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Description
A Year in Comics - May 5th

The Arab of the Future

Riad Sattouf(رياض سطوف) was born on May 5th 1978 in Paris, France, as the son of a Syrian father and a French mother. At the age of two, his father moved the family to Libya, and afterwards Syria, where Riad spent his childhood. After returning to France, he spent his teenage years in Brittany, where he studied in France, hoping to achieve his dreams of becoming a pilot.

Fate would have it differently: through his grandmother, Riad got to know cartoon books and periodicals, which eventually led to him studying animation. His talent was noticed, and in 2000, his first book, based on a script by Éric Corbeyran, was published.

Originally illustrating others' work, Riad Sattouf's first solo work was Manuel du puceau (A virgin's manual), which was based on observations from Sattouf's own adolescence. This was followed by Ma circoncision (My circumcision), in which he gave his personal account on (and reservations against) the ritual, set against the socio-political life in his ancestral Syria of the early 1980s.

Continuing with the theme of (semi-)autobiographical work, Sattouf published the Les Pauvres Aventures de Jérémie series, about a young sentimental and unstable youth growing into adulthood; Jérémie later re-appeared in Sattouf's No Sex in New York. His real-life stories from adolescence also inspired La vie secrète des jeunes, a weekly strip which was published in the French weekly Charlie Hebdo from 2004 to 2014. This was followed by Les cahiers d'Esther (Esther's notebooks), published in Le Nouvel Obs.

Inspired by the civil war in Syria, Sattouf started publishing L'Arabe du futur (The Arab of the Future), in which he recounts growing up in the Libya and Syria of the early 1980s.

Other than comics, Riad Sattouf is also known for his work in films. After dubbing a character in a cartoon designed by one of his friends, he wrote an directed the succesful 2009 film Les Beaux Gosses (The French Kissers), which was nominated for three César Awards in 2010, and won a number of prizes. Other than writing and directing the 2014 comedy Jacky au royaume des filles (Jacky in the Kingdom of Women), Sattouf has also acted in a number of films.

For his work, Sattouf was made a Knight in the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2016.

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163th entry of ?

<- Back to May 4th ----- other May 5th entry
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Description
A Year in Comics - May 5th

The Arab of the Future

Riad Sattouf(رياض سطوف) was born on May 5th 1978 in Paris, France, as the son of a Syrian father and a French mother. At the age of two, his father moved the family to Libya, and afterwards Syria, where Riad spent his childhood. After returning to France, he spent his teenage years in Brittany, where he studied in France, hoping to achieve his dreams of becoming a pilot.

Fate would have it differently: through his grandmother, Riad got to know cartoon books and periodicals, which eventually led to him studying animation. His talent was noticed, and in 2000, his first book, based on a script by Éric Corbeyran, was published.

Originally illustrating others' work, Riad Sattouf's first solo work was Manuel du puceau (A virgin's manual), which was based on observations from Sattouf's own adolescence. This was followed by Ma circoncision (My circumcision), in which he gave his personal account on (and reservations against) the ritual, set against the socio-political life in his ancestral Syria of the early 1980s.

Continuing with the theme of (semi-)autobiographical work, Sattouf published the Les Pauvres Aventures de Jérémie series, about a young sentimental and unstable youth growing into adulthood; Jérémie later re-appeared in Sattouf's No Sex in New York. His real-life stories from adolescence also inspired La vie secrète des jeunes, a weekly strip which was published in the French weekly Charlie Hebdo from 2004 to 2014. This was followed by Les cahiers d'Esther (Esther's notebooks), published in Le Nouvel Obs.

Inspired by the civil war in Syria, Sattouf started publishing L'Arabe du futur (The Arab of the Future), in which he recounts growing up in the Libya and Syria of the early 1980s.

Other than comics, Riad Sattouf is also known for his work in films. After dubbing a character in a cartoon designed by one of his friends, he wrote an directed the succesful 2009 film Les Beaux Gosses (The French Kissers), which was nominated for three César Awards in 2010, and won a number of prizes. Other than writing and directing the 2014 comedy Jacky au royaume des filles (Jacky in the Kingdom of Women), Sattouf has also acted in a number of films.

For his work, Sattouf was made a Knight in the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2016.

----------

163th entry of ?

<- Back to May 4th ----- other May 5th entry
----- Forward to May 6th ->