François Corteggiani

François Corteggiani was a French comics writer and artist born on 21 September 1953, who died — with a certain poetic symmetry — on his sixty-ninth birthday, 21 September 2022. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, from 1976 into the 2020s, he contributed to more than 400 issues across a wide range of titles, establishing himself as a versatile and prolific figure in Franco-Belgian comics.

He is perhaps best associated with the long-running French anthology *Pif Gadget* and its successor *Le Nouveau Pif*, publications that gave generations of French readers their appetite for adventure and humor strips. His work on *La jeunesse de Blueberry* — the prequel series exploring the early years of Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud's celebrated Western hero — demonstrated his comfort with established genre storytelling and his ability to honor a beloved property while finding his own footing within it. The title also appeared in Scandinavian markets as *Blueberrys unge år*, reflecting the series' reach beyond France. He also contributed to *Sundance*, another Western-flavored venture.

Credited variously as writer, artist, inker, colorist, and letterer, Corteggiani brought genuine craft across multiple production roles, a flexibility that made him a dependable presence in the French comics industry throughout his lifetime.