After his first experiences as a graphic artist at the French Institute in Kisangani, Barly Baruti, an autodidact, moved to Kinshasa and drew for product advertisements. In 1984, he won a residency at the Hergé Studios in Brussels, where he worked with Bob De Moor, among others, and developed his drawing style of the “clear line”. In 1987 he published the comic strip “La voiture c’est l’avenir” for Afrique Edition. His work as a set designer for the well-known film “La vie est belle” about the popular Congolese musician Papa Wemba later inspired him to create the comic “Papa Wemba: Viva la musica!”.
In 1992 he emigrated to Belgium and worked on several co-productions in the following years. In 1998 his famous Congolese trilogy “Eva K.” was published in collaboration with the scenarist Frank Giroud. Here, his style was modified towards more realism, which influenced his further works and especially his co-productions “Madame Livingstone” (2014) and “Le singe jaune” (2018), recently published by Glénat. Barly Baruti is currently committed to the young Congolese comic artist generation, among other things through the founding of A.C.R.I.A. (Atelier de Création, de Recherche et de l’Initiation à l’Art) in Kinshasa and the organization of the African comic festival SABDAM, which was last held in Kinshasa in 2019.
