Kenny Ruiz

Born in 1980 in Granada, Spain. Fascinated by various fictional universes, and in particular Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm), Kenny Ruiz enrolled at the Joso School of Comics and Visual Arts in Barcelona, from which he left with a burning desire to create his own worlds.

A challenge he quickly took up, with works as varied as the post-apocalyptic trilogy Le chasseur d'éclairs (Paquet, 2003) and the contemporary chronicle Barcelona (Paquet, 2004), for which he won various prizes at the Barcelona International Comics Fair in 2005 and 2007.

In 2007, Kenny Ruiz returned to his love of manga with his first fantasy manga series, Deux épées, published first by Soleil and then by Norma, for which he won an award at the Barcelona Manga Fair. Spotted by comic book publishers, Kenny Ruiz alternates between manga and comic book projects. In particular, he drew two of Dupuis' flagship series, Magic 7 and Télémaque (with Kid Toussaint on the writing).

In 2018, the Spanish artist was offered a challenge: to reinterpret the works of Osamu Tezuka for Tezucomi, a Japanese magazine paying tribute to the work of Osamu Tezuka.

Kenny Ruiz produced two stories for the magazine: a short story adapted from Boku no Songoku and an original story featuring all of Osamu Tezuka's greatest heroes in a space opera: Team Phoenix.

The Team Phoenix one-shot created for Tezucomi was a success, so Kenny Ruiz and Tezuka Productions successfully proposed to Japanese publisher Akita Shoten that the story be turned into a series. The series was launched in 2021 in the monthly magazine Bessatsu Shonen Champion. Volume 1 of Team Phoenix came out in Japan in October 2021, and the series now has 4 volumes. The series is also published in several languages. Vega Dupuis is publishing the French version in standard manga format, as well as in a luxurious full-color limited edition.

Meet him for a signing session at the Sumiré space on Saturday, July 15.