Ebook Les Cités obscures Les murailles de Samaris CASTERMAN Univers d'auteurs French Edition eBook Benoît Peeters François Schuiten

Product details File Size 146522 KB Print Length 84 pages Publisher Casterman (March 26, 2010) Publication Date March 26, 2010 Language French ASIN B00SBD8TP6

Les Cités obscures Les murailles de Samaris CASTERMAN Univers d'auteurs French Edition eBook Benoît Peeters François Schuiten Reviews

• This is the volume that started it all -- what is likely the longest, most intricate and enigmatic puzzlebox narrative in European comics. These are books that really take the reader away, to a vast and intricately realized alternate history. When I was a kid, just seeing the covers of these books would set me off on some imaginary tangent, to a world where dreams had their own architects, and the architecture could be engineered in your dreams. That may or may not make sense, but it's exactly the kind of giddy, wondrous moods this series can still inspire.
  
  It doesn't feature the crazy sex and violence we all love in Jodorowsky's many BD collaborations, but the books that make up the 'Cities of the Fantastic' series are definitely not kid's stuff. From 'The Walls of Samaris' to their most recent work, they have always displayed a thoughtful, deliberate approach to story-telling found in the most talented and mature novelists or film-makers. The series jumps from city to city across this other-Earth, exploring dark, complicated themes; and the beautiful woman that takes an inexplicable interest in the flawed protagonist does usually end up naked, sometimes getting involved in an 'R-Rated' sex scene. That might have something to do with being serialized by 'Metal Hurlant' and its North American iteration 'Heavy Metal' in the late seventies and early eighties. 'Cities of the Fantastic' was one of several pivotal works to emerge from this era, when a hybrid of American Underground comics and hard-boiled science fiction and fantasy was already re-writing the DNA of European comics. Like the work of Moebius, Milo Manara, Vittorio Giardino, and Enki Bilal, Schuiten and Peeters are part of a very elite group of Bande Dessinee creators who are responsible for the massive creative leap in this period. One of Europe's greatest artist/writer teams began the epic and visionary 'Les Cites Obscures' over 35 years ago with this book, and it remains just as vital today.
  
  P.S. If you can't read French, don't worry about it. The cryptic, enigmatic beauty of 'Cities of the Fantastic' can only be enhanced by trying to read it in a language you don't understand. ;)