Menu started his careers as a comic artist and as a publisher simultaneously when he launched the fanzines Le Lynx à Tifs and Le Journal de Lapot in 1981. In 1984 he started working for Psikopat, where he introduced the character Meder. Soon, his work was found in various comic magazines like Tintin, Spirou, Fripounet and Jade in the Franco-Belgian comics world as well as Rip Off Comix and Weirdo in the United States. Futuropolis published his book Le Portrait de Lurie Ginol and a new magazine called Labo which only lasts one issue but brings the desire to later-on create the magazine Lapin, which is still being published to this day.
L'Association
In May 1990, Menu and five other young cartoonists struggling to find an outlet for their work decided to launch L'Association. In 1992 Menu, along with Lewis TrondheimFrançois Ayroles, Anne Baraou, Gilles Ciment, Jochen Gerner, Thierry Groensteen, Patrice Killoffer and Étienne Lécroart, founded the Oubapo, which was inspired by Raymond Queneau and Georges Perec's Oulipo. One of L'Association's most recognizable and experimental books to date was the black-and-white anthology Comix 2000 which features work from over 300 creators from 29 countries in one 2,000-page hardcover volume. L'Association is also known for discovering and publishing Marjane Satrapi's book, Persepolis, which later inspired a film of the same name.
Controversy
In 2005, Menu published "Plates-bandes", a diatribe against the co-optation and wholesale copycatting of the indie, avant-garde, experimental, or alternative comics aesthetic by France's mainstream comic book publishers looking to corner what had suddenly become a lucrative market. Literally meaning "flowerbeds", the title is a pun involving part of the word for comics, a concern that independent comics are headed for blandness and platitude, and a gauntlet thrown down to mainstream publishers for encroaching on indie territory. The book coincides with three of the original founders and a few authors leaving L'Association and finding work with many of mainstream publishers mentioned in its content. In May 2011, after nearly six months of struggles within the structure, Menu announced his official departure from L'Association and spoke in a public letter of a desire to start a new project elsewhere.
Recent career
Menu continues to work on his comics. On January 8, 2011 he was awarded a doctorat en art et sciences de l'art after defending his thesis La Bande dessinée et son double : langage et marges de labande dessinée : perspectives pratiques, théoriques et éditoriales. The thesis was under the supervision of Jacques Cohen.
