August 2, 2018 This website is no longer updated.
To find out current news about Frédéric Boilet, please check out the links below :

- His new official website (in French and in English)

- His professional Facebook page (in French and in English)




Updated on May 5, 2010
- Frédéric Boilet was born on 16th January 1960 at Épinal, which lies on the Moselle river in eastern France.

- In 1978, he entered the art school l'École nationale des Beaux-Arts in Nancy from which he graduated in 1983. At the same time, he completed his first book of BD (BD = Bande Dessinée = French graphic novel) la Nuit des Archées The book was a collaboration with Guy Deffeyes and was published by Bayard-Presse.

- In 1987, after the collaboration work with René Durand for les Veines de l'Occident (Vol. 1 & 2, published by Glénat), he completed le Rayon vert (The Green Ray, published by Magic-Strip, republished in 2009 by Les Impressions Nouvelles), his first complete original graphic novel, in which he himself was responsible for both text and illustration.

- In 1989 & 1990, he taught scenario in the BD course at the art school l'École des Beaux-Arts in Angoulême. While producing his own works, he organized and supervised the collection bookwork of students les Enfants de Nil (published by Guy Delcourt). In January 1990, he finished the graphic novel 36 15 Alexia, published by Les Humanoïdes Associés (republished in January 2004 by Ego comme X).

 
- Following on from this, he started collaborating on a series of works with scriptwriter Benoît Peeters, an investigative report mixed with fiction, which focused on contemporary Asia.

- In 1990, after being sponsored for a grant offered from the Centre National des Lettres in France and Shoei Kako Co., Ltd. in Japan, he visited Japan for his first time, and completed Love Hotel, published by Casterman in 1993 (republished in December 2005 by Ego comme X). Love Hotel was nominated for the Best Album Alph-art Award (Prix Alph-art du meilleur album) in Angoulême International Comic Festival in 1994.

- In 1993, he became the first author to receive the Morning Manga Fellowship from Kôdansha, and stayed in Tôkyô for one year.

- In 1994, he received a grant from the French Foreign Minister and was offered to stay at the Villa Kujôyama in Kyôto for 6 months. There, in collaboration with Benoît Peeters and Japanese manga artist Jirô Taniguchi, he started making the sketches for Tôkyô est mon jardin (Tokyo Is My Garden), published by Casterman in January 1997 (republished in 2003).

- In 1995, he created the L'Atelier des Vosges at Place des Vosges in Paris, with his friends David B, Christophe Blain, Marc Boutavant, Émile Bravo, Emmanuel Guibert, Hélène Micoud, Joann Sfar, Fabrice Tarrin et Tronchet.

- In 1996, in a collaboration with Benoît Peeters and Emmanuel Guibert, he completed Demi-tour (U Turn), published in February 1997 by Dupuis in the collection Aire Libre (republished in 2010).

- On 24th October 1996, in Paris, he married a Japanese woman Kaoru Sekizumi, who was the model and muse for Kimie in Tôkyô est mon jardin.

- At the end of 1996, he went to Phnom Penh for 2 months, where he made the preparatory sketches for the BD le Royaume des Possibles.

- In May 1997, he moved to Tôkyô. In December, he presented his first graphic novel in Japanese, Ren'ai manga ga dekiru made (Une belle manga d'amour) in the 1st issue of the art magazine Store published by Kôrinsha Press (100,000 copies).
For the same editor, he translated and arranged in Japanese the BD Tokyo Is My Garden (Tôkyô wa boku no niwa), which was published in May 1998.

- From May 1998 to April 1999, whilst producing the graphic novel Yukiko no Hôrensô (l'Épinard de Yukiko / Yukiko's Spinach), he contributed a regular article with the illustration and texts Boilet no Me (Prisonnier des Japonaises / Prisoner Of The Japanese Women) in the biweekly magazine Big Comic, published by Shôgakukan (900,000 copies).

- In December 1998, he completed a short manga titled Mariko no Seizadako (les Ampoules de Mariko / Mariko's Blisters) in the art magazine BT (Bijutsu Techô), published by Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha.

- From January to June 1999, he contributed to a weekly series with the illustration and text titled Imayôseitaizukan (l'Encyclopédie illustrée de la Jeunesse / The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Youth), in the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun (Kantô district edition, 4 million copies).

- In July 1999, he published Nihon Wa Subarashii (les Petites Vestes de Boilet) in Big Comic Extra (500,000 copies).
In August, he completed his second comic book in Japanese Ren'ai manga ga dekiru made (Une belle manga d'amour et autres récits édifiants). The collection book was published by Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha, and contained : Ren'ai manga ga dekiru made (Une belle manga d'amour), Mariko's Blisters, Road To My Wife, Nipponjoseizukan (The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japanese Women), and Demi-tour translated, arranged version in Japanese.

- In the end of 1999, he jointed up with the alternative manga artists Yôji Fukuyama, Yamada Naito, Shintarô Kago, Usamaru Furuya, Suna and Naoki Yamamoto, they all worked together in the quaterly magazine Manga Erotics (Ohta Publishing Company). There, he presented Murasaki to tomo ni sarinu (Autant en emportent les foufounes violettes) Vol.3 - October 1999 and Hotondo Silent (Histoire *presque* sans paroles) Vol.4 - January 2000.
In France, in November 1999, he participated in the comic anthology Comix 2000 (published by l'Association), where he presented a short BD titled la Cérémonie du sourire (Ceremony of the Smile).

