Born in Montreal, Réal Godbout participated in the early 70's in the movement that has been called "le printemps de la bande dessinée québécoise". As a comic book writer, he has also worked in illustration and as a storyboard artist for animation. He is known as the illustrator and co-writer (with Pierre Fournier) of the series Michel Risque (5 albums) and Red Ketchup (9 albums), originally published in the magazine CROC and since reissued by La Pastèque. The Red Ketchup comic book has been adapted into a cartoon series that will be on the air in April 2023. A tenth Red Ketchup album is currently in progress. He also wrote the didactic series Les Grands Débrouillards, L'Amérique ou le Disparu, an adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel (Bédélys price 2014), the illustrated album Avant l'Apocalypse, written in collaboration with Adèle Bourget-Godbout, the album Quand je serai mort, on a script by Laurent Chabin, the graphic novel Heureux qui comme Ugo, co-written with Robin Bourget, and several commissioned comics for various organizations. In 2009, he was inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Hall of Fame. In 2022. he received the Alber-Chartier award (jointly with Pierre Fournier) for his entire career at the Quebec Comics Festival. He taught from 1999 to 2018 in the comics program of the Université du Québec en Outaouais.