Obscure Cities
5 total works
Winner of the coveted Gaiman Award as the No. 1 translated foreign comic book series published in Japan in 2013, this story of perseverance and a young girl's search for love has been translated from it's original French into ten languages. Author and publisher Stephen D. Smith has now translated The Leaning Girl into English and it features an introduction by Karen Green, Graphic Novel Librarian at Columbia University.
After a freak accident on the Star Express roller coaster, 13 year-old Mary Von Rathen begins to lean. Doctors can not help her, so she is sent by her selfish mother and hen-pecked father to a private school in Sodrovni. Mary escapes and joins the Robertson Circus where she remains for several years, until she hears from newspaper editor, Stanislas Sainclair, that a scientist, Axel Wappendorf, might be able to help her. Wappendorf is working on a rocket to reach a planet that could hold the secret to Mary's trouble. Meanwhile an artist, Augustin Desombres, has run away from the busy world and buys an empty building on the High Plains of Aubrac in the French countryside. He begins painting murals of strange globes. Now as a young woman, Mary decides to join Wappendorf in the rocket. On the alien planet, they discover an area with many globes where she has a chance meeting with the artist.
Nominated for two 2015 Eisner Awards: BEST U.S. EDITION OF INTERNATIONAL MATERIAL and BEST PENCILER/INKER - François Schuiten.
After a freak accident on the Star Express roller coaster, 13 year-old Mary Von Rathen begins to lean. Doctors can not help her, so she is sent by her selfish mother and hen-pecked father to a private school in Sodrovni. Mary escapes and joins the Robertson Circus where she remains for several years, until she hears from newspaper editor, Stanislas Sainclair, that a scientist, Axel Wappendorf, might be able to help her. Wappendorf is working on a rocket to reach a planet that could hold the secret to Mary's trouble. Meanwhile an artist, Augustin Desombres, has run away from the busy world and buys an empty building on the High Plains of Aubrac in the French countryside. He begins painting murals of strange globes. Now as a young woman, Mary decides to join Wappendorf in the rocket. On the alien planet, they discover an area with many globes where she has a chance meeting with the artist.
Nominated for two 2015 Eisner Awards: BEST U.S. EDITION OF INTERNATIONAL MATERIAL and BEST PENCILER/INKER - François Schuiten.
The fourth release in Alaxis Press' The Obscure Cities series to be published by IDW brings the award winning graphic novels to readers in English for the first time!
Newly married Albert Chamisso is having horrific nightmares. Eccentric doctor Polydore Vincent is able to give him relief, but the experimental treatment has a strange side effect: from now on, Albert's shadow will be cast in color. This seemingly inconsequential development brings his life crashing down, ultimately losing him his job and his new wife. Evicted from his home, he moves to the outskirts of Blossfeldtstad where he meets the beautiful and talented Minna, who will help turn his curse into a gift. Together they will create something special, a performance of light and shadow unlike any seen before. The Shadow of a Man is an unforgettable, retro-futurist tale of bittersweet noir romance.
Newly married Albert Chamisso is having horrific nightmares. Eccentric doctor Polydore Vincent is able to give him relief, but the experimental treatment has a strange side effect: from now on, Albert's shadow will be cast in color. This seemingly inconsequential development brings his life crashing down, ultimately losing him his job and his new wife. Evicted from his home, he moves to the outskirts of Blossfeldtstad where he meets the beautiful and talented Minna, who will help turn his curse into a gift. Together they will create something special, a performance of light and shadow unlike any seen before. The Shadow of a Man is an unforgettable, retro-futurist tale of bittersweet noir romance.
Against the urging of his friends and his lover, Franz, a young officer in the Xhystos government, is sent on a mission to the remote and elusive city of Samaris to investigate the disappearance of several of his colleagues.
After weeks of travel, Franz reaches Samaris, to find a practically deserted city of enveloping and deceptive architecture. He is immediately bewitched by a mysterious young woman, drawing the suspicion of the other residents. Can Franz escape the impending doom of this sprawling metropolis?
The first in the Obscure Cities series, The Great Walls of Samaris was originally published in Europe in 1983 and in the US in 1987 by NBM. The story has been slightly altered to include characters who appear later in the canon, and reveal Peeters' Kafkaesque storytelling prowess. Schuiten’s art in this edition has been reworked to be much truer to the originally intended color palette, and includes 32 additional pages of early Obscure Cities stories, comprising the Mysteries of Pâhry, never before published in English.
