Joann Sfar

• Born 1971-08-28

Joann Sfar is a French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director. Sfar is considered one of the most important artists of the new wave of Franco-Belgian comics. Many of his comics were published by L'Association. The Donjon series, which he created with Trondheim, has a cult following in many countries. Some of his comics are inspired by his Jewish heritage. He himself says that there is Ashkenazi humor in his Professeur Bell series, whereas Le chat du rabbin is clearly inspired by his Sephardic side. Les olives noires is a series about a Jewish child living in Israel at the time of Jesus. Like Le chat du rabbin, the series contains a lot of historical and theological information. From 2009 to 2010, Sfar wrote and directed Gainsbourg: Vie Héroïque, a biopic of the illustrious French songwriter and singer, of whom Sfar is a self-confessed fanatic. After his directorial debut, Sfar teamed up with Antoine Delesvaux to adapt several parts of his comic series Le Chat du rabbin into an animated feature film. In 2015, Sfar's film La Dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil was released, based on the novel of the same name by Sébastien Japrisot. His debut novel L'Éternel was published in 2013, followed by the novel Le Plus Grand Philosophe de France in 2014.