Here are twenty inspiring graphic novels and comics series to remind us that if we look for it, we can find beauty in everything. Even in the mundane.

Glorious Summers

In this nostalgic account, the Faldérault family sets out for a final summer vacation together before an impending marital separation disrupts the family dynamics for good. Along the way, heading south to France from Brussels, Pierre, Maddie, and their children revel in impromptu skinny-dips, family sing-alongs, and camping in the wild, ultimately finding a renewed zest for life—and vacation!

Old Geezers

Three old geezers, activists, and lifelong friends reunite at the funeral of the wife of one of them, Antoine, who finds out about a long ago liaison between his dearly departed and the reviled billionaire who owns the factory they all worked in. Livid, Antoine jumps in his car and heads for Italy with revenge on his mind, his two buddies and his pregnant granddaughter following close behind. A chance to reminisce about the past, to fantasize about sticking it to the man, to discuss what’s wrong with the world, to bridge the generation gap, to forgive and forget and settle scores. A wickedly funny geriatric road trip!

Body and Soul

The lives of a handful of Parisian characters trying to connect with themselves, their bodies, and each other intertwine in this insightful snapshot of modern society: mothers and daughters, sons and parents, lovers, friends, and neighbors interact and experience each other in ways both simple and profound.

Flora and the Shooting Stars

40-year-old Flora has just gone through a bitter divorce after 20 years of marriage. Thankfully, she can count on the support of her friends: Roxane, the cool hippie who loves to garden, Lea, the tireless career woman, and her old neighbor, Venerable. Like her friends, Flora would love to find her soul mate, but it’s just not that simple. She has several promising dates, but once the first flush of passion is over, her lovers seem to disappear into the night. Why does this keep happening? Is she not attractive enough? Is she so difficult to be around? Or is she being sabotaged by someone close to her? A story for the divorced (and perpetually single) 40-somethings who just want to take a moment to catch their breath, and maybe even enjoy their singledom, told through the eyes of Flora and her hilarious entourage.

Ordinary Victories

Marco’s left town for the countryside. He’s left his psychologist because he feels he’s doing better. He’s quit his job as a reporter because he’s had enough of photographing corpses. He gets himself a little cottage in the heart of rural France, where he lives with his cat, Adolf. He throws out all his work, and cuts ties with his employer. That night, he has his first panic attack. It’s not long before he meets the lovely Emilie, and also the wise and good-natured old man who lives in the cottage just across the way… but who, it turns out, isn’t exactly what he seems…

Seeking Dad 2.0

Caroline is a 33-year-old single mom. To help her cope with the difficulties she faces as such in her personal and professional life, she’s a regular at the M.A (mothers anonymous) association, a conversation group for women who are a little overwhelmed by their motherhood. Caroline shares her tragi-comic attempts to find love and companionship, while Philippe, a slightly out-of-place new arrival at M.A., reflects on his status as a ‘dad 2.0’. A funny, intelligent, and moving graphic novel, a touch of chick lit with a feminist twist that comments on one of the big social subjects of our time: the new family model.

Limited Edition

Claire is a thirtysomething neonatal nurse who is becoming increasingly discouraged about her prospects of getting into a long-term relationship and starting a family. She thinks she may have finally met her man in Franck—if not a Prince Charming then at least a friendly and compatible person—but societal pressures and gender norms seem to rear their heads at every turn and Claire begins to wonder if it will ever be possible for her to be happy with another person on her own terms. Aude Picault’s chronicle of everyday romance is full of wit and sympathy but it is also backed up by a bibliography of feminist essays and studies of gender relations, offering a valuable and complicated case study of the challenges facing modern women.

A Love for the Ages

Jean and Germaine are the most affable couple the little village of Colle sur Loup has ever seen. A duke married to a commoner, they have no children, no jobs, and are disastrous cooks! They like to indulge in life’s small pleasures; their books, their garden, and their after-lunch naps. They live for each other, and for their love. Their simple happiness intrigues, fascinates, infuriates and is the envy of all those around them. Daniel Pennac knew Jean and Germaine well. He spent his time at their house reading, watching, learning, and, of course, trying Germaine’s catastrophic efforts in the kitchen! He’s now taken it upon himself to tell the story of those happy days, and of a love that has always captivated him.

Back to Basics

Aaah, the countryside! Fresh air, green fields, home-grown vegetables… the dream (or the nightmare) of all city-dwellers. Well, this is the tale of when it became Manu Larcenet’s reality. One fine day he and his partner Mariette packed up their urban life and set off for the little village of Ravenelles (population of 89 people, including a pretty baker). When, like Manu, you’ve lived your whole life in a Parisian suburb, the rural life can be quite the shock to the system…

Valentine

Valentine is a secondary-school student like many others. Her daily life is filled with all the upheavals and self-questioning of adolescence. Self-conscious, she tries to assert herself within a group in which she is “the shy one”. She spends most of her time with her girlfriends, at school or at parties on the weekend. She also tries desperately to get the attention of Felix, the boy she’s in love with – and who has no idea she exists. To make things worse, he’s in the “rival” class to her own… Little by little, this young woman learns to express herself and find her place in the cruel and treacherous world of adolescence, from MP3 players and Japanese mangas, to her first parties and her first whiskey and Coke.

