François Schuiten

François Schuiten (born 26 April 1956) is a Belgian comic book artist. He is best known for drawing the series Les Cités Obscures.

Biography

François Schuiten was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1956. His father, Robert Schuiten, and his mother, Marie-Madeleine De Maeyer, were both architects. He has five brothers and sisters, one of whom is also an architect.

During his studies at the Saint-Luc Institute in Brussels (1975–1977), he met , who led the comics department at the school. Together they created several books. Schuiten's brother also worked with him several times as a writer for the series Terres Creuses.

Schuiten published his first comic on 3 May 1973, consisting of five black and white pages in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote; four years later he was published in the more experimental magazine Métal Hurlant. He worked with Benoît Sokal and Martin Villeneuve on the script of Aquarica, a film that would use CGI and motion capture technology., but the project was abandoned due to the death of Benoît Sokal

As a scenographer, Schuiten designed the metro stations of Porte de Hal/Hallepoort in Brussels and Arts et Métiers in Paris, and a mural in Brussels. In 2000, he designed the scenography for A planet of visions, one of the main pavilions of the Expo 2000 in Hannover, which attracted more than five million visitors. In 2004–05, a large exhibition was held in Leuven, The Gates of Utopia, showing different aspects of his work. He also created the interior of the Belgian pavilion at the Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, with the painter Alexandre Obolensky. François Schuiten has also designed fifteen Belgian stamps.

Schuiten together with Peeters also helped to save and subsequently restore the Autrique House in Brussels, the first house designed by Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta.

Awards 2025: Honorary doctorate VUB and ULB 2022: Eisner award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material: The Shadow of a Man 2013: Grand Prize in the Manga category of the Japan Media Arts Festival 2002: Made a baron by King Albert II of Belgium 2002: Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, France 1998: Special Prize of the Jury at the Max & Moritz Prizes, Erlangen, Germany 1996: Inkpot Award, U.S. 1987: Grand Prix at the festival of Sierre, Switzerland 1985: Award for the Best Comic Book at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, France 1983: Samaris, the first book of Les Cités Obscures, is chosen as one of the 20 best books of the year by French magazine Lire