Born in 1965 in Belgium, Bernard Vrancken quickly revealed himself as a talented artist. At 15, he was honoured in a competition organised by the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which gave him the opportunity to meet some of the European comic-book industry's big guns, such as Franquin and Yvan Delporte. At just 16, he had already published several great historical epics in Tintin magazine. A regular workaholic, he was constantly drawing, erasing, sketching, improving, starting over and learning. Then it was a chance meeting with Stephen Desberg, who quickly became his favourite writer. Together they created 10 short stories for A suivre... magazine, followed by a romantic saga called Le Sang Noir (Lombard), before eventually creating "I.R.$." for Lombard's Troisième Vague collection.