Franck Bonnet

Franck Bonnet entered the front ranks of French comic art in 1994 after honing his craft in a fanzine from his hometown of Troyes. It was through this publication that he won the Best Amateur Artist Award at the Grenoble International Comics Festival in 1991.His meeting with novelist Didier Van Cauwelaert came through Jacques Pessis, literary director at Dargaud. Their first collaboration was on the feature film Les Amies de ma femme, directed by Van Cauwelaert, followed by the comic series Vanity Benz. In 1997, at the age of 34, Bonnet met Jean-Yves Mitton at a book fair, and the author invited him to illustrate one of his scripts. Their collaboration led to the launch of Attila... mon amour, published by Glénat. With Vell'a, whose first volume appeared in 2004, Bonnet created his most personal work to date, serving as both scriptwriter and artist. "I made comics mainly to tell stories", he confesses. The series spans three volumes. In 2006, Glénat paired him with writer Jean-Claude Bartoll, resulting in the three-volume TNO series for the publisher's Investigation collection. Inspired by his lifelong fascination with early nineteenth-century naval history, Bonnet launched Les Pirates de Barataria in 2009. Written by Marc Bourgne, this realistic maritime saga became a major success. Completed in 2018 after twelve volumes, it is now regarded as one of the finest naval epics in the history of Franco-Belgian comics. In 2020, he began another historically grounded maritime series, USS Constitution, also set in the early nineteenth century. Its third volume received the Prix de la BD – Mémoires de la Mer in 2022. He is currently focusing on his latest project, Ann Bonny: The She-Wolf of the Caribbean, whose second volume was published in 2026. The Daniel Maghen Gallery dedicated solo exhibitions to his artwork in both 2012 and 2024.