Riad Sattouf, son of a Syrian father and Breton mother, was born in Paris. He spent most of his childhood the Middle East, first in Algeria, then in Libya and Syria. He was able to pick up reading French comics through his grandmother. He developed a desire to become a comic artist early on, and produced several short stories that remained unpublished. By now back in France, he studied Applied Arts, followed by a studies in animation at the École des Gobelins.