- In January 2000, after staying a few weeks in Bangkok, he presented 2049 nen 6 gatsu, Eirin 100 shûnen ! (June 2049, Eirin reaches 100 years old !) in the daily newspaper Mainichi Shimbun (5 million copies). He also completed the book cover and 12 illustrations for the collection of short stories Jûnikyû Jûnigensô (les Douze Chimères du Zodiaque / The Twelve Chimera of the Zodiac), published by Enix Corporation.

- In April 2000, he started to publish the graphic novel Yukiko no Hôrensô (l'Épinard de Yukiko / Yukiko's Spinach) in the monthly magazine Furansugo Kaiwa (140,000 copies) published by NHK, the national Japanese channel. In the same month, he completed Chô, Gachô, Hokuro (Oies blanches et Grains de beauté) in the 5th volume of Manga Erotics (Ohta Publishing Company).

- In June and August 2000, he travelled around the world (Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Paris, Brussels, Louisiana, New York, Mauritius, Antananarivo) to complete a series of short video reportages for the exposition Tu parles?! le français dans tous ses états (Brussels, Lyon, Dakar) and for the TV5 channel (French world-wide program).

- In continuing the publication of Yukiko no Hôrensô, he completed Tsuru Tsuru in Manga Erotics (Vol.6, November 2000 ; republished in France in Ego comme X nº 8, January 2002), Ayutthaya Reggae in Manga Erotic F (Vol.1, February 2001) and Chiku Chiku in Manga Erotic F (Vol.5, June 2001).

- In April 2001, in collaboration with Kaoru Sekizumi, he translated into Japanese la Frontière invisible (The Invisible Frontier), the latest album of The Cities Of The Fantastic, the famous series by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, in the magazine Error (Bijutsu Shuppan-sha). In the same magazine, he also translated le Dessin by Marc-Antoine Mathieu and le Vampire du Louvre by Joann Sfar.

- In August 2001, he completed the graphic novel Yukiko no Hôrensô (l'Épinard de Yukiko / Yukiko's Spinach), published at the same time by Ego comme X in France and Ohta Publishing Company in Japan. The book also appeared in Spanish, German (Ponent Mon) and English editions (Fanfare / Ponent Mon) in 2003, then in italian (Coconino Press, 2004), complex Chinese (Dala Publishing, 2005), Portuguese (Conrad Editora, 2005) and Polish editions (Kultura Gniewu, 2007).

- In October 2001, with Issei Miki's help, he organized the 2-week exhibition Nouvelle Manga Event (art-Link Ueno-Yanaka 2001) in old areas of Tôkyô. He presented in the same months Ero manga ga dekiru made in Manga Erotics F Vol.9 (republished in France in Bang ! nº 1, January 2003).

- In the beginning of 2002, he conceived and ran with Masanao Amano the magazine Manga Fever, a special edition of Error sponsored by Adidas Japan, which was published in May 2002 in Japan (Asukashinsha) and June 2002 in France (Tonkam).

- From April to July 2002, he translated and arranged the first issue of Harukana Machi e (Quartier lointain, Tome 1 / A Distant Neighborhood, Vol. 1), a manga by Jirô Taniguchi, published by Casterman in September 2002.

- In January 2003, he completed Mariko Parade, in collaboration with the young manga artist Kan Takahama. Published in Japan by Ohta Shuppan, this book also appeared in France in September 2003 from Casterman, then in Spain (Ponent Mon), UK and USA (Fanfare / Ponent Mon) in March 2004.

- From September 2002 to September 2003, he worked on two translation projects to appear in France, the second issue of Harukana Machi e, Vol. 2 (Quartier lointain, Tome 2 / A Distant Neighborhood, Vol. 2), by Jirô Taniguchi (Casterman, May 2003), and Munô no Hito (l'Homme sans talent / Nowhere Man), a manga by Yoshiharu Tsuge (Ego comme X, January 2004).

- In April 2003, he started Kaigai Media Fukayomi (The World Seen from Japan), a contribution to a weekly series of illustrations in the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun (morning edition, 8 million copies).

- From July 2003 to March 2004, in collaboration with Marie-Françoise Monthiers, he translated and arranged Keyaki no ki (l'Orme du Caucase / The Caucasian Elm), by Ryûichirô Utsumi and Jirô Taniguchi, to be released in France by Casterman in June 2004.

- In December 2003, he completed the short BD Neri 2004 in B.A.M. Hors-Série nº 9, a 2004 special comic issue of the French art magazine Beaux-Arts.

- From 2004 to 2008, he has been running Sakka, a new 'manga d'auteur' series published in France by Casterman. The first volumes were published in autumn 2004. Among Kazuichi Hanawa, Kan Takahama, Jirô Taniguchi or Hideji Oda, who have already been published in France, the series features some of the best Japanese cartoonists such as Kiriko Nananan, Kyôko Okazaki, Fumiko Takano, Iou Kuroda, Usamaru Furuya or Daisuke Igarashi for the very first time in Occident.

- In 2005, within the Nouvelle Manga international series, he directed with Masanao Amano A Patch of Dreams by Hideji Oda and the anthology Japan. The books were published in 2005 and 2006 simultaneaously in 6 languages : French (Casterman), Japanese (Asukashinsha), Spanish (Ponent Mon), Dutch (Casterman), English (Fanfare/Ponent Mon) and Italian (Coconino Press). Japan features his own short story, Love Alley.

- On 16th January 2006 (his 46th birthday), he completed l'Apprenti Japonais, published in France by Les Impressions Nouvelles. The book gathers together 12 years of texts, drawings and photographs about his time in Japan.

- In December 2008, Frédéric Boilet resigned from his editorial activities for Casterman. Now back in France, he lives discreetly in the Vosges region in eastern France, with his girlfriend Aurélia Aurita...

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