Israeli, b. 1966 If she had not met Art Spiegelman during her studies at the Bezalel School of Fine Arts in Jerusalem, Rutu Modan would probably not have chosen comics as a means of expression. Indeed, at that time, sequential art was not yet recognized among the narrative forms worthy of interest in Israel. She collaborated with the writer Yirmi Pinkus to undertake her first works and in 1995 formed the Actus Tragicus collective, which is recognized as the avant-garde of Hebrew comics. In 2005, she was chosen as an outstanding artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation. Author in her own right, Rutu Modan uses elements of popular culture, situation comedy, and the clear line style that made the success of Tintin while dealing with serious and complex subjects. She tackles the terrorist attacks in Exit Wounds (2007), the memory of the Shoah in Property (2013) and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Tunnels in (2021). These three books have had a strong global impact, winning awards in San Diego, Angoulême, and New York. As an illustrator, Rutu Modan collaborates with the international press and for the New York Times in particular. Her children’s books have been published through Francoise Mouly’s Toon Books.