Mayam: The Terran Delegation

Stephen Desberg was born in Brussels in 1954 and started out as a comic book author in 1976, writing short stories for Tintin magazine (Le Lombard). A follower of Maurice Tillieux, the creator of "Gil Jourdan," in 1980 Desberg began working for the weekly Spirou magazine (Dupuis), taking over the "Tif and Tondu" adventure series, illustrated by Will. He then successively created the characters 421, Billy the Cat, Mic Mac Adam and Jimmy Tousseul, before gradually moving to a more adult readership, publishing two albums in the Aire Libre collection by Dupuis, alongside Will: "Le Jardin des désirs" (1989) and "La Vingt-Septième Lettre" (1990). An original and versatile writer, Desberg goes from one genre to another with ease and inventiveness. In 1996 he tackled the topic of racism with illustrator Bernard Vrancken in "Le sang noir," a romantic saga in four albums published by Le Lombard. As an American citizen, Desberg has also explored many themes linked with his other home country, as evidenced by the long-running financial thriller "IR$" with Le Lombard, also illustrated by Vrancken. America serves as a backdrop in his other albums as well, such as "L'étoile du désert" (1996, Dargaud, 2016 Europe Comics, "Desert Star"), a twilight western created with Enrico Marini. Desberg is also passionate about religious themes, having collaborated with Enrico Marini on riddles of Christian origins in "The Scorpion" (2000-2014, Dargaud, Cinebook in English), a saga bursting with flamboyant heroes with capes and swords in eighteenth-century Rome. A writer as prolific as any out there, Desberg has authored many other series over the years, including "Cassio" (2007; Europe Comics in English 2018), "Miss October" (2012; Europe Comics in English 2018), "Sherman" (2011; Europe Comics in English), and "Golden Dogs" (2014; Europe Comics in English 2016), all with Le Lombard. Along the way, he also continued work on the saga "Black Op" (2005 Dargaud, 2015 Europe Comics), a series illustrated by his friend Hugues Labiano. His recent work includes the espionage series "Jack Wolfgang" (2017, Le Lombard, Europe Comics in English), together with Henri Reculé, centered on a whip-smart wolf who is both world-famous food critic, and secret agent for the CIA.

Born in 1963 in Geneva, Daniel Koller has never pursued a university degree or any particular formal training. He is completely self-taught in terms of drawing. Passionate about comics since childhood, he started working part-time retail jobs at the end of his high school studies, so as to earn a living while developing his drawing technique. At 20, he published for the first time in the magazine "(À suivre)," under the name Bader K. He would go on to publish with the magazine several times over the coming years, using his real name. Two of his short stories, published shortly before the disappearance of the magazine, introduced the character Luc Lafontaine, who would later become the hero of Koller's one-shot, "Les tribulations de Luc Lafontaine" (Casterman, 2000). At that point, his career really began to take off: he started working on the "Mayam" series (Dargaud, Europe Comics in English) alongside scriptwriter Stephen Desberg, and he also contributed to the series "Empire USA," once more together with Desberg. More recently, Koller collaborated with Desberg on a new series for Lombard: "I.R.$. All Watcher," inaugurated in 2010.