INTERVIEW
Who says comics, says superheroes, necessarily says United States. The Batman, Superman, Spider-man and others were born there in the years and, little by little, they became inseparable from the American culture. And it's more than ever the case nowadays with all the superhero movies coming out every year. And yet, there are some foreign authors and cartoonists who have managed to find a place in the world of superheroes. And especially ... a French! His name is Olivier Coipel, and Europe 1 was able to meet him during his stay at Comic Con Paris.
Beginnings at Spielberg
He has just turned 50 but in fact easily 20 less, as if the two decades that Olivier Coipel spent drawing comics in the United States had made him enter into a temporal flaw. A flaw in which non-Anglo-Saxon designers are rare. As for the French, they are counted on the fingers of one hand. Olivier Coipel, he is well installed at Marvel, where he worked, since the mid-2000s, on a package of cult series: the X-Men , Spider-Man or the Avengers , the most famous super groups Hero with Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man ... The cream of the crop of superheroes.
It was not easy to get there. "I did a baccalaureat B ( social and economic sciences, ed ) but it had nothing to do with what I wanted to do, I drew all the time!", He tells Europe 1. In Leaving high school, the young Olivier Coipel does not know what to do. That's where he hears about the Goblin School. He passes the contest and enters the "animation" section. A first beautiful door opened for him: "Amblimation, Steven Spielberg's animated film production company, came to recruit a few students and I was part of the lot and I went to work for them for one year. London".
Working for Spielberg, there is worse as the first job. When Amblimation closes, replaced by a new studio, Dreamworks, Olivier Coipel is offered to follow the teams in Los Angeles. "For sure, I said yes, so I worked on two films: The Prince of Egypt and The Eldorado Road ," he recalls. But Olivier Coipel is not intended for animation. He tried, it does not boot more than that. "My love for drawing, it's linked to comics and comics, not animation," he explains.
Marvel came to get him ... twice
In Los Angeles, Olivier Coipel heard about Comic Con, the largest gathering of superhero fans in San Diego. "I went there several times and saw professionals looking at the portfolios of young artists, I prepared a file, I presented it and two weeks later I had a job at DC Comics", relates -t it. The home of Batman and Superman offers him to draw a minor series, The Legion of Superheroes . Except Superman who makes some appearances, it is about a group composed more of second knives of the DC catalog. "I did not know them so I had no pressure, it was great to start."
Olivier Coipel could have made his career at DC Comics but Marvel drew otherwise. The House of Ideas, saint of saints superheroes, spotted the work of the French. Marvel is Olivier Coipel's dream. And yet, he will refuse the offer. "It was a dream to work for Marvel!" But I was on my small series, I was quiet, it was going really well and I was scared I think ... Afraid that the pace of production at Marvel is too much supported for me, "he remembers. But Marvel returns to the charge and the second is the good: Olivier Coipel joined the flagship publisher of comics, the one who rocked his childhood with his stories.
At a rate of 4-5 pages drawn per week, Olivier Coipel draws on different series, plus some covers here and there. And not least: Avengers and X-Men , among others! But he is only one designer among others on these series very much requested by the artists. But Marvel put on him and made him sign an exclusive contract in 2005.
How he reinvented Thor
The consecration came two years later, when Marvel entrusted him with the drawing of the new Thor series, written by Joseph Michael Straczynski. The stakes are high: it is a question of reviving an obsolete character. "At the time, Thor no longer existed, the weekly series had stopped several years ago, and Joe Quesada, the editorial director at the time, asked me if I was interested. When he told me that I will have carte blanche to redesign the character and his universe, there I said yes direct, "he says. "I wanted to go back to Thor's origins and modernize it at the same time."
Inspired by Nordic mythology and heroic fantasy , Lord of the Rings era, Olivier Coipel will totally modernize Thor, from blond hair to hammer and armor. And his version was so popular with Marvel, that when a Thor movie was started, it was the look that Olivier Coipel had given him. "It was a surprise, it means that my Thor has had a strong impact on readers," he said today. Subsequently, he will even provide visuals for the second film Thor: The World of Darkness , released in 2013.
A recognition of his work and his style. But by the way, what is the "Coipel style"? "I do not know!" Replies the person laughing. "What I know is that people tell me it shows that I'm not American, that there is a European style in my drawings, I guess I bring with me a different culture, I grew up with comics but also with Asterix, manga ... "In fact, there is still a" Coipel style ": very dynamic drawings, with slender characters, fine features. An attention to detail, too, which gives from the first box a strong personality to his heroes.
From the cape of the superheroes to the cape of the magicians
A "french touch" found in his latest comics: The Magic Order (at Panini Comics). Olivier Coipel drew a screenplay by Mark Millar, a very big name in comics. It is to him that one must notably Kingsman , Kick-Ass , or Civil War , three works adapted to the cinema with success. The Magic Order does not talk about superheroes but magicians. "It's The Sopranos Who Meets Harry Potter ", in the words of Mark Millar. The story, in one volume, of the clash between wizards who want to take control of the human world and the other, a secret order that protects them in the shadows.
It's a pretty dark comic but undeniably catchy, with a suspense that does not fade to the end. The characters are strong, the original story. And then there are the drawings of Olivier Coipel, fantastic and very cinematographic. Not a coincidence: The Magic Order is the very first comics published by Netflix. The streaming giant has decided to embark on this sector with a very clear goal: to produce easily adaptable stories in series behind.
"It's different to collaborate with Netlix, DC and Marvel are used to working with artists, they know how to adapt at their own pace, Netflix has tighter timings, there's more pressure. it does not move, we do not move the rendering dates, "compares Olivier Coipel. At 50, the French designer will have seen everything and everything in the world of comics. No wonder he wants to blow a little now. "I have several projects under discussion, superheroes and others, but here I am going to just do some blankets and rest a bit." The mask and cape are in the closet, but not for long.