Bernard Hislaire

Bernard Hislaire, alias Yslaire, was born in 1957 in Brussels, Belgium. Passionate about comics since he was very young, he produced his first drawings in fanzines, and studied at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels. At the age of 18, he joined Spirou magazine, where he published a story, then soon began a 16-page weekly story, "Le Troisième Laron." In 1978, he created new characters for Spirou magazine, Bidouille et Violette, all the while publishing cartoons in La Libre Belgique and Le Trombone Illustré. In 1986, after having met scriptwriter Balac, he created the best-selling series "Sambre" (Glénat), a 19th-century saga about an impossible love story between Bernard Sambre, a rich young man, and Julie, a farmer girl, during the 1848 revolution in France. In 1997, he surprised his fans with the release of "Mémoires du XXe ciel: 98," later renamed "XXe ciel.com: Mémoires98." In 2001, the sequel, "Mémoires99" was released. "XXe ciel.com" has as its central theme the existence of angels. Hislaire has also written scripts for other artists, both under his own name and as Yslaire ("Trois vierges" for Boccar, "Le Gang Mazda" for Darasse). In 2021, he published "Mademoiselle Baudelaire," a graphic novel about the stormy love affair between the celebrated poète maudit and his long-term mistress.