Étienne Davodeau

Étienne Davodeau
Étienne Davodeau
Born	October 19, 1965
Occupation	Writer, illustrator
Awards	(2022) ;

Étienne Davodeau (born October 19, 1965), is a French comic book artist and writer.

Life and career

Davodeau was born in Botz-en-Mauges into a working-class family, as he explains in Les Mauvaises Gens, a book that retraces his parents' youth: born in 1942, they began working in local industry at the ages of 13 and 14 ^[1] and became members of the Young Christian Workers, of the French Confederation of Christian Workers then unionists of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour.

After his baccalauréat,^[2] Davodeau studied at the University of Rennes 2 (department of visual arts); he then founded, with other comics enthusiasts, including his future collaborators Joub and Jean-Luc Simon, the studio Psurd.^[3]

He published his first album, L'Homme qui n'aimait pas les arbres, in 1992, in the collection for young authors, "Génération Dargaud.^[3]

In 2011, he published the comic album Les Ignorants (The Initiates), the story of his initiation to the work of winemaking and his exchanges with the winegrower.^[4] In 2016, the cartoonists Fleur Godart and Justine Saint-Lô follow the same approach for their book Pur jus, about natural wines.^[5]

He won two years in a row the France Info Prize for comics journalism:^[6] in 2006 for Les Mauvaises Gens : une histoire de militants, and the following year for Un homme est mort, written with Kris.

In 2013, he was awarded the "Grand Boum-Ville de Blois" prize by the bd BOUM festival, for the whole of his work. That same year, his two-volume comic album Lulu femme nue (Lulu Anew),^[7]^[8] published in 2008 and 2010, received a film adaptation of the same name directed by Sólveig Anspach. In 2015, the film was nominated to a César Award for Best Adaptation in the occasion of the 40th César Awards.

In 2014, he directed with Benoît Collombat a series of reports, pre-published in La Revue Dessinée. The first episode, Mort d'un juge, is about the assassination of Judge François Renaud in 1975. The album Cher pays de notre enfance, published in 2015, is described as an investigation into the leaden years of the Fifth Republic.

Since the late 1990s, Étienne Davodeau lives at Rablay-sur-Layon^[9] (Maine-et-Loire) ; he was elected councilman from 2014^[10] to 2016.

Notes and references

^ His mother: as an industrial worker in a shoe factory, A.M. Biotteau; his father: after an apprenticeship as a mechanic-fitter with a local craftsman, he entered as a maintenance worker in an electronics factory in Saint-Pierre-Montlimart, the Compagnie des Lampes, whose headquarters were in Courbevoie; he then became a teacher in technical education.
^ Études secondaires : cf. Les Mauvaises Gens, p. 168 et 180.
^ ^a ^b "Biographie". etiennedavodeau.com..
^ Dueben, Alex (2013-02-20). "Etienne Davodeau is One of "The Initiates"". CBR. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
^ Alexis Duclos (2016-11-21). "Pur jus, une BD pour faire entendre raisin". Ouest France.
^ "20 ans de Prix France Info: en 2006, "Les Mauvaises Gens" d'Etienne Davodeau". Franceinfo (in French). 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
^ Jean-Claude Loiseau (2017-08-16) [2010-03-22]. "Lulu femme nue - Etienne Davodeau". Télérama.
^ Lehoczky, Etelka (2015-04-04). "'Lulu Anew' Is No Lifetime Movie". NPR. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
^ "Etienne Davodeau sur la liste de Rablay". ouest-france.fr. 2014-02-16. Retrieved 2015-10-28..
^ "Rablay-sur-Layon (49750) - Municipales 2014". elections.ouest-france.fr. Retrieved 28 October 2015..