Mark van Oppen, alias Marvano, studied interior architecture before choosing a career as illustrator. His first drawings appear in the Dutch science fiction magazine Orbit, which he signed with Marvano. He continued making illustrations in the science fiction genre for the publishers Heyne in Germany and Meulenhoff in the Netherlands. By 1982, he stopped his architecture activities and became editor-in-chief of Kuifje, the Flemish version of Tintin. During his period he published his first comics in both Kuifje/ Tintin and Robbedoes+ (the Dutch version of Spirou Album +). In 1986 he was appointed head of the comics section of the Flemish publishing firm Den Gulden Engel.
