Mattt Konture

Mattt Konture (born September 27, 1965) is a French underground comics author and musician. He is one of the founders of the French publishing house L'Association and is a forerunner of the French autobiographical comics movement.

Biography

Konture grew up in Lozère, where his influences included Métal Hurlant artists like Marc Caro, Doury, Rita Mercedes, and Moebius.

Konture published his first comics in 1982 (at the age of 17) in magazines such as Viper ("L’ajeun") and Le Lynx ("Les Exploits de Ted" with Jean-Christophe Menu). When Konture went to Paris he published his first comics, Nerf, on an old Xerox machine. L’Association later reprinted this first book. His first comic book was Ruga Zébo Violent, first volume of the "Pattes de Mouche" collection published by L'ANAAL, to become L'Association.

At this time, Konture's drawings were very dark and full of strokes and looked like the growing American underground style. Konture later discovered 1960s American underground cartoonists such as R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, who inspired him to create psychedelic and autobiographical comics. In 1988, Konture started autobiographical comics such as Krokrodile Comix 1, or Galopu, that was a forerunner of the French underground movement.

In 1989 Konture returned to Lozère. There he drew a few comics and continued Ivan Morve (a pun on "Mort-vivant," "living dead"). Ivan Morve is a series of half-autobiographical stories published in the pages of Psykopat.

During the same period Konture started "Jambon blindé," an improvised comix commissioned by his friend Stéphane Blanquet. This new way of telling stories drove Konture to draw a series of "comix" edited by L’Association in the collection Mimolette. "Autopsie d’un mort vivant" ("Autopsy of a living dead") is a dark retelling of Konture's life. In these books all his characters reappear: Galopu, Mister VrO, and Ivan Morve — each of them represents the author’s mood.

Mattt often draws with artist friends, publishing works such as Galopinot (L'Association) drawn with Lewis Trondheim, and, more recently, L'Abbé Noir (Arbitraire) drawn with Lilas and Willy Ténia, La Comète à 4 pattes (L'Association), drawn with Lilas, Willy Ténia and Freaky Nasa, and Borrut Popotte (Marseilles based silkscreen and publishing house Le Dernier Cri), drawn with Lilas.

For a long period of his life, Konture worked at home. Now he's part of a collective artist's space (workshop, gallery and boutique) En Traits Libres, which is open to the public.

Musical career

Konture has played in many musical groups (Les Tordus, Pumpkin Guts, Cosmogol, Rhinoplastic Démodex...), including his original one-man group Courge, which later changed its name to Lucky and the Courges, and which produces CDs and plays concerts in the Montpellier area where Konture lives.