While the King of Prussia…

Mrs. Hubeau looks after her 40-year-old handicapped son, Michel. Despite many happy moments, her daily life is far from easy, but she faces it with unparalleled courage and generosity. This is a beautiful homage to all the admirable people fighting in the shadows.

The Midlife Crisis

Usually around about the 40 mark, the human male has a habit of leaving his well-worn spouse in search of greener pastures. As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side. Florence Cestac dissects this subject of common interest, from the very first symptoms right up to the final outbreak, via the pangs of “bathrobe-sofa” depression. “You’re the love of my life! But with her, it’s something else… she’s a fairy,” declares our hero with the touching honesty of a male en route to adventure. So once our hero’s skipped off into the sunset with his fairy, our heroine begins asking herself a series of counter-productive questions regarding her general attitude and in particular her cellulite. She then 1). Discovers that everyone else knew about it all along 2). Listens to the questionable opinions of her girlfriends 3). Attempts to rekindle old flames dug out of her old phone book and to kindle new ones in her local DIY store. She explains to her kid that Daddy “just took a little jaunt over to Mars,” which the kid in turn interprets as “Daddy flew to Mars with a slut that Mommy doesn’t like.” She manages to raise her spirits with “tiptopform,” drinks a bit, weeps a lot, and buries the dog who decided to die right in the middle of it all – cherry on the cake. Anyway, she “handles it” and she survives. Between giggles and anguish, this will touch anyone who’s ever felt the sting of that wonderful thing we call love. Disarmingly frank, with endearingly crude humor and a perfect understanding of her subject, this is Florence Cestac on top form.

Macaroni!

The touching story of a child getting to know his grandfather, an Italian immigrant living in Belgium. 11-year-old Romeo thinks of his grandfather as nothing but an “old pain-in-the-butt.” So when he finds out that he’s going to have to spend a few days with him at his crumbling old house, without even a TV to keep him entertained… well, it’s his idea of hell. But there are some surprises in store for Romeo during his visit. He changes his mind about a few things, perhaps thanks to his grandfather’s neighbor, Lucy, who tells him about her own “nono,” and shows him how a spoil tip can be a thing of beauty. Or perhaps it’s thanks to Romeo’s dad, who speaks for the first time about his childhood relationship with his father. But it’s mostly thanks to Ottavio who, beneath his old, grouchy exterior, conceals the hard life he has led, full of suffering and sacrifice. It is a life the 11-year-old Romeo finds hard to comprehend, but which gives him a deeper understanding of someone from another century. It started off as just a short holiday to a grey Belgian town. But this holiday turns into an opportunity for three generations of men to lift the silence that surrounds them. A touching story about Italian immigration, coal mining, communication between the generations and the difficultly of opening up when you’ve spent your whole life in silence.

Object Lessons

At the age of 8, Jean-Pierre is leading a blossoming life, subject to the rhythm of nature, in a village that provides enough stories and space to feed his child’s imagination. There is the church in the middle of the village – the monument to the dead. A single primary school class, an authoritarian and mustachioed teacher, fights between boys, and slaps from conceited little girls. Jean-Pierre is in love with his mum, as all little boys are, and extremely admiring of his dad, his champion, who is not around enough. This is the year that Jean-Pierre discovers life and how cruel and merciless it is: his parents split up. For this new story, the author tackles a difficult period experienced by the child Jean-Pierre, in an almost autobiographical way. A modest and deeply moving tale.

Jazz Club

Norman was a talented sax player in his heyday, until he lost his musical gift seemingly overnight and fled to France. Over thirty years later, with the millennium approaching, he finds himself confronting unresolved questions, a former lover, and diehard fans who have taken obsession to a new level…

Kiosco

A kiosk is a place to have some rest, to have fun, to talk… But it is also a watchtower from where one may stare at the world. Every
morning, the roller blind is raised like hope. This is the small tragedy of a tiny hero, his private adventure in a world that seems to ignore his existence. A lonely person that observes how life keeps on going, without stopping in front of him.

Fragments of Femininity

This is a collection of portraits of 7 women, of all different ages, backgrounds, circumstances and eras. Each one of them is facing a defining moment in her life. They are bound together by the symbol of their femininity: their breasts. We see an awkward college girl getting to grips with her womanhood; a 1960s house-wife freeing herself from the restraints of propriety; the manager of a small underwear shop fighting against corporate giants; a woman nude modeling for an unexpected reason… Love, illness, sex, liberation, sensuality: Olivier Pont draws us into the lives of these women with astounding force.

