The world of comics is mourning the loss of Clément Oubrerie, the artist behind the acclaimed series Aya de Yopougon and Pablo, who died Sunday at the age of 59, publisher Dargaud announced Monday.
Early Beginnings in the United States
“His palette, his sense of framing, the expressiveness of his characters, the virtuosity of his drawing” made him “a pillar of comics,” the publisher said. “Clément Oubrerie leaves a poetic, joyful and protean legacy to the world of comics.”
Born in 1966, Oubrerie began his studies at the École supérieure d’arts graphiques before moving to the United States, where he started his career as a children’s illustrator and released his first albums.
The Success of Aya de Yopougon
In 2005, he published the first volume of Aya de Yopougon with writer Marguerite Abouet, which tells the story of Aya, a 19-year-classic Ivorian woman living in the popular Yopougon district of Abidjan in the 1970s. The graphic novel won the Best First Album award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2006. This success launched a saga that now comprises eight volumes and has been translated into more than fifteen languages, bringing African storytelling to a global audience.
In 2013, he co-directed with Marguerite Abouet the animated film adaptation of the first two volumes of Aya, produced by the studio “Autochenille Production” which he founded with artist Joann Sfar and director Antoine Delesvaux.
Beginning in 2012, he embarked on the Pablo series with his partner, writer Julie Birmant, focusing on the youth of painter Pablo Picasso in Montmartre. This collaboration, taking the form of documentary fiction, continued with other artists such as American dancer Isadora Duncan (Il était une fois dans l’Est, 2015) and painter Salvador Dali (Dali, avant Gala, 2023).
