Philippe Marcelé was born in Bordeaux, France. He was a student of fine arts there and in Paris, and received his Masters in national education. He illustrated his first story in Charlie Mensuel (Charlie Monthly). 

After working for the French-Belgian comic magazine, L'Écho des Savanes, Marcelé began a long collaboration with French magazine, Pilote. Among his first published stories were Macbeth, Après-midi au cirque (An Afternoon at the Circus) and Lolla.

A few years later, Marcelé abandoned the fantastic for political fiction, starting with Capahuchos, then Cothias, and later two volumes of Signe du Taureau (Sign of the Taurus). 

He then collaborated with Thierry Smolderen, who was inspired by the blood-crazed killers of Brabant to write Dark Rage (Colère Noire), a thriller as gray as a November sky in the suburbs of Brussels.