Hearts at Sea

Jean-Paul is a shy, slightly gawky young man leading a rather unremarkable life in which his oppressive mother is all too present. As the anniversary of his father’s death approaches, he feels increasingly dissatisfied with his life, and increasingly aware of his loneliness. It’s time for things to change. So, without telling anyone, he embarks on a singles cruise and takes his first steps in a brave new world.

Marzi

“Before, there were trees and countryside. Man didn’t intervene. Stalin decided to “rectify” that space, and now, instead of trees, there are concrete buildings, everywhere. Stalin had a factory built. Thanks to that, lots of people got jobs, like my dad.” Born in 1979, Marzi is a 7-year-old Polish girl who looks wide-eyed at the world around her: her parents, her family, her school friends and the crabby women at the grocery store who don’t even smile for a fruit delivery. Marzi lives on a council estate in an industrial town, and is a cheerful, carefree, mischievous and perceptive little girl, bound to run into many adventures!

Forget My Name

When the last vestiges of his childhood are taken from him, Zerocalcare discovers unsuspected secrets about his family. Torn between the soothing numbness of the innocence of youth and the impossibility to elude society’s ever expanding control over people’s lives, he’ll have to understand where he really comes from, before he understands where he is going…

A Little Piece of Her

Yu Kiang works for a Chinese lumberjack corporation in the Congo. Despite his company’s ban on its employees from frequenting the local girls, Yu has fallen for a Congolese woman, Antoinette… and, in a very different way, for Antoinette’s little daughter, Marie-Léontine. One night, in the arms of his lover, Yu discovers Antoinette’s wound: a terrible scar, an assault on her femininity. How many others are there like her, exiled from their own body, victims of a monstrous ongoing tradition? How many? 150 million. But the only thing that matters to Yu and Antoinette is that little Marie-Léontine never falls victim to the tradition that her mother had to suffer.

Michigan

When Julien arrives in Michigan to meet his wife’s American family, he gets to know the American Midwest, as well as some unusual cousins. But above all, he meets Odette, his French great aunt with what one might call a resilient personality. Originally from Paris, she married an American soldier at the end of the Second World War. Like her, 200,000 other European “war brides” left behind their families and their countries to be with the G.I.s they loved.

Little Mama

Life isn’t easy for little Brenda, whose single teenage mom is immature, selfish, and prone to violent mood swings. Brenda takes care of her as best she can, missing out on many childhood joys to be her mother’s Little Mama. Sadly, her already challenging existence gets even worse when her mom’s abusive boyfriend moves in. Brenda loves having a new baby brother, but her home life soon turns into pure living hell. Finally she reaches her breaking point, and has to find the courage to save herself and embark on the difficult road towards recovery. A heartbreaking and inspiring tale of abuse and survival.

The Perineum Technique

JH meets Sarah on a dating site. They connect on a regular basis and bring each other to mutual on-screen orgasm. Their exchanges, brief and solitary, eventually obsess JH, who tries to convince Sarah to meet him in person. A strange game of seduction is established between them that compels JH to meet the one sexual challenge – abstinence – that might set something into motion with Sarah. This story is a loose and contemporary variation on the theme of seduction and the emergence of love during this time of hyperconnectivity. Playing skillfully with sexual metaphor and the deafening presence of what is implicit but never spoken, Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot invite us to follow them into a maze of games of love and chance.

Sour Apple

By all appearances they are a happy couple. Married, religious, hardworking. What happens behind closed doors, however, is a secret, even to those closest to them. “Kwaśne jabłko” (Sour Apple), written by Jerzy Szyłak and illustrated by Joanna Karpowicz, tells a story of domestic abuse, a story of a victim and persecutor. This story of violence spiraling out of control brings no hope, instead playing on emotions and powerful illustrations, painted with acrylic on canvas-textured paper, to create a unique atmosphere of horror. It is violence as seen by a painter. In truth, no one would like to hear this kind of story, and yet such stories are told, and need to be told. They need to be told because they happen to real people, be they old or young, educated or uneducated, pious or atheist. None of these people wants to take a bite from the sour apple in the basket. However, it happens to some. That is why such stories must be told.

Tentacles at My Throat

Three friends, their schoolgrounds, a secret. And fifteen years later, the discovery that they all thought there was only one secret, but each had their own. And there was one more, bigger than the others, that none were aware of. This is Zerocalcare’s second graphic novel, the one that made him stand out as an intelligent, delicate, merciless narrator when it comes to describing his own weaknesses, which may be everyone’s. A complete story in three parts at different times in the coming of age of young Calcare; three moments that have in common the all-too-familiar feeling of having tentacles at the throat.

A Real Job

Javi has left Spain for Berlin. He doesn’t speak German and hardly knows anyone there. He wants to be a comic book artist, but all his friends advise him to find a real job. He desperately needs to believe in himself, and to be believed. Burning with the desire to leave his mark, yet patient like any professional observer, Javi tells the story of his world, which becomes his first comic.

