Pierre Christin

Pierre Christin (born 27 July 1938) is a French comic creator and writer. He created Valerian and Laureline.

Biography
Christin was born at Saint-Mandé in 1938. He graduated from the Sorbonne, pursued graduate studies in political science at SciencesPo, and became a professor of French literature at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Christin returned to France in 1967 to join the faculty of the University of Bordeaux.

Career
His first comics story, "Le Rhum du Punch", illustrated by his childhood friend Jean-Claude Mézières, was published in 1966 in Pilote magazine. The following year, he again collaborated with Mézières to create "Les Mauvais Rêves" ("Bad Dreams") the first episode of the science-fiction series Valerian and Laureline for Pilote.

In addition to the ongoing Valerian, Christin has written several other comics one-shots, including "The City That Didn't Exist", "The Black Order Brigade", and "The Hunting Party", all illustrated by Enki Bilal. Among the many other European comics artists he has collaborated with are Jacques Tardi, Alexis, Raymond Poïvet, Jijé, Annie Goetzinger, Daniel Ceppi, and François Boucq. He has also written screenplays and science-fiction novels.