Every cyclist probably has had moments on a bike, however fleeting, that have seemed closer to magic than normal everyday reality – that “indescribable sacred feeling one can experience in certain landscapes”, in the words of artist Tony Concrete. Not many, though, try to communicate this through their art, as he does. And even fewer have written a two-volume manga comic on a pair of cycling witches. At once a story of witchcraft, an ecological fable, a social chronicle and an ode to bikepacking, MAJO NO MICHI ('The Witches’ Way') follows a pair of modern witches who patrol the enchanted border landscapes between France and Germany on their bicycles, and recounts their battle to stop a cursed building poisoning the region they love.

It’s not Tony’s first cycling-related art project. “I love cycling,” he says, “but I’m primarily an artist before a cyclist. I discovered the world of bikepacking when I was an art school student, probably around 2010. I was immediately captivated by the aesthetic dimension of this universe. I remember seeing incredible rigid 29+ bikes on Tumblr with custom-made saddlebags, frame bags, and handlebar bags, and thinking, ‘This is the most beautiful thing in the world.’ That’s when the idea of creating comics centered around adventure cycling took root in me.”

In 2017 he created his Instagram, with the idea of laying the groundwork for a comic that would blend science fiction and bikepacking – which project is still on the back burner. But the bike remains at the heart of his creative process. For him, the bicycle is as much of a tool as his camera, or the tablet on which he draws his storyboards… or indeed, cafés themselves! We let him loose in Nice, where he explored the town on his folding bike and took pictures, before returning to Café du Cycliste for some refreshments, to sketch out what had inspired him on his ride.

Tony’s witches are people who live on the margins of society, struggling to make ends meet, who mobilise their incredible talents in the service of their environment. That's a situation that many artists can recognise… “Like my characters, I too travel around my region by bicycle hoping to change the world by practising an art that nobody believes in, but the parallel stops there,” he says. “I am not a witch, but it's a figure that I try to treat with deference. They are complicated figures, and you must exercise caution and delicacy, especially in my position. I know that they are important for many people, and incomprehensible to many others. Among people who claim the figure of the witch, you find groups with absolutely opposing political views. The witch is a protective figure in feminist and anti-capitalist circles, but at the same time European paganisms are being co-opted by the far right."

Tony has a master’s in comics (yes, in France that’s a real thing!) from Angoulême university and now lives in Strasbourg in the north east. The first volume of MAJO NO MICHI was published in June 2024 and the second will be out by the end of this year. 

Ride & Create.