Sun

Sun is the story of a little boy and his mother. The child is the result of a drunken roll in the hay the mother has after a fight with her family. Filled with shame and guilt, the mother is incapable of showing the child love and affection. Her father, the boy’s grandfather, sees the boy as the son he never had and the heir to his fortune. He takes care of the boy and the bond between the two grows very strong. But the day comes when grandfather dies. In an effort to get rid of the boy, he is told to take his demented grandmother for a stroll. And that’s when the accident happens. The boy is charged with murder and ends up in jail. The mother is relieved to be rid of him and shows no intent to defend him. And that’s when the boy’s father shows up. The mother had bribed him to keep his mouth shut, but he cannot fail his son now. He helps the boy escape, but the police catch up with them. Will they get away?

Seven Places Without You

Elena is losing Jorge, and she doesn’t know why. They’ve been living together at Jorge’s parents’ house for some time now, and so far, everything between them had seemed to be going well. But recently, Jorge has been spending less and less time at home. Elena isn’t sure what to make of his absence, and one day, she decides to leave. “Seven Places Without You” is the story of a young couple’s first experience of a relationship on the rocks; a story that allows time to elapse and silences to lengthen, focusing more on how events develop than on the events themselves. It’s also the story of the spaces where these events occur: the seven places of the title, and of Jorge’s absence.

Malaterre

Gabriel dreams of buying back Malaterre, an estate built by his ancestors in the heart of the jungle over a century ago. Of going there, living there, and restoring the Lesaffre family honor. Of passing it on to his children. But he knows nothing about the country or managing a timber forest. He will have to risk it all, taking his two eldest with him and separating them from their mother and younger brother. All of this, of course, is completely crazy.

Blossoms in Autumn

Ulysses, a middle-aged widower, is forced into early retirement from his moving job. At a loss for what to do next, the course of his life is changed by a chance encounter with a fellow lonely soul at, of all places, his son’s OB/GYN office. Mediterranea, who recently lost her mother, runs a cheese shop that she took over when her beloved Corsican father died years earlier. A romance blossoms between these two people who are supposedly in the “autumn” of their lives and they soon find themselves embarking on a most unexpected odyssey.

John

Almost everyone makes it to fifty these days. And so did John. When his daughters give him a ticket to Rome, he decides it’s time to conquer his fear of flying once and for all. But on the plane home he loses consciousness, and in the hospital he gets devastating news: he has colon cancer. What follows is a roller coaster of emotions, with ups and downs and newfound love… helping John realize just how much life is worth fighting for.

The Bugle Boy

Eighty-five-year-old Marcel lives alone with his memories of World War II — his short-lived days as a soldier before his capture and imprisonment by the Germans. He’s got one thing left to do before he dies: find the bugle he buried by the Maginot Line. When his granddaughter Andrea stops by with her burgeoning rural taxi business, he hops a ride to the site of his regiment’s defeat… only to find things have changed. This is Alexandre Clérisse’s fierce, tender, and timely rumination on the horrors of war and the lies we tell ourselves.

Glory Days

Three young women lacking direction struggle with the challenges of life and relationships: Violet has dumped her boyfriend and is finding it hard to move on; Lila has betrayed her best friend and finds herself now ostracized by her social circle; and Helen struggles to find a balance between her personal life and the doctoral thesis taking up all her time and energy. A realistic slice-of-life portrayal of the growing pains of young adulthood.

Just Enough

Manuel and Mia live together in Bologna, in a house that is so crowded they have a roommate they’ve never seen. Mia is almost thirty, hates her job, and has a deep desire to dig into life before it’s too late—before becoming hopelessly adult. Manuel is publishing a serial novel online about courtly love, which he hopes might one day find a publisher. Mia and Manuel have dreams, but are unhappy. They don’t know how to face the void created between them. They’re losing themselves, even though they love each other. If they’re to straighten things out, they must find the right measure.

Black Paradise

Hans Wagner decides to move with his wife Katie and daughter Lisa from Germany to Nigeria, where he has been offered a well-paid job. The lifestyle that comes with it is a nice extra: they’ll have a housekeeper, there’s a good international school, and their daughter will even be able to join a horseriding club. However, shortly after their arrival in Lagos it turns out that life there is less paradisiacal than they’d hoped…

Days of Sugar and Spice

Rose is not a happy young woman; she is closed off and angry and she hates her job. But her life changes drastically when she inherits her father’s bakery in a small town in Brittany. Returning to a place that brought her both joy and grief forces her to confront painful memories of her past and find the courage to open her heart to a new, happier life that awaits her if she will just let it. A story about new beginnings, filled with small town charm, delicious pastries and the warmth of home and friends.

