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Jean-Marie Arnon was born in Argentat, a small town in the South-West of France (Corrèze).
Eversince he was young, he’s been fascinated and totally absorbed by comic book reading. This devouring passion made him a remarkable case of dunce at school as well as an outlaw, because, as a kid, he didn’t hesitate to steal money from his mother’s purse to buy the latest issues of The Silver Surfer or The Fantastic Four !
As a teenager, he became a casuality of Rock’n’Roll, hormones and psychedelic drugs and had to exile in Xaintrie’s deep forests, where he started working as a full-time lumberjack.
Five years later, he came out of the woods as a promising comic book artist, publishing his first stories in the Zoulou monthly. He also illustrated for Science et Vie Junior, Actuel, Surf, while working as a scene-shifter in several theatres around Paris.


L'odeur des fillesIn 1989, he was contacted by Doug Headline and Jacques Colin, the newly-formed Zenda Publishing’s founders. There, he produced the seminal “L’odeur des Filles”, his first graphic novel for the lunatic prehistoric saga Dinosaur Bop. Then came the barren “La caverne des cœurs brisés”, the apocalyptic “Néanderthal Bikini” and the ice-age “Shaman Blues”. The first two books were published in the USA by Monsters Comix. When Zenda went bankrupt, Arnon was hard at work on a fifth volume, “Notre-Dame de la Taïga”, still unpublished to this day.


Les furiesThen, he went to L’Écho des Savanes, where he was to work for the next ten years, under Hervé Desinge’s editorship, but not really having the space he needed.
In 1996, at Albin Michel - L’Écho des Savanes, he produced “Les Furies”, an adventure series (inspired by Doug Headline), about two agressive and sensual female pirates. Then “Cœurs de Silex” came out, a sequel to his Dinosaur Bop series, also starring the touchy prehistoric lovers, Wanda Statik and Eddie Bochrane.
Then came “L’Invasion”, a sci-fi contemporary adventure in a Techno-eXtatic mood, followed by a black & white compilation of his Zenda books, entitled “Wanda et les dinosaures”. Next, Arnon created his modern-day sorcery strip (starring Alice Darc, a clumsy but sexy apprentice in witchcraft), in a courageous yet somewhat useless attempt to renew the Fantasy genre, plagued by the prevalent and self-satisfied Heroic-Fantasy style.
Two graphic novels came out : “Je suis une Sorcière tome 1” and “Le mystère de l’homme-chien”. The following 80+ pages, “much better and incisive”, according to Arnon, were prepublished in “L’Écho des Savanes” and are still to be released as a book.


EXOBIOLOGIEIn the meantime and since the early 90s, Arnon has collaborated with the underground activists of Organic Comix and contributed to their Reptile magazine. Some short-stories have since been collected in the Exobiologie anthology, but Space Baby, Arnon’s sci-fi strip (44 pages so far) is yet to be published.
In 2007, aided by Writer Jean Depelley, he produced Mégasauria, a prehistorico-futuristic saga, with Biblical overtones, published in the pages of the new Strange magazine by Organic Comix.
For the last few years, Arnon has dedicated his spare time to wood carving, which according to him is the proper balance between his former job as a woodcutter and the delicate art of illustration. His influences are widespread, going from Tiki culture to Romanesque sculptures, and also including Native American Totem Art from the North-West Coast.


totemFor Arnon, sculpting is an alibi to smash wood pieces, while listening to The Cramps or The White Stripes, and the proper opportunity to model feminine forms in 3D, giving him an alternative to his comic book work.
Totems”, also co-written by Jean Depelley (Mégalithes éditions, 2005), features some of his sculptures and colorful paintings done in the Primitive Art tradition. Arnon’s work is regularly displayed in Art exhibitions. They will be announced on this website, so stay tuned !


Monsieur Vide