The bestselling graphic novelist endured a traumatic childhood in Libya, Syria and France. Then he lost 12 of his colleagues in the Charlie Hebdo slaughter. Now he’s telling his life story frame by frame…

As you’d expect, his nomadic and sometimes painful experiences have shaped the man he is today, informing his notion of what makes a cartoonist: “When you’re an outsider, you observe other people more. I still do this. I’m a watcher. Cartoonists are by definition outsiders: they’re outside literature, art, the establishment.”

Riad Sattouf’s interview with The Guardian’s Rachel Cooke can be read here.

Thanks to Glenn Marshall.