Jean-Baptiste Monge

Jean-Baptiste Monge taught himself commercial illustration at the École Pivaut in Nantes. In 1989, he met Erlé Ferronnière, with whom he put together his first portfolio of illustrations, before facing several rejections while touring Breton publishers in 1995. The decisive meeting came with Patrick Jézéquel, of Editions Au Bord des Continents, who published their first joint book, Halloween, in 1997. From 1999, he illustrated Baltimore & Redingote on his own, written with Pascal Moguérou, and then spent sixteen years developing a world populated by fairies, goblins and anthropomorphic animals, which earned numerous prizes in Europe and North America – including the Wojtek Siudmak Award for graphic design in 2008, a Silver Award at the Spectrum Fantastic Art Competition in 2009, and the Art&Fact Prize at the Utopiales festival in Nantes, presented by James Gurney. His artworks, exhibited at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts, the LACMA in Los Angeles and the AGO in Toronto, follow in the tradition of illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. In 2010, he moved to Quebec, where, together with his wife Margo, he founded his own publishing house, Goblin’s Way, to self-publish his art books, including Celtic Faeries: The Secret Kingdom. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators in New York.