Claire Wendling was in her third year at the École des Beaux-Arts in Angoulême when she won the 'Alph'Art Avenir' prize in 1989. In volume 1 of 'Enfants du Nil', Delcourt published Wendling's story 'Carmina et Vittorio'. In 1990 Claire Wendling began her series 'Les Lumières de l'Amelou' with scenario writer Christophe Gibelin. For magazine Schtroumpf she made 'Garance' in 1991. In the same year, Wendling won the critics' prize for the first volume of 'Les Lumières de l' Amelou', followed by the best young illustrator prize in 1992 for her magazine covers of Player One.
