (drawn by Stan) and once from Tess's point of view. The series also paid tribute to U.S. comic books and pulp crime stories of the 1930s and 1940s, giving 'Vortex', despite its SF categorisation, a film noir atmosphere.
Vortex - 'Tess Wood, Prisonnière du Futur', drawn by Vince (1993). Dutch-language version.
Other 1990s comics
Stan and Vince's passion for American pop culture was also evident in their parody comic album 'Putain de Télé!' (Albin Michel, 1995). It is filled with numerous parodies of popular TV shows. Working from their Parisian studio, Stan and Vince contributed stories to magazines like L'Echo des Savanes, Spirou and Fluide Glacial, while continuing to work on commercial projects.
Dark Horse Comics
In 1994, Stan & Vince's work was noticed by Dark Horse Comics in the United States, who assigned them to draw 'The Shadow and the Mysterious 3' (1994), a graphic novel starring the 1930s pulp novel hero, written by Mike Kaluta and Joel Goss. This was followed by the crossover 'The Shadow and Doc Savage' (two issues, 1995) with Steve Vance, and a run on 'Tarzan' with Lovern Kindzierski in 1996. They also provided artwork for 'The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine' (based on Dave Stevens' classic comic book hero) and covers for 'Star Wars' and 'Ghost'.
'Les Chronokids' (2008).
Work in the 2000s
Their work in France continued with a couple of collaborations with French comedian and film director Benoît Deléphine, such as the science fiction comics 'L'Imploseur' (Albin Michel, 2000), 'La Bombe' (Albin Michel, 2001) and 'Godkiller' (Albin Michel, 2005). Stan and Vince teamed up with Swiss comics legend Zep for the creation of 'Les Chronokids' (Glénat, 2008-2014), a children's comic about two time-travelling kids.
'Now Future' (2016).
Work in the 2010s and 2020s
Stan and Vince have additionally participated with the series 'L'Atelier Mastodonte', a collective comic series about a fictional comics atelier (Dupuis, 2013-2014). They returned to science fiction for 'Metalfer' (Dargaud, 2013) and 'Now Future' (Glénat, 2016), the latter being another collaboration with Benoît Deléphine. Stan's solo book 'Diary of Inhuman Species' (Ankama, 2009) presents a travel log of the author's supposed alien abduction, while Vince's solo work include a contribution to the erotic anthology 'Premières Fois' (Delcourt, 2008) and the erotic comic 'Esmera' with Zep (Glénat, 2015). With Lewis Trondheim as scriptwriter, they also made 'Density' (2017-2021).
Recognition
In 2011, Stan and Vince were honored with the 'Prix Jeunesse' ('Juvenile Award') at the Festival of Angoulême. They received the award for the third volume of 'Chronokids', made with Zep.
Books about Stan & Vince
For those interested in Stan & Vince's work, the book 'Time Capsule' (Delcourt, 2006) offers insight in their inspirations and behind-the-scenes work. It was published with a foreword by Lewis Trondheim.
'Esmera', by Vince.