Michel Rabagliati was born in 1961 in Montreal. Following in his father's footsteps, he studied typography for a few years and then turned to graphic design. He started working on his own in 1980 for various clients in Montreal and Toronto. A dozen years later, he changed course to devote himself to editorial and advertising illustration. In 1998, to fill his time between illustration commissions, he wrote and drew his first two comic book stories: Paul à la campagne and Paul apprenti typographe. That same year he met two young publishers who launched the Pastèque publishing house that year. With his nine albums of Paul's adventures, all published by Editions de la Pastèque and translated into eight languages, Michel Rabagliati has become a major figure in Quebec comics. In 2007, he was awarded a special mention for his body of work by the Prix des libraires du Québec. In 2010 he won the Prix du public for Paul à Québec, and in 2021 the Prix de la série for the entire Paul series at the Angoulême Festival. He was named Compagnon des arts et des lettres du Québec in 2017 and Chevalier des arts et des lettres de la République française in 2022. The government of Quebec awarded him the Athanase-David 2023 prize for the whole of his work.