I was born in 1970 in Strasbourg. I’ve been passionate about comic books – and even more so about American comics – since I was seven, and I started drawing at a very early age so that I could reproduce my favourite characters, but also create my own. Then came my interest in mythology, which allowed me to talk about characters with supernatural powers whilst still coming across as a serious child. I then discovered a passion for Japan whilst reading the comic *Serval*, published in 1984 by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, in which I learnt that my favourite X-Man had lived in Japan, spoke fluent Japanese, and fought ninjas. My interest in medieval Japan was then sparked by the *Kogaratsu* comics by Bosse and Michetz. Then came role-playing games, which took up a large part of my time.

My fascination with Japanese civilisation led me to learn the language, and I obtained my DEUG in Japanese in 1993, before spending a year as an assistant to a Japanese professor, Mr Masahiro Takagi, as part of his research into hydrology in Alsace. Apart from a few evening classes at the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts, I am largely self-taught when it comes to illustration.