The Great Outdoors

“Girls, living in the country will be your chance,” her parents tell her. And so Catherine Meurisse spends her childhood outdoors. Construction all around her: an old farmhouse renovated into a home, trees planted, a garden created, dreams cultivated. They dig, they graft, they plant a rosebush “adopted” from Montaigne, a fig tree from Rabelais. They observe the tumult of the outside world: new developments in industrial agriculture, the citification of rural France… With her characteristic humor, Catherine Meurisse has composed a witty poem dedicated to the countryside where her vocation as an artist first took form. The Great Outdoors, like Lightness, her previous album, is a testament to her conviction that nature and art —everything that grows, everything that lives against all opposition— always offer us a chance.

The Eagle With No Claws

1907: In a small town in the Pyrenees, a young soldier regularly climbs one of the tallest peaks to deliver supplies to an observatory. There, he makes a friend whose great passion for the Tour de France pushes ambitious Amédée to take up cycling and dream of winning the Tour himself. But the road to the Tour de France is more challenging and dangerous than he thought, and a terrible accident leaves him handicapped. Still, Amédée remains undaunted and trains even harder, which sets him on the road to cycling stardom… until war breaks out and interrupts his plans yet again. An inspiring tale of courage and human achievement, set against the fascinating backdrop of one of the world’s most grueling tests of endurance.

Amalia

Amalia is on the verge of burnout. Her family life—with her husband, Karim; her 4-year-old daughter, Lili; and her 17-year-old stepdaughter, Nora—is nothing but rushing around, screaming, and doors slamming. At work, they talk about agility, flexibility, and adaptation, but her workload is slipping away from her. As she drives through the countryside, she sees diseased wheat fields and polluted rivers. She can’t even listen to the radio without some new story about deadly attacks and a dying climate. Amalia struggles, tries, fails… and eventually, she cracks.

Header image: The Great Outdoors © Catherine Meurisse / Dargaud

On June 1st, many countries all over the world are celebrating International Children’s Day. To join the celebration, we are taking a look at the children’s books from the Europe Comics catalog, so as to establish what we, adults, could learn from these books and characters. Are there any personality traits we might have lost along the way of growing up, and can these books gently remind us of what we’re missing? 

Pico Bogue

Allow yourself to be absorbed by the wonderfully quirky world of Pico Bogue and his cute little sister Anna (who happens to be an Eisner award nominee!!). The two go through life with as many convictions as questions. With a sharp eye and impeccable logic, they prove to be challenging and sometimes even frustrating, but always witty and lovable, eternally provoking the amusement and exasperation of their parents and teachers. Pico and Anna teach us to be more confident in our curiosity. Above all, they show us how to be more up front about what we feel and what we want. 

Brina

When the cat Brina goes on vacation with her owners, things don’t quite turn out as planned. Should our loved ones be held on to and protected, or should we let them go, to live out their own adventures? A charming and spirited graphic novel from scriptwriter Giorgio Salati (Disney, RAI) and artist Christian Cornia.

Golam

A little thief from the streets of Abu, Mehdi finds himself forced to take a complicated and dangerous test in order to get into the most celebrated alchemy school on the continent. With no knowledge of spells, enchantments or any experience in navigating golams, he somehow finds the strength within him to pass. But how does he do it? In the make-believe world of Hikmadrassa, one cannot survive without courage and a strong sense of responsibility towards those around you. And don’t we all need to express a little bit of heroism every once in a while? Just for the sake of discovering what we’re actually capable of!

Jeremy

Ready for some old school fun? Jeremy, the number one Dutch-speaking comics character in Belgium, is as heroic as Mehdi, as curious as Pico Bogue, and as adventurous as Marion. But there is something else about Jeremy that sets him apart. And that something is the unconditional friendship that he shares with his best friend, Frankie. Frankie might be Jeremy’s complete opposite, even a bit of a rogue at times, causing trouble not only for himself, but also for those closest to him. But that doesn’t stop Jeremy from always being by Frankie’s side and getting them both out of the trickiest situations. Because that’s what real friendship is all about!

Clara

There are some things that a child should never have to endure, but life can be cruel sometimes. Clara is only seven years old when she loses her mother to cancer. Before she passes away, Clara’s mother gives her a doll from the days of her own childhood. Clara doesn’t particularly like the doll at first, but it’ll prove to be a precious ally, accompanying little Clara along the rough road of grief and mourning, through all its stages.

FRNK

When a 13-year-old orphan sets out to find his parents and ends up in prehistoric times, he realises he’s got a lot of work to do: so many things haven’t been invented yet, like fire, soap… and vowels! Not to mention all the terrifying creatures and knuckledragging cavemen he has to deal with!

