Ex-libris signed Berthet : Behind the curtain

BERTHET Philippe

Philippe BERTHET is a French-Belgian comic book author.
He soon went to comic books and first joined the Académie de Saint-Gilles, then the Institut Saint-Luc, where he took Claude Renard’s classes just after his baccalaureate. He began his career with Antonio Cossu, Andreas and Philippe Foerster. In 1978, the friends go round the periodicals but none manage to fit his works there...
It was thanks to Cossu that Berthet managed to start publishing in the journal Spatial. He then landed a publication in Spirou : Couleur Café.
At the beginning of his career, he tried his hand at crime fiction, but also at western or science fiction. The thriller, where her very classy drawing and perfect framing do wonders, just like her fatal women, will become her favorite genre.
He places his stories in the Hollywood of the 1940s and can thus affirm his palette which is not without echoing, at the literary level, to a James Ellroy. It will be The private of Hollywood, The eye of the hunter or The lady, the swan and the shadow that will mark this period.
In the 90s, On the road to Selma, written by Tome, still affirms his talent and the great class of his classic drawing. He then set off again for the western with Chiens de Prairie, where Calamity Jane’s letters to his daughter are used. Here again, Berthet does not choose the facility for a violent and very profound story.
From the 90s, in parallel, Berthet brought out stories of "pin-up". His passion for this version of comics is not new but it is his artistic encounter with Yann that will give birth to Dottie, in Pin-up for Dargaud. Situating the first period during the Second World War, the narrative will later embrace the Cold War, allowing a wide range of visual expression.
He will then come up with the idea of the fatal woman with The Exploits of Poison Ivy, always with Yann, in adventures that look on the side of espionage. He covers the theme with Fred Duval in Nico, for two volumes.
He then participated in XIII Mystery, in Ligne noire (anthology of sexy heroines) before tackling the prequel of Largo Winch for La fortune des Winczlav on a scenario by Jean Van Hamme, always with as much success !

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