
Vincent Paronnaud, known as Winshluss
From fanzine culture to the Oscars, Winshluss likes to cross worlds and disciplines : comics, cinema, contemporary art... his universe is sometimes macabre, sometimes funny or creepy, criticising religions, political ideologies and the production of cultural industries. Co-director of the film Persepolis, Winshluss is also the successful author of a parody version of Pinocchio.
Published on 16/06/2020
2 min
Born in La Rochelle in 1970, Vincent Paronnaud, better known as Winshluss, first became known as a comic book author in the 1990s by contributing drawings to various fanzines, anthologies and magazines (Jade, Good Stuff, Comix 2000, Upsa Comix, etc). In 1999 he released his first solo album, Super Negra, where he turned Mickey into a malicious character. In 2003, with Cizo, whom he had known since adolescence, he took the reins of the magazine Ferraille and established himself as a key player in independent French-language comics.
In 2007, Winshluss directed Persepolis with Marjane Satrapi before publishing his own version of Carlo Collodi’s tale Pinocchio in 2009, which met with critical and public success.
Multiplying forms, the artist also creates sculptures and is involved in the field of contemporary art. He is the subject of several exhibitions, the most important to date being « Un monde merveilleux » (« A Marvellous World »), presented in 2013 at the Musée des arts décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Paris.
An unclassifiable illustrator, Winshluss cites Walt Disney, Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks…) and Philippe Vuillemin among his references. Asserting his taste for pop culture, he likes to hijack historical figures, narratives and codes, displaying a taste for political satire, and criticism of ideologies, cultural industries and religions. Winshluss cherishes cynical characters, such as the robot Ferraille, beast and villain, and Wizz and Buzz.
« I have ethics but I'm definitely not moral », he says. « In Pinocchio, I wanted to show a little of the complexity of the world and focus on its social aspect. As soon as you enter the social sphere, there is no longer any morality… »
His latest book, L’Anarchie (Anarchy), co-authored with Véronique Bergen, was published in 2019 and is a documentary album that looks back at the origins, history and great figures of the movement, as close as possible to the libertarian spirit that animates its author.
Numerous awards punctuate the career of Winshluss, whose career has been marked by two successes in two distinct genres: In cinema Persepolis, and in comics Pinocchio. The first received the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 2007, before winning the César for Best Adaptation and Best First Feature Film the following year, and was then nominated for the Oscars in the Best Animated Film category.
Pinocchio won the Fauve d’Or Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, which promotes good visibility beyond French borders and translations into English and Spanish.
- 1999
1999
First album published – Super Negra – which hijacks the character of Mickey.
- 2007
2007
Release of Persépolis, directed with Marjane Satrapi, which receives the Jury Prize at Cannes.
- 2008
2008
His album Pinocchio is lauded by critics and the public. He receives the Fauve d’or Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
- 2013
2013
Winshluss exhibits at the Musée des arts décoratifs in Paris : « A wonderful world ».
- 2016
2016
The artist receives the Pépite d’or Prize at the Montreuil Children’s Book Fair for the album Dans la forêt sombre et mystérieuse (In the Dark and Mysterious Forest).

Dans la forêt sombre et mystérieuse by Winshluss, is one of the works honored at the exhibition « The renewal of youth comics » in 2020.
This exhibition, supported by the Institut français and in partnership with the comics group of the Syndicat National de l'Edition (National Publishers' Union), provides an opportunity to discover the works of the new generation of French and Francophone comic book authors whose talent is recognised in France and abroad.
Find out more information about « The renewal of youth comics »