Author Topic: Les Cités Obscures  (Read 8845 times)

JaredAxelrod

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on: February 09, 2007, 02:43:08 AM
I was poking around at the library the other day, I and I was quite surprised to find a large amount of European comics.  Just about all of these were in French, and I was quite surprised to find that alot of them are out of print, and, in many cases, have never been translated into English.

One such gem is La Route d'Armilia , sixth in François Schuiten’s and Benoît Peeters’s series Les Cités Obscures--Cities of the Fantastic. Only four of the seventeen volumes of this breath-takingly beautiful series of graphic novels has been translated into English, and La Route d’Armilia is not among them. Which is too bad, as I’d love to know the story behind the young boy and his zeppelin trip to the North Pole.  There’s a brief synopsis here, but that doesn’t really tell much more than you can gleam from the gorgeous, gorgeous pictures.

Case in point:



I've got some more Les Cités Obscures--all in French, natch--and I'll put up som more scans if folks want.  But I'm curious. From what I can find, Schuiten and Peeters are sci-fi icons in France and Belgium, but I've had alot of trouble finding anything about them and their work on this side of the Atlantic.  Has anyone else read them?
« Last Edit: February 09, 2007, 02:46:16 AM by JaredAxelrod »



SFEley

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Reply #1 on: February 09, 2007, 03:58:03 AM
I was poking around at the library the other day, I and I was quite surprised to find a large amount of European comics.  Just about all of these were in French, and I was quite surprised to find that alot of them are out of print, and, in many cases, have never been translated into English.

Clearly your library is a lot cooler than my library.  I thought mine was doing pretty well to have Birds of Prey in stock.  >8->


Quote
I've got some more Les Cités Obscures--all in French, natch--and I'll put up som more scans if folks want.  But I'm curious. From what I can find, Schuiten and Peeters are sci-fi icons in France and Belgium, but I've had alot of trouble finding anything about them and their work on this side of the Atlantic.  Has anyone else read them?

I've never heard of them, alas.

I'm sure there's a lot of terrific SF that never makes it into English.  It's a stroke of genuine luck that even someone like Stanislaw Lem has a reputation here.

ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine


Simon

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Reply #2 on: February 09, 2007, 12:56:18 PM
Absolutely agree Steve...  Thinking through the list of non-english language SF writers, I can only immediately think of Lem and The Strugatsky Brothers (and I can't remember the last time I saw a book by The Strugatskys)

In fact..  I cant think of any Non-english language SF writers who haven't had films made by Tarkovsky!  How depressing...

Do Primo Levi's science fiction stories count?



JaredAxelrod

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Reply #3 on: February 09, 2007, 03:03:57 PM
Clearly your library is a lot cooler than my library.  I thought mine was doing pretty well to have Birds of Prey in stock.  >8->

One of the many benefits of working for the University of Pennsylvania.  Say what you want about Ivy League schools, they always have excellent libraries.



entropyblues

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Reply #4 on: February 27, 2007, 01:52:02 AM
I've got several of those comics on my shelf. The winners are definitely the Great Walls of Samaris and Fever in Urbicand, although all the English-translated ones are marvelous.

Fever and Walls have really wonderfully surreal story lines, that read like a mix like a mix of Kafka and 19thy century science fiction. And the art is every bit as good as that earlier screen cap suggests.

You can get them on Amazon... for around 50$. And it's almost worth it.






Alasdair5000

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Reply #5 on: February 28, 2007, 02:53:18 PM
Humanoids Publishing were at one point scheduled to translate Walls.  Not sure if they ever did though.  That aside, if anyone's interested then the other books in the Humanoids line are well worth tracking down.  Enki Bilal's Cityscapes in particular is spectacular, collecting three stories which explore what it's like to live in small towns and extraordinary times.  I used to be paid to sell (and inevitably, read) graphic novels and Ship of Stone, the story of a village fighting redevelopment and the very strange old man in the castle on the hill is flat out one of the best I've ever read.



Alasdair5000

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Reply #6 on: February 28, 2007, 03:52:29 PM
   And just because you can take the guy out of the comic shop but you can't take the comic shop out of the guy, here's their website:

http://www.humanoids-publishing.com/home.php



entropyblues

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Reply #7 on: March 01, 2007, 04:15:03 AM
"Walls" and "Fever" were both translated by Nantier Biel & Minoustchine Publishing in '87 an '90, respectivley.

I've been looking all day, and they are absurdly hard to find in print.

But I did find "Fever in Urbicand" on Amazon Marketplace:

...for 30.00$
« Last Edit: March 01, 2007, 04:17:24 AM by entropyblues »



fiveyearwinter

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Reply #8 on: March 02, 2007, 06:00:05 PM
Quote
One of the many benefits of working for the University of Pennsylvania.  Say what you want about Ivy League schools, they always have excellent libraries.


Vile wretch!

Sorry, Drexel student. They updated our conditioning modules over Dragonfly in the last rollout and it includes disdain for UPenn employees now, too. ;)
« Last Edit: March 02, 2007, 08:40:37 PM by fiveyearwinter »



JaredAxelrod

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Reply #9 on: May 02, 2007, 06:18:55 PM
I've been looking all day, and they are absurdly hard to find in print.

Yeah...I'll probably just end up scanning the pretty parts and plastering my office with them or something