Maël

Maël’s artistic style is easily recognizable, blending realism and elegance, precision and lightness. With a straightforward approach to his technique—pencil sketches, inking with India ink, and watercolor, sometimes enhanced with colored inks—he handles the panel layout for each page himself, resulting in a striking final layout. 

To preserve your works on paper, we recommend that you never expose them to direct light, as UV rays can damage the mediums used. Paintings made with pastel or charcoal require special care to avoid rubbing. Works containing watercolor are particularly sensitive to light, unlike gouache and acrylic.
We advise you to display them away from windows, and to use frames made from pH-neutral conservation materials and “Museum” glass with anti-UV and anti-reflective treatment. If you prefer to keep your works unframed, we recommend storing them flat, in drawing cartons, with sheets of pH-neutral permanent paper in between. Keep them away from light and humidity.

After studying applied arts, Maël—known as Martin Leclerc—turned to comic art and made a name for himself with the release of his debut album, the first volume of the four-part series Notre Mère la guerre (Our Mother, the War) in 2009, created with writer Kris and published by Futuropolis. In 2013, he published Revenants (The Ghosts), also with Futuropolis, in collaboration with Olivier Morel. A year later, he created Entre les lignes (Between the Lines) for Editions Daniel Maghen, his first album as both scriptwriter and comic artist. Prior to these works, he illustrated Tamino (2004–2005, Glénat), the documentary album Dans la Colonie Pénitentiaire, based on Kafka (2007, Delcourt), L’Encre du passé (The Ink of the Past), with a script by Antoine Bauza (2009, published by Dupuis/Aire Libre), and the two-volume series Les Rêves de Milton (Milton's Dreams), based on a story by Sylvain Ricard and Frédéric Féjard (2005–2006, published by Dupuis/Aire Libre), and has contributed to numerous anthologies. He is currently working on an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel Nostromo, the first volume of which was released in 2025.  Complete biography.