Gilbert Groud was born around 1956 in a little village close to Toulépleu in Côte d’Ivoire. He had 23 siblings, not all of whom were born to the same mother since his father was polygamous. 7 siblings were of the same mother. He attended primary school in his home village. His high school was in the city. 1979 he began his studies of art at the Institut Nationale des Arts in Abidjan. He specialised on communication. His Master’s thesis was on the topic of “magie noire” (Black Magic). Due to this paper he created the trilogy “Magie Noire”, of which the first book was published in and the second book is supposed to be published by January 2008. The comic book speaks about black magic and marabouts in West-Africa. Because of this and other comic books, the other books were published in small quantities in the Ivory Coast, the Ivorian Ministry of Culture also accepts Groud as an important artist of the 21st Century