Thomas Legrain

Thomas Legrain was born on January 22, 1981 in Sambreville. His paternal grandmother Louise was the sister of Joseph Gillain (1914-1980), the legendary pioneer of Belgian comics known as Jijé. Joining the cultural heritage of his family, Legrain himself shows an early talent for drawing as well. As a child, he imitated the drawings his father made for him, he took courses. On his first drawings, he imagines little men, he does car chases. It was the cinema that gave him the desire to do comic strips. He thus recuts a Robocop in his own way. Around the age of 12, like one of his cousins, he immediately created complete stories in comics, which gradually became more complex both in terms of drawing and scenarios. From the age of 17-18, he began to show his albums and met Tibet twice, thanks to a friend of the family who offered to meet Yves Sente, editorial director of Lombard, without wanting to be published, just wanting to get advice and meet people in the business. This is his first contact with this publisher. His line is already realistic at the time, inspired by what he can see in Largo Winch, XIII or Thorgal, all by Jean Van Hamme. He does police, science fiction, above all. Which brings it more into a contemporary vein.

For his career, he first chose another direction, studying History at the University of Namur then Louvain-la-Neuve (1999-2003) as well as a DEC in Criminology at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve in 2004. But he doesn't exercise. As a cartoonist, he is largely self-taught, creating comic strips in his spare time. In fact, he did not want to go to Fine Arts, he was advised not to study. But he always wanted to do comics. The university teaches him rigor. When he is at university, he makes one comic a year which are not destined to be published but which allow him to learn and improve, he makes a dozen of them. He has never drawn apart from comic books, it is important to him to make boards. He has always kept the same material, in a traditional way.

After his studies, Legrain promotes his art via the bdparadisio.com website. In the space of two months, this allowed him to come into contact with screenwriters Jean-Claude and Agnès Bartoll, who asked him to work with them on no less than two different comic book projects.

Mortelle Riviera, a political-financial trilogy published by Glénat (2006-2008), about a lawyer who decides to run against her corrupt father in the municipal elections of a town on the Riviera, and finds herself caught in a net of crime and deceit.

Legrain's other project with the Bartolls is "L'Agence", a series on a secret organization fighting against the trafficking of historical artistic treasures, published by Casterman for the first four volumes (2006-2009), the next two are drawn by Bernard Khattou, aka Frisco. These two series allowed him quite early to earn his spurs in the best conditions with major publishers.

Through the bdparadisio forum, Legrain came into contact with another writer, who operated under the pseudonym of Benec. His work for the Bartoll series having been completed, Legrain and Benec teamed up to create a new series for the publisher Le Lombard. The result is the thriller Sisco, about an unscrupulous secret agent/hitman in the service of the French government. Arrogant, cold and cynical, Vincent Sisco-Castiglioni is responsible for protecting the President, which brings him behind the scenes of the powers and scandals of the political world. Initially conceived as a diptych, the detestable hero would be dead at the end of the second volume. However, the series proved to be a critical success and the writers made ten more episodes until the project's conclusion with the "Russian Roulette" episode in 2021. Hailed by critics for its photo-realistic illustrations, the 11th installment, "Belgian Rhapsody", was awarded the 2020 Atomium Prize in Brussels.

Between episodes of Sisco, Thomas Legrain teamed up with writer Stephen Desberg to create "Bagdad Inc." (Lombard, 2015), a techno-thriller based in war-torn Iraq. A one-shot which is the favorite of his albums but which does not find its audience.

After the contemporary and urban thriller, he wants to do something else, enjoy natural settings. It's done with an idea from the publisher, a commissioned work, without knowing Vincent Brugeas beforehand, they have been working together since 2017 on "The Regiment", a triptych telling the story of the legendary SAS unit operating in North Africa during World War II published in Lombard in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Both series are published in English by Europe Comics.

Thomas Legrain lives and works in Gembloux.