Pierre Christin was born at Saint-Mande in 1938. In addition to the ongoing Valerian series, Christin has written several other comics one-shots, including The City That Didn't Exist, The Black Order Brigade and The Hunting Party, all illustrated by Enki Bilal. Among the many European comics artist he has collaborated with are Enki Bilal, Jacques Tardi, Alexis, Raymond Poivet, Jije, Annie Goetzinger, Daniel Ceppi, and Francois Boucq. He has also written screenplays and science-fiction novels. This is his first collaboration with Olivier Balez. Olivier Balez is a longtime comics artist and children's book illustrator who resides in Chile, following years of study around the world. He has illustrated work in virtually every genre of comics, collaborating with Florence DeCamp, Eric Corbeyran, and Pascale Fonteneau, among many others.