The Belgian Comic Strip Center - Museum Brussels

For a long time, young French-speaking and Dutch speaking Europeans discovered History through their favourite comics, Tintin and Spirou. This was before the television era. In those days, the Belles Histoires de l’Oncle Paul and full, 4-page stories described a moment in time, in current events or yesteryear. Alongside those complete stories, wonderful authors like Sirius, Eddy Paape, Liliane and Fred Funcken chose to share their passion for History in historical series that were schoolyard favourites. The intriguing plots, considerable documentary work and attention to accurate detail in the work of André Osi make him a worthy successor of these pioneers. But the story he tells is not fictional. His Napoleon continues to tell legend of centuries in comic book form.

Jean Auquier, Belgian Comic Strip Center

The publisher, Joker éditions

Created in 1984 under the name P&T Production, Joker éditions publishes successful series of comic books like the Blagues Coquines, Foot Furieux, Dany’s Humour Coquin and other more traditional comics like Olivier Rameau or Tounga. On the other hand, for several years now, a more realistic bent has gained a large place in the "Horizon" collection. The idea of this collection is to give promising young authors their first chance. It includes comics in fantasy, science fiction, heroic and thriller styles. History is represented as well, with Les oubliés de l’empire by Dimitri and Eudeline and now with the first volume, out of 15 planned for the collection, of a detailed biography of Napoleon by André Osi.

The author, André Osi.

After making his debut with a few short stories, and illustrating and contributing to the scenario of the « Horizon blanc » series, André Osi struck out on a gigantic historical epic on "Napoleon", which will run for 15 albums. The idea of sharing the wealth of this extraordinary character is what motivated him to do a detailed adaptation in comic book form. With a whole team of specialists and rigorous documentation on the events, persons, uniforms, weapons and settings, after many trips to get a feeling for the atmosphere of the places visited and to verify contradictory documentary sources, Osi now proposes the first album of what promises to be a remarkable series. The handsome preface by Mr. Jean TULARD, a member of the Institut de France and a renowned expert in the field, is an additional guarantee of the rigorous historical research that has gone into this series.

Joker, publishers