Otaku Blue

As a teenager, Richard Marazano was fascinated by the arts, politics and the sciences. He was as intrigued by Robert Oppenheimer as he was by the myth of Prometheus. After much deliberation, Marazano decided to study physics and astrophysics in college, before finally starting out in the comic book world at the prestigious fine arts school in Angouleme. His first album, "Humain trop humain," illustrated by Éric Dérian, was released in 1995 (Le Cycliste). The following year he published the first volume of the series "Zéro absolu" (Soleil), with Christophe Bec. Marazano next joined publishing houses Humanoïdes Associés and Carabas where he published the two-part "Dusk" series (2000-2002), illustrated by Christian De Metter, and "Le Bataillon des lâches," a one-shot solo project. In 2003, with artist Michel Durand, he created the series "Cuervos" (Glénat), recounting the fight against the cartels of Columbia. "Cuervos" met with great critical acclaim and picked up some prestigious prizes, including best comic book adaptable for cinema at the Monaco Literary and Cinema festival in 2006. Marazano also enjoyed great public success with his award-winning science-fiction series "Le complexe du chimanzé" (Dargaud; "Chimpanzee Complex," Cinebook), illustrated by Jean-Michel Ponzio. Since then, Marazano has taken on more and more projects, with a variety of artistic collaborators. With Dargaud in particular Marazano has published a number of series over the last decade, including "Le rêve du papillon" (2010-2014), "S.A.M." (2011-2013; Cinebook in English), "Otaku Blue" (2012-2013), and "Le Protocole Pélican" (2011-2013), in collaboration with his accomplice Jean-Michel Ponzio. Alongside artist Marcelo Frusin, he has also explored antiquity with the ongoing series "L'Expédition" (2012; "Expedition," Europe Comics 2018), and he has joined with Christophe Ferreira for two other adventure series, "Alcyon" (2014-2015) and "Le monde de Milo" (2013-2015, Europe Comics 2016, "Milo's World"). Richard Marazano loves travel tales, and is also interested in Inca, Aztec and Mayan cultures, a diversity of interests manifest across his works.

Malo Kerfriden was born in the Breton town of Redon in western France. His grandfather was the writer Pierre-Jakez Hélias and his father was an editor of the Breton comics fanzine "Frilouz." He studied literature and the plastic arts in Rennes and during this period he contributed to the Rennes-based fanzine "Atchoum" alongside authors like Pascal Bertho, David Chauvel, Jérôme Lereculey, Fred Simon, and Joub. By 1994 he joined a fine arts atelier based in Angoulême where he stayed for three years, while also playing and recording with the band The Lost Minds. He returned to Rennes in 1997, where he started the Twin Peaks atelier with Lionel Chouin and Marc-Antoine Boidin, two of his former Angoulême colleagues. Hervé Boivin and Isabelle Cochet also later joined the studios. He started the "Quarterback" series with writer David Chauvel in 2000, published by Delcourt until 2003. His next project was the fantasy series "KGB" with scriptwriter Valérie Mangin published by Quadrants from 2006 to 2010. Kerfriden later created the first book in the thriller series "Traffic" alongside Alexis Robin for Bamboo in 2009, followed by the horror series "La Rage" with Pierre Boisserie in 2011 for 12bis. In 2012, he and Richard Marazano began work on the two-part thriller "Otaku Blue," for Dargaud (Europe Comics in English).