Kid Lucky

He’s got a yellow shirt and a red neckerchief, unruly locks and a sprig of grass in his mouth. He maintains law and order at the Nothing Gulch School, and he runs faster than his shadow as soon as there’s even the slightest hint of chores to be done. It’s Kid Lucky, a young cowboy knee-high to a grasshopper, always ready to discover the customs of the Wild West, and, most of all, to muck about with his buddies. This is the birth of a legend: the greatest (but still quite small) cowboy of the Wild West! In this first album, Kid Lucky learns his very first cowboy lessons.

Louca

Adolescence is a terrible time for most people. For Louca, it’s especially bad! Generally mediocre, a poor student, awkward with girls… he’s a walking disaster. But Louca has decided: starting tomorrow, he’s going to change! Still, that’s easier said than done… especially when your own mind keeps changing! Luckily, Louca will get a helping hand from a certain fellow named Nathan. Good-looking, amazing at football, funny, smart… this Nathan certainly seems like the perfect guy, and the best coach Louca could possibly hope for. With one little exception: Nathan is a ghost… How did Nathan die? Why can only Louca see him? Will Nathan manage to turn Louca into the kind of guy people want to be with? Will Louca manage both to pass his exams, and to win over Julie, the girl of his dreams?

The Toucan Patrol

Newb wants to join the Toucan Patrol. But first, he’ll have to earn the two things every toucan needs: a neckerchief and slide. How? By confronting his greatest fears. Geez! It’s not going to be easy!

Tiny Fox and Great Boar

Tiny Fox lives alone beneath his apple tree in the distant hills. He is a happy little animal, busy looking after himself and his foxy things. Then one day, a Great Boar appears and moves in under the apple tree, bringing with him a time of change and adventure. Is Tiny Fox ready?

Tosca

Tosca and Rinaldo are orphans. Ever since their parents died, they have been living hidden in the forest. Lucilla is the only daughter of the Duc di Castelguelfo, famous for his exploits defending the Republic of Siena. Lucilla’s parents are too busy to pay much attention to their daughter, who still feels lonely despite being surrounded by an army of maids and servants. But everything changes when she meets Tosca – a mini Robin Hood living a life so different from her own – and their adventures through 14th-century Tuscany begin. In this first volume in the series, they will have to save Lucilla from a fate worse than death: marriage to a man she doesn’t want.

Abbott and Barley

Abbott wishes to take his son Barley to a special place, a place just for the two of them, a place where he can be a hero to Barley. Wherever they decide to go, Barley’s friends had been there before. Only Abbott’s huge heart will be able to find the perfect place: he’s brave, he can handle it!

Milo’s World

Milo lives in a house by a lake. He’s often alone, but he’s used to it. One day, he comes across a beautiful golden fish, and his whole world is turned on its head! Milo soon discovers that, just on the other side of the lake, there’s another, magical world where a battle between good and evil is in full swing. It’s not long before he realizes that he didn’t find this world by accident…

Okheania

The planet Oceania is covered with an ocean of vegetation. Humans navigate the green seas with futuristic ships. Teenagers Jon and Jasper spend most of their days surfing the vast waves of foliage, until one day, without warning, they’re hit by a tsunami. Jon disappears beneath the leafy ocean surface and Jasper is picked up by a ship called the Poseidon. It is said that none return from the depths of this treacherous ocean. But the captain of the Poseidon tells a different story. Will Jon and Jasper ever find each other?

Mia & Co

Mia, Gauthier, Louka and Zouzou are inseparable. Like most teenagers, they’d much rather be playing video games or making music than doing their homework. Mia, the only girl in the group, doesn’t really seem to click with the other girls in her class. But as they grow up, her tight-knit friendship group will become more and more complicated as girl-boy relationships start to get interesting…

On the History Trail with Ariane and Nino

Nino would rather be outside playing than stuck inside doing homework—especially science homework. Then he discovers that one of the greatest scientists ever started out feeling the same way: Albert Einstein—the guy who invented that famous formula: E=mc2. And, as Ariane explains, there was a lot more to Einstein than just formulas. Thanks to him, we have GPS devices and electric gates, nuclear energy and … well, yes, also nuclear bombs. Einstein did everything he could to make the world a better place—but after all, he was only human!

The Music Box

For her eighth birthday, Nola receives a marvelous present: her late mother Annah’s music box. It has the most enchanting melody, and inside the globe… is that a little girl waving? And calling for help?! Before she knows it, Nola has shrunk down size, slipped through the keyhole, and entered the world of Pandorient, where even the most ordinary-looking citizens can have extraordinary powers—and where danger could lurk down every hallway. Nola must help her new friends save their mother from a mysterious malady—all the while making surprising discoveries about Annah’s past, and—maybe—her own future…

Telemachus

Ulysses, mythical hero and king of Ithaca, left years ago to fight in the Trojan War. He never came home. His son, Telemachus, an impatient and immature prince who is as clumsy as he is ambitious, decides to go looking for him. On the way, he meets the hot-headed princess Polycaste, who helps him in his perilous adventure full of vengeful gods and terrifying monsters. Will the winds be favorable to them?

