Green Manor, artwork by Denis Bodart
Fabien Vehlmann is one of the most prolific and remarkable present-day French comic scriptwriters, who has worked extensively for Dupuis and its magazine Spirou, and for the publishing house Dargaud. He has incorporated in mildly sarcastic humour in stories in nearly all genres, and has been labelled the "Goscinny of the 21st Century". He was born in Mont de Marsan and raised in Savoie. He has an education in management and spent his first working years with a theatre group.
He participated in a scriptwriting contest held by the magazine Spirou in 1996. He had his breakthrough two years later, when he created the crime comic 'Green Manor' with Denis Bodart. The comic, about a Victorian gentlemen's club, appeared irregularly in the magazine's pages until 2005, and made a comeback in 2011. Vehlmann additionally wrote a large amount of short stories, that were illustrated by artists like Maltaite, Feroumont, Clarke, Deth, etc.
Seuls, artwork by Bruno Gazzotti
He became one of the more vital scriptwriters in the 2000s with the creation of series like 'Wondertown' with Benoît Feroumont (2000-2006) and especially the children's thriller 'Seuls', Vehlmann's tale of a group of children that wake up alone in a large city. This series is drawn by Bruno Gazzotti and has been published in book format by Dupuis since 2006. Prior to 'Seuls', Vehlmann and Gazzotti had cooperated on 'Des lendemains sans nuage' a science fiction book in the Lombard collection Signé.
Vehlmann and artist Yoann were the first to produce an installment in the special author's collection 'Une Aventure de Spirou et Fantasio, par...' in 2006. After 'Les Géants Pétrifiés', the duo was handed control of the main series in 2010, succeeding Munuera and Morvan. Spirou magazine also published Vehlmann's only attempt to draw his own comic, starring 'Bob le Cowboy', the comic strip created by the fictive comic artist Toccard from Zidrou and Bercovici's editorial strip 'Le Boss'.
Bob le Cowboy, artwork by Fabien Vehlmann
He teamed up with the artist's duo Kerascoët to create 'Jolies Ténèbres' for Dupuis in 2009 and 'Voyage en Satanie' for Dargaud in 2011. Vehlmann has also regularly published his work with Dargaud, starting with the humorous children's series 'Samedi et Dimanche' for the collection Poisson Pilote with Gwen between 2001 and 2005. With Frantz Duchazeau, he created the fantasy diptych 'La Nuit de l'Inca' for the same collection (2003-2004), as well as the adventure one-shot 'Les Cinq Conteurs de Bagdad' (2006), and the Georges Méliès biography 'Diable amoureux et autres films jamais tournés par Méliès' (2010). Vehlmann and Duchazeau have also made 'Dieu qui pue Dieu qui pète' for Éditions Milan in 2006.
Le Marquis d'Anaon, artwork by Matthieu Bonhomme
Dargaud also published Vehlmann's historical series about the supernatural 'Le Marquis d'Anaon' that was drawn by Matthieu Bonhomme between 2002 and 2008. Also the series 'Ian', that Vehlmann wrote for Ralph Meyer, was published by Dargaud between 2003 and 2006. Vehlmann wrote the first installment in the World War II saga 'Sept', that was drawn by Sean Phillips and published by Delcourt in 2007. He additionally worked with the Norwegian artist Jason on the one-shot 'L'Île aux cent mille Morts', published by Glénat in 2011.
On 5 September 2014 a mural depicting Spirou being hassled by all his creators was inaugurated in the Rue Notre Dame des Grâces/Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Gratiestraat in Brussels, as part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route. The design was created by Yoann and Vehlmann.
Spirou et Fantasio, arwork by Yoann