Gil St. André #2
Jean-Charles Kraehn was born in Saint-Malo. After an education in industrial graphics at the École Estienne, he took evening drawing courses at the Ville de Paris. He published his first illustrations in Scouts de France in 1980-1981 and subsequently contributed to several publications of Hachette and to history books by I.D. Program. He began his comics career in 1984 with the historical adventure series 'Les Aigles Décapitées' for the publishing house Glénat. Initially, the scripts were written by Patrice Pellerin, but later on Kraehn took over himself, leaving the artwork to Michel Pierret shortly afterwards. Kraehn left the series completely in 1999, handing over the scriptwork to Erik Arnoux.
Les Aigles Décapitées #3
Starting in 1986, Kraehn worked for the collection of comic adaptations of novels Je Bouquine, and by 1990, he created 'Bout d'Homme', his first solo series for Glénat. Kraehn wrote and drew four books for the series until 1994, and added a final installment in 2008. Kraehn turned to writing thrillers with the maritime series 'Tramp', drawn by Patrick Jusseaume for Dargaud since 1993, and the crime suspense series 'Gil Saint-André' for Glénat in 1996. Kraehn wrote and drew the first two books himself, then called in the help of Sylvain Vallée for the artwork for books 3 till 8. Kraehn resumed full control over the series with a new story cycle in 2010.
Bout d'Homme #3
Kraehn furthermore participated in the collective projects 'Le Triangle Secret' by Didier Convard (Glénat, 2001) and 'Quintett' by Frank Giroud (Dupuis, 2006). He additionally made the one-shot 'Le Ruistre' (Glénat, 2001), compiled the illustration portfolio 'Personnel' (Granit, 2002), wrote the scripts for 'Myrkos', a series drawn by Miguel (Dargaud, 2004-07), and produced the picture book 'Mission Vietnam' with Patrick Jusseaume and Serge Le Tendre (Glénat, 2003).
Le Ruistre