Born in Belgium, Marc Vanoppen, known as Marvano, started out as an interior designer. Years later, he began an alternate career as an illustrator, eventually becoming editor-in-chief of the magazine Kuifje, then managing the comics department of Flemish publisher Den Gulden Engel. All the while he published his own comics and went on to write and illustrate dozens of graphic novels over decades, most notably adapting Joe Halderman's famous novel The Forever War.