Gine

Christian Martinez, best known under the signature Gine, was born in Oran, Algeria. In 1962, he moved to the country of his origins, France. After taking part in evening art courses and attending the School of Fine Arts in Montpellier, Martinez started out in animation. He subsequently cooperated with the S.P.E., drawing for their magazines Les Pieds Nickelés and Bibi Fricotin. In these magazines, he published his first comics, including the comical 'Sébastien Lebonbout' and 'Le Rebelle d'El Paso', the latter in cooperation with Maric.
In 1979, he joined the magazine Tintin and took on a more realistic style for 'Capitaine Sabre', a series that was collected in albums by Lombard between 1983 and 1989. Around the same period, Gine cooperated with Gomme magazine and drew 'Mathieu Lamy' with scripts by Convard. Also for Tintin and also with Convard, he created the science fiction series 'Neige' in 1986. After three albums with Lombard, this series was continued by Glénat.
Gine and Convard additionally produced 'Last' for the publisher Blanco in 1990. Four years later, they began their futuristic saga 'Finkel', published by Delcourt until 2005. Gine also illustrated installments for Convard collective projects 'Le Triangle Secret' (2000), and 'I.N.R.I.' (2004). Gine's solo effort, the apocalyptic saga 'La Grande Ombre', was published in two books by Glénat.

Text (c) Lambiek