Enhance your browsing experience by enabling one of the following accessibility settings: increase contrast, replace fonts, adjust line spacing, or disable animations.
Use this button to switch between light and dark themes, enhancing your viewing experience.
An illustrator for some twenty years, with numerous prestigious collaborations to his credit (“Team Rafale,” “Rafale Leader,” “Tanguy et Laverdure,” etc.), Matthieu Durand agreed to share a few of his trade secrets with us.
– Hello, Matthieu, what led you to become an aviation comic book artist?
It’s (almost) always been my career goal! As a child, I discovered aviation comics like “Tanguy and Laverdure,” “Buck Danny,” “Dan Cooper,” and “Biggles”—it was a revelation: I wanted to draw stories featuring military planes, since I couldn’t fly them myself.
– What are your sources of inspiration?
My first mentor was Francis Bergèse, because I grew up reading his “Buck Danny” comics: I admired—and still do—his precise artwork, which fueled my passion for military aviation. Then I discovered Uderzo’s “Tanguy and Laverdure,” which had a different style that broadened my artistic horizons.
– What are the biggest challenges in depicting combat scenes?
The reader needs to feel immersed in the action, as if they were at the controls. It shouldn’t just be a series of beautiful panels; they must work together to form a cohesive whole across the entire page. For me, it starts—before I even begin drawing—by visualizing the flight paths in my head, using my hands to trace them out just as real pilots do, with scale models and ribbon-style diagrams. Then, when I’m working on the storyboard, I design the page as a whole, so that the layout of the panels and the different camera angles convey all of that as effectively as possible. In *Team Rafale* and *Rafale Leader*, I had more freedom to explore original layouts, with planes flying out of the panels. With the *Tanguy and Laverdure Classic* series, this is more complicated because I have to adhere to the conventions of the 1960s and stick to a very classic “grid” layout.
– Which aircraft and eras inspire you?
I’ve always been passionate about French military aviation, even outside the context of comics. At first, modern aircraft had my full attention, but as soon as I started collecting French flight equipment, my interest shifted to the 1960s and 1970s, with a focus on domestically produced fighter jets. So when I was offered the chance to take the helm as the artist for “Tanguy and Laverdure Classic”—which is set precisely during that period and features French Air Force aircraft—I was absolutely thrilled!
– What role does Dassault Aviation play in your world?
Dassault Aviation plays a very important role for me because of my passion for French military aviation; aside from a few other manufacturers, it’s essentially the official supplier to our national air force. I grew up with the Mirage 2000C—it’s an aircraft I find absolutely magnificent. Then, through “Team Rafale,” I got to know the Rafale inside and out—it’s also a very beautiful aircraft. But today, given my interest in history, while I’m certainly a fan of the Mirage IIIC, E, R 5F, etc. (who isn’t?), I have to admit that I prefer the Mystère series—with a soft spot for the SMB2!
– What are your upcoming projects?
“Tanguy et Laverdure Classic” keeps me busy full-time and fulfills me completely. So I have no other projects in the works besides continuing to bring “vintage” adventures to life for the two most famous French fighter pilots in comics!
Thank you