DRUILLET, Philippe

(1944-)

   Innovative French artist with an epic imagination and an astringent pen-line style who cofounded with Moebius (Jean GIRAUD) and others the publishing company Les Humanoides Associes and the imaginative graphic-fiction magazine METAL HURLANT in 1975; much of the content of the latter has been published in English in the US magazine HEAVY METAL. Brought up in Spain, PD was a photographer until the publication of his first strip Lone Sloane (graph coll 1967; intro by Maxim JAKUBOWSKI), a bawdy SPACE OPERA influenced by US CINEMA and HEROIC FANTASY. A unique illustrator, often clumsy in his portrayal of the human face, PD has enlarged the graphic structures of the sf COMIC strip and created a wild, flamboyant, morally ambiguous universe of crazed architectures and monstrous ALIENS. The increasingly obsessive Lone Sloane adventures were continued in Les 6 voyages de Lone Sloane ("The Six Journeys of Lone Sloane") (graph coll 1972) and, with script by Jacques Lob, Delirius (graph coll 1973) - together collected in English as Lone Sloane - Delirius (graph omni trans 1975 UK) - followed by Yragael (graph coll 1974 with script by Michel Demuth) and Urm le fou (graph coll 1975) - together collected in English as Yragael - Urm (graph omni trans Pauline Tennant 1976 UK). PD tackled SWORD AND SORCERY in his adaptation of Michael MOORCOCK's Elric of Melnibone with script by Jakubowski and Demuth as Elrick (graph 1973; with script by Moorcock as Elric 1973 UK). La nuit ("The Night") (graph 1977), a sombre panorama of urban warfare, was completed after the traumatic experience of his wife's dying from cancer in 1975. His other works include Vuzz (graph 1974), Retour a Bakaam ("Return to Bakaam") (graph 1975) with script by François Truchaud, Mirages (graph 1976), Salammbo (graph 1983) and Nosferatu (graph coll 1982; trans 1991 US), the last being a collection of black-and-white strips first published in the magazine Pilote. During the mid-1980s PD was commissioned to create the internal decor for the Paris Metro station at Porte de la Villette; he has also produced sculpture and created a children's sf animated tv series, Bleu (52 26min episodes, 1989-current).

   MJ/RT

   See also: FANTASY; ILLUSTRATION.