Histoire de la Musique en Bandes Dessinées #1 - 'De l'Antiquité à Mozart'. (1978), featuring Mr. Bird talking about Johann Sebastian Bach and his family.
Bernard Deyriès is a French animation director and storyboard artist, who was active for DIC, where his most notable TV series was 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' (1982-1983). He later co-founded his own studio, Story. Earlier in his career, Deyriès drew the historical-educational comic book series 'Histoire de la Musique en Bandes Dessinées' (script by Michael Sadler and Denys Lemery, 1978-1980), about the history of classical music. The book was translated in many languages, including in English under the title: 'The Story of Music in Cartoon'. A half century later, Deyriès drew another informative comic book, 'Il Était Une Fois La Gastronomie: Une Histoire de l'Art Culinaire' (Delcourt, 2024), about the history of gastronomy.
Early life and comics
Bernard Deyriès was born in 1947 in Tours, France. He studied arts at the Brassart School for Graphic Design in the same city and, after graduation, became a teacher there. In 2003 he returned to the school as principal. Deyriès' earliest cartoons ran in the fanzines Choc and Publi-Choc, published by Michel-Georges Berthe, AKA Micberth. He also joined Micberth's literary movement Jeune Force Poétique Française (JFPF), where he established a cinema service with Jean-Paul Pineau, and worked with Patrice Leconte for a while. At the time, Leconte was drawing comics for Pilote, before becoming a successful film director, best-known for his comedies 'Les Bronzés' (1978) and 'Ridicule' (1996). The career of Bernard Deyriès followed a somewhat similar path, also moving from comics to animation. During his student years, Deyriès also held poetry performances at the Tours venue Le Trou dans le Mur with his friend Jean Chalopin.
Histoire de la Musique en Bandes Dessinées #1 - 'De l'Antiquité à Mozart'. (1978), about composer Clément Jannequin.
L'Histoire de la Musique
Between 1978 and 1980, Deyriès collaborated with scriptwriters Denys Lemery and Michael Sadler on an ambitious comic book project, 'Histoire de la Musique en Bandes Dessinées' (Éditions Francis Van de Velde, 1978-1980), chronicling the history of classical music in a humorous comic book fashion. Consisting of three volumes, the books follow mankind from the earliest cavemen making music to the great composers who emerged from the Middle Ages, throughout the Enlightenment up until the 20th century. A recurring character in the series is an anthropomorphic toucan named Mr. Bird, who gives short explanations alongside the narration and provides occasional comic relief. 'L'Histoire de la Musique' was also translated in English ('The Story of Music in Cartoon'), Dutch ('Muziekgeschiedenis: Een Stripverhaal'), German ('Geschichte der Musik in Comics'), Italian ('Storia Della Musica a Fumetti'), Spanish ('Historia de La Música en Comics'), Portuguese ('História da Música em Banda Desenhada'), Danish ('Musikkens Historie som Tegneserie') and Swedish ('Musikens Historia i Serieform').
In the 1980s, publisher Van de Velde wanted to launch a similar comic book about the history of pop and rock music. While Michael Sadler was willing to return as scriptwriter, Deyriès decided to focus on animation. A new artist was found in the person of Serge Dutfoy. In 1986, 'Histoire du Rock en B.D.' was released, albeit in a more condensed single-volume version. As a little nod to Deyriès' comic, Mr. Bird reappears in 'Histoire du Rock en B.D.', where his slightly snobbish love for classical music is at odds with the anthropomorphic cat characters' adoration for pop music.
'Histoire de la Musique en Bandes Dessinées', volume 2, Dutch edition, about composer Jacques Offenbach.
Animation career
While teaching at the École Brassart in Tours, Deyriès set up a small animation section. This brought him back into contact with his childhood friend Jean Chalopin, who made animated advertising spots through his production company DIC (Diffusion Information Commercial). In 1974, Deyriès joined the Tours-based studio as an animator, working mostly on animated advertisements and educational movies for corporations. Around that time, Chalopin and Deyriès made plans to venture into animated films, and expanded their team with the artists Fifi Manchu, Jean Barbaud and Marie-Pierre Journet, joined shortly afterwards by Bruno Bianchi. By the end of the decade, Chalopin signed a deal with the Japanese studios Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS) and Telecom Animation Film. Deyriès and the other artists joined Chalopin on his Japanese adventure. Later, the DIC team relocated its French offices from Tours to Paris, and also opened a division in Los Angeles. In Japan, they co-produced DIC's popular animated TV series 'Ulysses 31' (1981-1982), a science fiction adaptation of Homer's 'Odyssey', with Deyriès serving as one of its directors. The character of Telemachus shared his looks with the son of Bernard Deyriès. Deyriès also directed and co-wrote 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' ('Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or', 1982-1983), about the Spanish orphan Esteban, the Inca girl Zia, and the comic relief character Tao, who try to find the Eldorado, or the "mysterious city of gold", in 16th-century South America. 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' was a huge success in France and also broadcast in other countries. It also remained popular in repeats. In 2013, a sequel series was made, again scripted and directed by Chalopin and Deyriès, but produced by Blue Spirit in Paris and Angoulême. Thomas Bouveret adapted the story into a manga book.
From: 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold'.
Alongside Bruno Bianchi, Jean Barbaud and several others, Deyriès was also a character designer on the humorous spy series 'Inspector Gadget' (1983-1986). He additionally collaborated on the animated TV series 'M.A.S.K.' (1985) and 'Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats' ('Les Entrechats', 1984-1985), a spin-off of the animated TV series 'Heathcliff', which in turn was based on George Gately's comic strip of the same name. Among the other series produced by DIC were 'The Littles' ('Les Minipouss', 1983-1985) and 'Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors' (1985-1986). In 1987, Chalopin sold DIC to the Walt Disney Company, and the team returned to France.
In 1989, Deyriès became artistic director of Planète Magique, a center established in Paris by Jean Chalopin and Simon Nora to promote culture and science in a hi-tech entertainment environment. However, on opening day, the center was only partially finished and it had to close after only 12 days because many facilities were either not operational or in legal violation. While the city of Paris tried to save the center through a repair plan, it still didn't bring in the amount of visitors to keep it lucrative. In 1991, Planète Magique went bankrupt and closed down.
In 1990, Bernard Deyriès, Christian Choquet, Guy Delcourt and Pascal Morelli established the animation studio Story. Among the more memorable animated TV series Deyriès worked on as a storyboard artist were the series based on Hergé's 'The Adventures of Tintin' (Ellipse/Nelvana, 1991-1992) and Jim Jinkins' 'Doug'. He also directed 'Les Malheurs de Sophie' (1998), an adaptation of Sophie de Ségur's classic children's novel of the same name, which was a success in France and in Japan.
From: 'Les Malheurs de Sophie' (1998).
L'Hisoire de Gastronomie
In 2024, Deyriès made an unexpected return to comics with the release of the book 'Il Était Une Fois La Gastronomie: Une Histoire de l'Art Culinaire' (Delcourt, 2024). Scripted by Michael & Daisy Sadler and Kilien Stengel, the comic book chronicles the history of gastronomy, following mankind through the centuries as they discovered how to cook and how contact with other civilizations led to import and export of new sorts of vegetables and meat.
Recognition
Between 12 November 2018 and 12 February 2019, an exposition was dedicated to Deyriès' work, held at the Château Bel-Air in La Guignière-Fondettes.
'Il Était Une Fois La Gastronomie: Une Histoire de l'Art Culinaire' (Delcourt, 2024).