Benoît Sokal

Benoît Sokal was a Belgian comic artist and video game creator, best known for his long-running series *Inspector Canardo* and for designing the atmospheric *Syberia* adventure game franchise. Born on 28 June 1954, he began his comics career in the late 1970s, contributing to the prestigious magazine *(À Suivre)*. His signature creation, *Inspector Canardo*, debuted in 1981 and ran for decades, a noir-tinged detective series set in a world of anthropomorphic animals. Sokal handled art, coloring, inking, and writing on most of the 67 issues credited to him in our catalog, with the series appearing in multiple languages including French, German, and Danish. His clean ligne claire style, influenced by Hergé, was paired with a darkly humorous, melancholic tone. In the 1990s, Sokal moved into video games, co-creating the *Syberia* series, which became a cult classic for its evocative storytelling and art direction. He continued working until the late 2010s, passing away on 28 May 2021. While he did not receive major industry awards widely noted, his work remains admired for its quiet, cinematic atmosphere and distinctive visual identity.