An intense and demanding work, a virtuos creator: by awarding the Argentinean José Muñoz with the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême 2007, the members of the Academy of Grands Prix reward a major and international author, recognize and acknowledge a rare and noble form of comic book, which has always been committed to the deeper issues of its time. It is also, indirectly, a way to renew a collusion, since José Muñoz has already been rewarded twice at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Jose Antonio Muñoz was born July 10th, 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He trained in drawing, at the Escuala Panamericana, led by prestigious teachers such as Alberto Breccia and Hugo Pratt. He started professionally, relatively early, as the assistant of Francisco Solano Lopez, and met the writer Hector Oesterheld, for whom he drew some episodes of the Ernie Pike series, illustrated by Pratt. His first stories, mainly thrillers (as set Precinto 56 conceived by Eugenio Zappietro under the alias Ray Collins) and

Faced with professionnal difficulties because of his policital activism, he moved to Europe - first London and later Barcelona, where, during the summer of 1974, he met Carlos Sampayo, an Argentinean exiled like him, who soon became his usual screenwriter. The two men will become inseparable, and build together a work of a rare power, whose central character is the private Alack Sinner. The series was born in 1975 in the Italian magazine Linus. It has been translated in France in Charlie Mensuel. Published in the form of a number of Special Charlie simply titled Alack Sinner, the first adventures of private job started in 1978 at the Angoulême Festival (named at that time International Exhibition of the Comic Book) and won Best Foreign Album. At the same time, Munoz created for the weekly BD Sophie Goin 'South, which will appear a bit later, in 1981, by Futuropolis (reprinted by Vertige Graphic).

Recruited by Casterman Editions, which launched at the time the monthly (A suivre), Jose Munoz and Carlos Sampayo will therefore publish, starting 1979, most of their work: Le bar à Joe, then Histoires amicales du bar à Joe and Alack Sinner – Flic ou privé, the album won the award for the Best Album at Angouleme in 1983. Other stories followed, such as Sudor Sudaca (album released by Futuropolis) or Billie Holiday, portrait of the great American singer. José Muñoz worked with other publishers aswell, such as Albin Michel, for whom he signed Jeu de lumières(1988) or L’Europe en flammes, published in L'Echo des Savanes in 1990.

In the mid-90's, he developed a new partnership with the American creator Jerome Charyn. This is Le croc du serpent (publicated in album form in 1997), followed later by Panna Maria (1999), also written by the American conceiver. Meanwhile, he published several works, including the illustrations of the novel by Manuel Prado Les damnés de la pampa (1997, Vertige Graphic) or Automne et printemps, at Amok. In 2002, it was again at Casterman, where he and Carlos Sampayo signed a collection of short stories, Dans les Bars, followed a year later by the album Retour de flammes written by another writer, Daniel Picouly. His last two albums, always with the same publisher, are Le Livre (2004) and L’Affaire USA (2006), the eighth volume of the Alack Sinner series. The deep sense of concern and commitment, always brought by José Muñoz's work, expressed a great maturity of comics - maturity to which the International Festival of Comics Angoulême pays particular attention.