Lewis Trondheim

Laurent Chabosy (; born 11 December 1964), better known as Lewis Trondheim , is a French cartoonist and one of the founders (in 1990) of the independent publisher L'Association. Both his silent comic La Mouche and Kaput & Zösky have been made into animated cartoons.

A figure in Franco-Belgian comics whose career began in the early 1990s, Trondheim is mostly known as the author of Les formidables aventures de Lapinot (translated to English as The Spiffy Adventures of McConey) and the co-creator of comic fantasy series Dungeon with Joann Sfar, as well as his autobiographical series Les petits riens (translated to English as Little Nothings).

As an artist, Trondheim is known for his "potato-shaped" characters and anthropomorphic animals, in a minimalistic style reminiscent of ligne claire. His works often feature witty dialogue and characters in surreal or darkly humorous situations, where comedy may intertwine with tragedy. Working with several genres such as fantasy, the supernatural, experimental, autobiographical, or children's stories, Trondheim has contributed to more than 150 books, both as an artist and a writer.

Biography Debut and rise to fame Lewis Trondheim was first known as the author of Les formidables aventures de Lapinot. He invented the character in the late 1980s as a way to learn cartooning. The result was an initial 500 page graphic novel, Lapinot et les carottes de Patagonie. All the while, he was publishing short stories for the satirical French magazine Psikopat.

After his book Slaloms was awarded what was then called the Alph'Art Coup de coeur (First comic book prize) in 1993, Trondheim was offered to bring his burgeoning series to a major publisher, Dargaud, while he continued churning out more personal books for L'Association and other independent French publishers such as Cornélius. From there onwards, Trondheim began to enjoy a steady rise in popularity.

The following years represented a period of increasing activity, as Trondheim began to work on many different projects. He first created La Mouche ("The Fly") for Japanese publisher Kodansha, which was featured in Monthly Afternoon magazine in the early 1990s; after falling out with the publisher over creative differences, he redrew a French version from scratch in 1995, after which the character was adapted as an animated cartoon in 1999.

Trondheim's saw further success following Lapinot in Dungeon (in French, Donjon), a series created alongside Joann Sfar.

"Retirement" and online projects In 2004, after a long and intensive period during which he steadily released new books at a frantic pace, Lewis Trondheim announced he was more or less retiring from the world of comic strips, stating he did not want his passion to become a "job". He did draw and write a few stories within the following year, including a book reflecting on his decision to slow down, though the releases occurred at a much slower pace.

At that time, in 2005, Trondheim began Le blog de Frantico, which was a blog BD (French webcomic in blog format) published daily on the web for a whole year under the pseudonym Frantico. The webcomic was presented as an autobiographical work, chronicling the daily life of a single 30-year-old graphic designer and aspiring cartoonist, living in Paris. In interviews and on his web sites, Trondheim alternately admitted and denied having written Le blog de Frantico, while graphic designer Sébastien Lesage stepped up and claimed to be the real author, saying he had asked Trondheim to help him maintain the mystery. Trondheim went on and authored other webcomics under the alias Frantico, such as Nico Shark and Mega Krav Maga. The true identity of Frantico remained a subject of speculation until a retrospective exhibition in 2020 confirmed Trondheim as the author of Le blog de Frantico.

Another recent Trondheim occupation is that of editorial director at Delcourt, where he manages Shampooing, a collection of comic books for young readers.

In 2006, Trondheim was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, one of the most prestigious awards in the field. That same year, Trondheim began the autobiographical webcomic Les Petits Riens (Little Nothings), published on his personal website, in line with his earlier works Approximativement and Carnets de bord. Les Petits Riens was eventually published as books by Delcourt, in Trondheim's own collection Shampooing; as of 2024, the series counts nine volumes.

Recent works Beginning in the late 2000s, Trondheim worked as a writer for several graphic novels and comics, such as Célébritiz with artist Ville Ranta, Omni-visibilis and Wichitas with artist Matthieu Bonhomme. He also stepped down from his role as artist on the series Donjon Zénith, to work as a writer along with Joann Sfar, while Boulet took over as artist.

In 2011, Trondheim began a new fantasy series Ralph Azham, which as of 2024, counts ten volumes.

In 2016, he began the science fiction comics series Infinity 8, initially published in a format inspired by American comic books, with Trondheim working as a writer in collaboration with other writers and artists.

Personal life Trondheim explained his choice of pseudonym after the Norwegian city of Trondheim as follows: "As a last name I wanted to use a city's name, but Lewis Bordeaux or Lewis Toulouse didn't sound so good. Then I thought about this city, Trondheim… Maybe someday I will publish a book under my real name, in order to remain anonymous."

In 1993, he married Brigitte Findakly, a comics colorist and writer.

Awards 1994: Award for First Comic Book at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, France 1999: 2 nominations for the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material 2000: Best German-language Comic—Import at the Max & Moritz Prizes, Germany - Inkpot Award, United States - nomination for the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material - nominated for Best Long Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards, Spain 2001: nomination for the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material - nomination for the Humour Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival - nomination for Outstanding Story at the Ignatz Awards, USA 2002: nomination for the Harvey Award for Best Presentation of Foreign Material - nomination for the Dialogue Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival 2004: Best International Series at the Prix Saint-Michel, Belgium - nomination for the Series Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival 2005: Series Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival - nomination for the Prize for Artwork at the Angoulême International Comics Festival 2006: Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, France 2007: nominated for the Ignatz Awards for Outstanding Series 2008: nominated for the Eisner Awards for Best Short Story and Best Lettering 2010: nominated for the Eisner Awards for Best Publication for Kids and Best U.S. Edition of International Material - nominated for the Award for Best Youth Comic at the Prix Saint-Michel 2016: Rudolph-Dirks-Award for Best Scenario for Ralph Azham and Herr Hase