Jean-Claude Forest

Jean-Claude Forest (1930-1998) was a French comics artist and writer, the creator of Barbarella. Trained in applied arts in Paris, he began as a cover illustrator, notably for Gallimard's science fiction imprint Le Rayon Fantastique. Barbarella, serialised in V Magazine from 1962, caused a scandal and became an immediate bestseller, reaching the screen in 1968. He later wrote Ici même, drawn by Jacques Tardi and published in English as You Are There, and won the best author prize at the Angoulême festival in 1980.