U4

Born in 1963 in Brussels, Pierre-Paul Renders graduated in classical philology at the Université catholique de Louvain and earned a diploma in directing (Institut des arts de diffusion [IAD], Louvain-la-Neuve). Having left the IAD, he and his five classmates started a production company (AA Belgians Films). They created their first collective feature film, with a very Belgian surrealist style, "Les Sept Péchés Capitaux" (1992), based on which Renders created the short film "La Tendresse." After a brief detour with television and documentaries (mainly for Doctors Without Borders), he directed "Thomas est amoureux" (2001), his first feature film, with a screenplay by Philippe Blasband. A unique piece that's difficult to categorize, the film received awards at film festivals in Venice, Montreal, Angers, Gerardmer, Paris, Espoo (Finland), and Buenos Aires. In collaboration with Denis Lapière he wrote "Comme tout le monde," a script that was simultaneously turned into a romantic comedy (Khalid Maadour, Caroline Dhavernas, Thierry Lhermitte, Chantal Lauby et al., 2006) and a graphic novel (illustrated by Rudy Spiessert and published in 2007 by Dupuis). In 2006, he created the concept for the series "Alter Ego" (Dupuis; Europe Comics, 2015) and presented it to Denis Lapière. In recent years he has been writing and directing workshops for students at the IAD, and he also runs courses for film actors and does the odd bit of script-doctoring. He also writes a comics column for the "Journal du Médecin," a magazine for general practitioners and specialists. He is currently working on the dystopian series "U4" (Dupuis; Europe Comics) with Denis Lapière and Adrián Huelva.

Born in 1958 in Namur, Denis Lapière started his sociology studies after having had a taste of the thrills of auto racing. In the mid-1980s he was one of the founders of the Tropica BD bookstore in Charleroi, which became the meeting point for many artists. Once he started getting some contacts, Lapière started writing scripts, which gradually found their place in the editorial landscape. He started at "Spirou," producing short stories. He then published his first book in 1987: "Mauro Caldi" (Éditions Michel Constant Mirror). In 1990, he started "Charly" with Magda, a fantasy thriller that had "Spirou" readers on the edge of their seats. In the years that followed, Denis wrote scripts for several titles in the Aire Libre collection at Dupuis, aimed toward adult readers. With Jean-Philippe Stassen, he created "Le Bar du Vieux Français," which won numerous awards around the world. For artist Paul Gillon, he wrote "La dernière des salles obscures" about the fate of a film producer during the twentieth century. While continuing his graphic novel collaborations (with Pellejero and Mezzomo in particular), Lapière continued to work on more family-orientated comics like "Ludo" (with Bailly and Mathy), "Oscar" (with Durieux), and the reboot of "Tif et Tondu" (with Sikorski). In the 2000s, Denis Lapière had several experiences as a film screenwriter (with Pierre-Paul Renders). He also tried out an editorial role (launching the collections "Punaise" and "Puceron" at Dupuis). In early 2010 he led two major projects: a collaborative series called "Alter Ego" and the new adventures of "Michel Vaillant" (Dupuis/Europe Comics), which he co-wrote with Philippe Graton. With nearly one hundred albums under his belt, Denis Lapière is one of today's most accomplished writers.