'Maïa'.
Colonel Moutarde is a Paris-based comic artist and illustrator for mainly children's publications and advertisements. She was born in 1968 in Guérande, and studied arts in Nantes for two years. Assuming her penname from the Cluedo character 'Colonel Mustard', she published her earliest work in fanzines like Jade and Le Goinfre, before becoming a fulltime artist in 2000. She draws inspiration from artists like Dupuy & Berberian, Fabrice Parme and Petit-Roulet, and from her two children. Her illustrations have appeared in several French magazines, from Madame Figaro to Moves & Travaux and from Les Inrockuptibles to Marie-Claire and Cosmopolitan. She has also made many drawings for advertisements (Hôtel Meurice, Primagaz, Nivéa, etc.) and fashion publications.
'Le Meilleur de Moi'.
Colonel Moutarde's artwork has appeared regularly in the children's magazines of Bayard Presse (Okapi, Astrapi, DLire) and Milan Presse (Capsule Cosmique). Books of her autobiographical comic series 'Le Meilleur de Moi', which she made with her husband Philippe Dumez, were published in Dupuis collection Humour Libre from 2000 to 2002. During the same period, she made 'Johnny-Rien-à-Foutre', a comics diary of the Canadian punk Andy for PLG in 2001. Moutarde and Dumez also cooperated on the children's series 'Grenadine et Mentalo', that ran in Capsule Cosmique. She made four books of the children's series 'La BD des Filles' with Anne Baraou for Dargaud/Fleurus between 2007 and 2010.
'L'Espace d'un Soir'.
Moutarde has made some more adult books with writer Brigitte Luciani at Éditions Delcourt. The first was 'L'Espace d'un Soir' (2007), a dark comedy full of engagement, blackmail, adultery and corruption, and then the social chronicle 'Histoires Cachées' (2008). The duo continued their collaboration with the children's series 'Maïa' at Dargaud in 2010.
She has made illustrations for the 'Bijou et YiYi' book series by Nathalie Dargent, and for the Larousse collection 'Ma Baby Encylopédie Larousse'. Moutarde and Dargent have also made 'La Soupe au Poivre', a fantasy comic about George Sand and Frédéric Chopin's trip to Majorca in 1838 (PLG, 2011).
'Bijou et YiYi'.