Dixie Road

Jean Dufaux has always told stories that bring together words and images. Initially attracted by the 7th art, he studied film production at the Institut des Arts et Diffusion in Brussels. But words remained such an important part of his life that he became a journalist, playwright and novelist, before once and for all embracing his true calling as a comic book author. Over his career, Jean Dufaux has produced a massive body of work, comprising some 200 titles and counting. His work is original and fiercely independent of trends, holding more complexity than might be apparent at first glance: "Complainte des landes perdues" (Dargaud, "Lament of the Lost Moors" Cinebook), "Double masque" (Dargaud, "Game of Masks" Europe Comics), "Murena" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), "Rapaces" (Dargaud, "Raptors" Europe Comics), "Djinn" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), "Croisade" (Le Lombard, "Crusade" Cinebook), "Barracuda" (Dargaud, Cinebook in English), "Sortilèges" (Dargaud, "Spellbound" Europe Comics), "Loup de Pluie" (Dargaud, "Rain Wolf" Europe Comics), Dixie Road (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), "Saga Valta" (Le Lombard, Europe Comics in English), "Conquistador" (Glénat)... The list goes on. This immense mosaic that rejects neither the exhilaration of the paperback novel nor the narrative ellipses of cinema aims above all to be a work of pleasure and of enchantment, in the fantastic and occult sense of the term. His wildly successful series, selling millions of copies and garnering numerous prizes and awards, have been published across Europe, Japan, and the United States. Jean Dufaux is president of the jury for the Diagonale Prize, awarded annually in Belgium to outstanding comic book artists, and in France Jean Dufaux was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2009.

Hugues Labiano was born in Bayonne in 1963, but has always been somewhat fascinated by all things American. Yet it is actually through Spain that he began his career with "Matador" (Glénat, 1992), a series written by Gani Jakupi. He then returned to his true passion when he created "Dixie Road" (Dargaud, 1997, Europe Comics, 2017) with Jean Dufaux, and "Mister George" (Lombard, 2003), with Rodolphe and Serge Le Tendre. It is difficult to pin him down to one genre. Even though his illustrations lean towards a certain realism, he aims to distort them slightly in order to better accentuate the emotion of a face or try out unusual framing. After ten years of drawing the United States of yesterday and today, Labiano decided on a change of scenery. It didn't take long. In 2005 Stephen Desberg asked him to explore the best of both worlds through "Black Op" (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English), a series focusing on CIA agents, whose work takes them from India to Afghanistan via Russia. The adventure came to a close in 2010 with the publication of the sixth volume, but it resumed with a second cycle in 2014. In 2012, Labiano went solo and created two episodes of "Quatre coins du monde" (Dargaud). A few years after that, he had the honor of taking over for Enrico Marini on the series "Etoile du désert" (Dargaud; "Desert Star," Europe Comics), illustrating volumes three and four of the series. Most recently, he has illustrated "Le Lion de Judah" (Dargaud; "The Lion of Judah," Europe Comics), teaming up again with Stephen Desberg.