After weeks of travel, Franz reaches Samaris, to find a practically deserted city of enveloping and deceptive architecture. He is immediately bewitched by a mysterious young woman, drawing the suspicion of the other residents. Can Franz escape the impending doom of this sprawling metropolis?
The first in the Obscure Cities series, The Great Walls of Samaris was originally published in Europe in 1983 and in the US in 1987 by NBM. The story has been slightly altered to include characters who appear later in the canon, and reveal Peeters' Kafkaesque storytelling prowess. Schuiten’s art in this edition has been reworked to be much truer to the originally intended color palette, and includes 32 additional pages of early Obscure Cities stories, comprising the Mysteries of Pâhry, never before published in English.
Masterful fantasy comes alive as the fifth release in Alaxis Press' The Obscure Cities series brings the award winning graphic novels to readers in English with an all-new translation!
Giovanni Batista is a third-class maintainer of the Tower. His section is deteriorating more and more by the day and he has not heard from any of his inspectors or fellow maintainers in months. Running out of supplies and having filed multiple written complaints, he decides to descend to the base. Using a chute of his own making, he crash lands and is found by Elias Aureolus Palingenius and the lovely Milena. He finds a world full of books and people he never knew of, but the mystery of why the Tower was built still nags at Giovanni so he and Milena decide to climb to the top to find answers.
The Tower, presented in this new edition, is a fabulous story for the exploration of a deliquescent world, an epic fable to the dimensions of world-building, a fantastic escape full of paradoxes, simulacra, and pretense. Magnificent mastery, invention, and poetry, this is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful jewels of the exciting saga of the OBSCURE CITIES.
Giovanni Batista is a third-class maintainer of the Tower. His section is deteriorating more and more by the day and he has not heard from any of his inspectors or fellow maintainers in months. Running out of supplies and having filed multiple written complaints, he decides to descend to the base. Using a chute of his own making, he crash lands and is found by Elias Aureolus Palingenius and the lovely Milena. He finds a world full of books and people he never knew of, but the mystery of why the Tower was built still nags at Giovanni so he and Milena decide to climb to the top to find answers.
The Tower, presented in this new edition, is a fabulous story for the exploration of a deliquescent world, an epic fable to the dimensions of world-building, a fantastic escape full of paradoxes, simulacra, and pretense. Magnificent mastery, invention, and poetry, this is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful jewels of the exciting saga of the OBSCURE CITIES.
Visit a land full of mystery, ancient alchemy, and modern technologies in this award-winning graphic novel series, now in a new edition with all-new colors and an updated translation!
The second book in the original The Obscure Cities series, The Fever in Urbicande was first published in English by NBM in 1990 in black-and-white. This updated edition features an all-new translation and beautiful new coloring supervised by Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters.
Eugen Robick, Urbatect of Urbicande has been designing a new bridge to connect the southern portion of the city to the north, but his bid to commence construction has been denied by the Commission. Unconcerned with the politics of the situation, Eugen only cares about the balance it will bring to the city.
While contemplating how he can convince the Commission to see things his way, Eugen is brought a cube made of beams discovered during construction of another project. Initially small enough to fit on his desk, it begins to grow, adding beam after beam, until it soon takes over his entire office. Growing exponentially, it eventually takes over the entire city, disrupting the social order as citizens begin using the beams to travel back and forth between the southern and northern parts of the city, previously only accessible via the guarded bridges. While the Commission wishes to put a stop to any such social change, the cube’s impact is overpowering and irreversible.
The second book in the original The Obscure Cities series, The Fever in Urbicande was first published in English by NBM in 1990 in black-and-white. This updated edition features an all-new translation and beautiful new coloring supervised by Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters.
Eugen Robick, Urbatect of Urbicande has been designing a new bridge to connect the southern portion of the city to the north, but his bid to commence construction has been denied by the Commission. Unconcerned with the politics of the situation, Eugen only cares about the balance it will bring to the city.
While contemplating how he can convince the Commission to see things his way, Eugen is brought a cube made of beams discovered during construction of another project. Initially small enough to fit on his desk, it begins to grow, adding beam after beam, until it soon takes over his entire office. Growing exponentially, it eventually takes over the entire city, disrupting the social order as citizens begin using the beams to travel back and forth between the southern and northern parts of the city, previously only accessible via the guarded bridges. While the Commission wishes to put a stop to any such social change, the cube’s impact is overpowering and irreversible.