Timo the Adventurer

Timo’s been preparing to be an adventurer his whole (short) life—devouring books of valiant feats and incredible journeys, learning about navigation, botany, and other survival skills. But now that he’s taken the plunge, venturing alone into a new land, the fairy tale has become all too real. Will he fulfill his wish and become a true hero, noble steed and legendary weapon included? More importantly, will he be able to distinguish friend from foe?

Kid Noize

A monkey-faced man named Kid Noize who has a 1977 Mustang, a talking dog, and dreams of being a famous DJ, travels between worlds to deliver mysterious packages to people. Unfortunately, he has lost the package of his next recipient, a young boy named Sam who is having a hard time in life, grieving the loss of his mother while trying to adapt to a tough new town and school. Neither Sam nor Kid Noize has any idea what awaits them as they join forces to find the package that will help shape Sam’s destiny…

Snitches Anonymous

When your old man’s a police captain, it can make for some lonely evenings at home! Tom would know. But when the investigation his father is working on implicates Fabian, one of the hall monitors at his middle school, Tom decides to find out for himself what’s going on. With his best friend Lilia by his side, he sets out to catch the bad guys. They suddenly find themselves trailing suspects, following clues, going undercover, and even getting into high-speed chases! The only thing is they have to do it all in absolute secrecy, so that Tom’s father doesn’t suspect their involvement. To do so, they’ll have to become real-life anonymous informers. But just where will all of this lead?

Animal Jack

Jack is a typical grade school kid… except that he never speaks a word, is followed everywhere he goes by a flying bug, and can turn into any animal he wants, usually to come to the rescue of his family and classmates. Not everybody appreciates his strange behavior, however. When the town’s children start disappearing into the forest, though, Jack’s special ability is their only hope. Will Jack ever be understood and accepted by those around him? And will the townsfolk come to see the forest as anything besides a danger and a nuisance?

Sleeping Beauty

Oxana, a young dancer from the turn of the 19th century, is the victim of a terrible curse that plunges her into a deep sleep. She awakens a hundred years later with no memory of the past in a time that is not her own. Why has she lost her memory? What power does her strange medallion hold? What are the intentions of the mysterious man in white who comes to her assistance?

Children of the Resistance

On May 10th, 1940, Nazi Germany attacked France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Their advance was swift, and led to the fall of France just six weeks later. In the fictional French village of Pontain-L’Écluse, 13-year-old François is shocked to see his fellow villagers—and even some of his family members—accept this occupation and submit to the laws and behavior of the German invaders. Determined to thwart the enemy, he enlists his friend Eusèbe to help sabotage the Nazis and motivate his village to unite against them. A fascinating tale of the Resistance and of actions taken by its youngest activitsts, inspired by true stories.

Elma: A Bear’s Life

Elma is a joyful, free-spirited child who is being raised by a bear she thinks of as her father. But Papa Bear is hiding a secret, and the close-knit duo must make a long and perilous journey to begin a mysterious new life beyond the forest. Adventure and danger are in store as they discover the linked secrets of Elma’s past and future.

Monster Allergy

Elena Potato just moved to Oldmill Village, but she’s about to find that there’s a lot more going on in this quiet little town than meets the eye—Oldmill Village is actually an oasis for all kinds of monsters! Zick, Elena’s new neighbor, is a strange kid who’s allergic to just about everything, but he alone has the power to see the invisible ghosts and monsters that live among us.

Hercules

Hercules and his friend Marlon have just enrolled at the School of Intergalactic Agents, but they’re both having problems. Hercules is a little young—and a little short—to make the grade, while Marlon just can’t help being a coward. For their first Surveillance Operation, they’re sent to Earth to gather information on a girl who’s behaving strangely. But while they’re away, the dreaded Blackbird plans to attack the School…

Fede and Tomato

One morning, the circus arrives in Fede’s town. What a thrill! Now he has a chance to be a circus star! And there he goes, with his cat Tomato, avoiding any streets where he might run into Florencia (because Florencia is his girlfriend, but she doesn’t know it yet). Of course, things get complicated when the lion looks at Tomato with hungry eyes! And the adventure begins when… TOMATO MUST BE SAVED!

Hubert Reeves Explains

After spending many years gazing up at the stars, Hubert Reeves has turned his attention to the future of our planet. The world’s friendliest and most enthusiastic astrophysicist takes us on a surprising journey, which will make us all realize how important it is to protect our environment.

Dead and Unburied

Yan is on top of the world. School’s almost out for summer, he’s about to have a new baby sister, and he’s going to be spending his vacation making a zombie movie with his best friend Nico. But on his way home from school, he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and before he knows it, his life is slipping away… Things are no longer smelling rosy now that Yan’s pushing up daisies. But for some reason, Yan’s soul isn’t going anywhere: his body may be rotting, but his mind is clear, and once out of his grave, Yan is determined to be reunited with his family. He may be falling apart, but he isn’t about to let that happen to them!

