The Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Crane (1871–1900) was a groundbreaking and prolific author who began writing at the age of 16. At 24, frustrated by the dry accounts he read of the Civil War, he set out to write a book that focused on the internal conflict of a young Union soldier and changed American literature forever. The Red Badge of Courage won him international praise and radically redefined what a war novel could be. Crane lived in New York and would continue to write until he died of tuberculosis, but none of his subsequent four novels would receive the same critical acclaim.

Steve Cuzor was born in Rennes, France, in 1971. His two great passions are drawing and horses, the latter of which he rode since the age of 13, making him one of the youngest stunt riders ever. Knowing his horse-riding career wouldn’t last forever, he eventually passed the entrance exam for applied arts in Paris. He began to try his hand at comic strips, which he wrote and illustrated himself. This led him to create Black Jack, a series published by Casterman, which tells the story of four kids in New York during Prohibition. He also collaborated on Quintett (Dupuis, 2006) with writer Frank Giroud, and illustrated Black Cotton Star (Pegasus Books, 2020), written by Yves Sente. Cuzor lives and works in France.