Published5. November 2024, 1.50pm
ComicGeneva designer Daniel Ceppi has died
The author who created the series ”Stéphane Clément” and “CH Confidentiel” is a tireless traveler. He died of the disease at the age of 73.
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Daniel Ceppi, author of the series “Stéphane Clément, chronicles of a traveler” died next Monday, November 4 at the age of 73, Lombard editions announced on Tuesday.
Born on April 3, 1951 in Carouge, in the canton of Geneva, Daniel Ceppi had a significant taste for art and travel from an early age. In 1967, aged 16, he displayed a stained glass window during the Christmas holidays. Called “The Maiden and the Child”, the play is presented in the city where he was born, and whose love and passion remained intact throughout his life and career. Afterwards, Daniel Ceppi attended the École des Beaux-Arts and the School of Decorative Arts in Geneva. He also creates technical drawings for an American company, never forgetting his dreams.
First self-published album
At the age of 23, he embarked on a journey that would last his life. He travels to India by coach, passing through central and eastern Europe, Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. He returned several times to this country where he ended up settling more permanently, which greatly influenced his career as an artist. Also on this side, his dreams come with “Le Guêpier”, the first adventure of a character who will never leave him: Stéphane Clément.
At first, this story was a novel, which the young author was not entirely happy with, to the point of completely reworking it to transform it into a comic strip. The publishers he contacted were very fashionable at the time, and Daniel Ceppi decided to try the adventure of self-publishing. The comic book version of The Bee-eater was finally released in 1977, by Éditions sans frontières.
The first edition of “Guêpier”.
Stumps
Published in ”Hurlant Metal”
Adopting a realistic style that carries his pen, his black areas, and the use of the frame, the author lends his features to the main character, who has many other points in common with his creator. Starting with his considerable taste for travel, and especially in South and Central Asia. These escapes fueled his double paper, which joined Les Humanoids Associés and the magazine “Métal hurlant” in 1978.
While recreating the story of adventure in comics, Daniel Ceppi develops on the borders of fiction, reportage and travel diaries. His hero is not a superman, and even less a righter of injustice. In 1981, the uniqueness of his point of view led him to join the famous magazine “(À Suivre)”, which then participated in the revival of Franco-Belgian comics.
14 volumes by Stéphane Clément
It was at this time that the series changed to colour. Four new albums are released, and the first three albums are completely redesigned. After a ten-year break, “Stéphane Clément, chronicles of a traveller” returns to Humanoids Associés, before the last two volumes, ”L’Engrenage turkmène” and “Le Piège ouzbek”, appear this time at Éditions du Lombard in 2010 and 2012.
The last volume of Stéphane Clément’s adventures, “The Uzbek Trap”, published in 2012.
The Lombard
In total, the Swiss author is producing 14 episodes of his main series. Daniel Ceppi produced or participated in about fifteen other comedy albums, notably “L’Ombre de Jaïpur” (with screenwriter Juan Martinez, Dargaud, 1981), “Croco & Co” (with Vépy, L’Essai, 1986), ”Diplomatic Corps” (co-written with his wife Paûle, Les Humanoïds associés, 1991), or even La Nuit des clandestines (by Pierre Christin, Les Humanoïds associés, 1992).
Later, in 2017, Daniel Ceppi published his last album, “Lady of Shalott”, with Éditions du Lombard. In this single shot published in the collection ”Signé”, the author brings together the police “CH Confidential” and the protagonist “Stéphane Clément, chronicles of a traveller”, for a dirty business in the world of art , linked to actions made in the early 1970s A book that is like a literary testament today.
Throughout his career as a comic book author, Daniel Ceppi has received several awards, including the Best Screenwriter Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, in 1979, for ”À l’est de Karakulak”, the second part of ‘the adventures of Stéphane Clément. . His stories show the evolution of comics of his time, which moved slowly but surely from pure genre stories to closer adventures, firmly rooted in reality, and making use of the tools of fiction.
When he put his work on hold for the 9th art – and he wasn’t lugging his backpack to Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the Philippines or anywhere else – Daniel Ceppi also devoted himself to painting and illustrating covers for ‘various publishers. Being carried away by illness, Daniel Ceppi went on one last journey.
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