Joel Alessandra

Somewhere between travelogue and documentary, Joël Alessandra sweeps us up in a whirlwind of colors and emotions, bringing us up close to the people he meets and whose daily lives he shares. His sketchbook-style drawings, blending liveliness and tenderness, capture every nuance of each landscape. Stolen moments gathered at the whim of his brush. 

Like all works of art, your notebooks are sensitive to light, humidity and temperature changes. Protect them from sudden changes in temperature, and avoid exposing them to direct light.

Born in Marseille in 1967 and a graduate of the École Boulle in interior design, Joël Alessandra made his debut in Italy in the magazine Il Grifo. As a writer and illustrator, he has drawn inspiration for his sketchbooks and graphic novels from his travels around the world for over 30 years. His stays in Africa inspired Fikrie (La Boîte à Bulles, 2006), while Errance en mer Rouge (Wandering in the Red Sea, 2014) won an award at the Nîmes Comic Art Festival. He also published Les Voyages d’Ibn Battûta (Dupuis, 2020) and adapted a novel by Michel Bussi into On la trouvait plutôt jolie (Michel Lafon, 2022). As a guest speaker at French Institutes, Alliances Françaises and refugee camps, he blends comic art and journalism in web documentaries, notably for Le Monde. In 2023, he joined Daniel Maghen Publishing with Le Voyageur, in collaboration with Théa Rojzman, followed by Je est un autre in 2025.