Antoine Aubin

With an extremely precise, meticulous and elegant style, deeply influenced by the legacy of Edgar P. Jacobs, Antoine Aubin’s artwork favors the ligne claire (clear line) style, rigorous backgrounds and great attention to documentary detail.

Noted in particular for his work on the iconic Blake and Mortimer series, Antoine Aubin is undoubtedly one of the series’ finest comic artists. This is no exaggeration, given the results achieved at auction in 2022: the three pieces offered—the cover of Eight Hours in Berlin (Eight Hours in Berlin, €20,800), page 15 from the same album (€6,500), and a preparatory sketch (€12,350)—all doubled their estimates. This success was repeated during his exhibition at the Daniel Maghen Gallery, where approximately one hundred pieces were sold. 

Pencils, graphite and colored pencils are long-lasting. Pieces in wax crayon, black lead or charcoal require special care to avoid rubbing. However, never expose them to direct light. Like all materials, the paper used for these works is susceptible to change when exposed to UV light.
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.

Born in 1967, Antoine Aubin – whose real name is Aubin Frechon – is one of the iconic artists of the Blake and Mortimer series. Spotted by the publisher Dargaud, he was commissioned in 2010 to illustrate the second volume of La Malédiction des trente deniers (The Curse of the Thirty Pieces of Silver), based on a script by Jean Van Hamme. His precision and his style, closely reminiscent of E. P. Jacobs, struck a chord: as early as 2013, he was commissioned to illustrate L’Onde Septimus (The Septimus Wave), based on a script by Jean Dufaux, followed in 2022 by Huit heures à Berlin (Eight Hours in Berlin), written by Jean-Luc Fromental and José-Louis Bocquet. This third Blake and Mortimer volume required seven years of tireless work: each page is accompanied by a multitude of pencil sketches and a preparatory version so detailed that it mirrors the final version of the page, save for a few minor details. Executed as a variation drawn in graphite and colored pencils, these layouts comprise backgrounds, characters, speech bubbles, text and more. A true work of artistry. Complete biography.