Guinea Pigs: Volume 0

Born in 1961 in Choisy-le-Roi, just outside of Paris, Tonino Benacquista is an author with many faces: whether writing novels, plays, movie scripts, or comics, he consistently provides rich and surprising fictional worlds, finding the perfect balance between humor and depth. Of Italian origin, Benacquista has now become one of the most well-known and appreciated French authors of his generation, having received a number of prizes, and having the honor of working on such celebrated series as "Lucky Luke," for which he co-wrote two volumes alongside Daniel Pennac. Beyond his extensive work as a film scriptwriter, Benacquista's experience in the field of comics has included collaborations with such artists as Jacques Ferrandez ("L'Outremangeur", Casterman, 1998), Olivier Berlion ("Coeur tam-tam," Dargaud, 2003), Philippe Bertrand ("L'Amour cash," Dargaud, 2008), Loustal ("Les amours insolentes," Casterman, 2010), and Achdé, working together on "Lucky Luke." Their two albums, "Lucky Luke Versus the Pinkertons" and "Lone Riders" (Lucky Comics, Cinebook in English), enjoyed both critical and commercial success. More recently, following a fruitful collaboration with Florence Cestac ("Des salopes et des anges," Dargaud, 2011), Benacquista joined with artist Nicolas Barral to create "Les Cobayes" (Dargaud, 2014; "Guinea Pigs," Europe Comics, 2018). Their collaboration continued in 2017 with "Le Guide mondial des records" (Dargaud; "The World Book of Records," Europe Comics, 2018).

Nicolas Barral studied fine arts in Angouleme under Robert Gigi, alongside other future comics creators such as author Christophe Gibelin. After taking part in a contest for young talents, Barral was noticed by Christophe Delpierre, who invited him to become a contributor to the magazine "Fluide Glacial." It was there that he would meet writer Pierre Veys, and together they would go on to collaborate on "Baker Street" (Delcourt) and "Les aventures de Philip et Francis" (Dargaud), two parody series allowing Barral to explore his humoristic side, developed over many years of absorbing such classics as "Astérix" and "Lucky Luke." In 2008, Barral tried his hand at scriptwriting with the series "Mon pépé est un fantôme" (Dupuis), illustrated by Olivier TaDuc, before being asked to work on the series "Nestor Burma" (Casterman) with legendary author Jacques Tardi. In 2014, Barral joined up with writer Tonino Benacquista for a new project entitled "Les Cobayes" (Dargaud; "Guinea Pigs," Europe Comics 2018), to be followed in 2017 by another graphic novel, "Le Guide mondial des records" (Dargaud; "The World Record Book," Europe Comics 2018).