The World According to François

François has no interest in choosing between dream and reality: he wants both! Like all ten-year-olds, François has a lot of questions–but he puts his imagination to use to try to find the answers.

Ernest & Rebecca

Her name is Rebecca, and she’s now six, almost six and a half. Her immune system is a little weak, but she’s not going to let that stop her. She’s going to prove to the world that she’s not some little flea! While out hunting frogs in the rain one day, she catches Ernest, a strange outspoken microbe—just the kind of friend that comes in handy when parents get lost in their grown-up fights… An original youth series that combines lively artwork with an endearing story.

Through Lya’s Eyes

The day before her seventeenth birthday, Lya’s life changed forever. Hit by a speeding car and left for dead, she lost the use of her legs as well as some of her faith in the world… Lya learned to live again with the support of her parents. But having discovered that someone bought their silence, Lya is determined to unmask the perpetrator and obtain justice. Her search for the truth takes her to a famous law firm… and down a dangerous path. With the help of her friend Antoine, she’ll stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it all…

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday and Sunday are a pair of lizards living the good life, lazing around on a tropical atoll and fishing off the beach. But when Saturday comes down with a case of acute questionitis, the big mysteries—why are we here? how did we get here?—won’t leave him alone. Only travel can cure his ills, and he sets off with Sunday in tow. What’s a best friend to do but tag along? Together, the indefatigable duo have encounters both fanciful and philosophical in this charming and freewheeling paean to simple joys, curiosity, and friendship, fit for all ages.

The Mitaines Gang

The seemingly idyllic town of Mitaines has been beset by a wave of kidnappings. Strange prints have been spotted in the woods, but there’s no sign of foul play. With the authorities baffled, will young Arthur and the rest of the Mitaines Gang be able to solve the crime? More importantly, will they be able to stay out of trouble themselves?

Monster Delights

Chris is a young pastry apprentice who, one fateful night, sees his delicious creations magically disappear. He decides to get hold of the thief, who happens to be a peculiar sort of squirrel. Chris doesn’t know that the chase will lead to a fantastic adventure! The restaurant’s fridge is the gateway to the magical world of Fridgebottom, a country populated by myths and legends. In this new universe Chris makes the acquaintance of Hannah, a young elf who runs the Monster Delight pastry shop, and who isn’t so great at making pastry! Luckily for Hannah, Chris has a knack for inventing the perfect sweet delight for every palette.

Gremillet Sisters

Being sisters is never easy. But when you’re as different as Sarah, Cassiopeia, and Lucille, it’s even harder! The first is haunted by recurring dreams, the second lives with her head in the clouds, and the last spends most of her time with her cat. Then one day they discover a mysterious photo of their mother pregnant. Where was it taken, and who is the baby? And most importantly, why was this photo hidden away in the depths of the attic? To find out, they’ll have to venture into the tangled forest of the Grémillet family secrets!

The Amazing Adventures of Jules

Jules, a nice boy living a quiet life without any particular problems (except his little brother set on murdering his guinea pig), is selected by the Global Space Agency to take part in the first expedition to planet Alpha aboard an interstellar spaceship. The journey will last 8 weeks for the passengers, and 8 months in Earth-time (because of relativity)… Thus Jules embarks upon the voyage of a lifetime, stowaway guinea pig in tow, accompanied by the other members of this glorious team of space explorers: a couple of eccentrics who collect Nobel prizes; a rather tetchy roommate; a drunken pilot who seems to mess up the landings every time and endangers interplanetary peace; and a pretty exobiologist who will study any extraterrestrial life they come across. Get ready for takeoff!

Elle(s)

Elle is just another teenage girl… most of the time. Bubbly and good-natured, she wastes no time making friends on her first day at her new school. But Elle has a secret: she hasn’t come alone. She’s brought with her a colorful mix of personalities, which come out when she least expects it… Who is Elle, really? And will her new friends stand by her when they find out the truth?

Loonicorns

Welcome to the wonderful world of Looniland, filled with loonicorns, cyclopes, dodos, and other fantastical creatures! Life is good in Looniville… if you’re a Pretty. Meanwhile, the Uglies do all the work and get teased and ridiculed. Until, one day, a huge storm blows through, bringing with it a mysterious illness that only seems to affect the Pretties. And in the nearby forest, a strange new creature has landed. Her name is Penelope, and no one has seen anything like her before. Where did she come from? Could she be the cause of this nefarious disease?

The Keeper of the Little Folk

While visiting her in the hospital, Élina discovers that her grandmother is the Keeper of the Little Folk, protecting fairies, nymphs, naiads, and other fantastical creatures! And now, her grandmother is ready to pass her responsibilities on to Élina. It’s not a moment too soon—Llyam and Nelvyna, creatures of the Little Folk, have sent up a distress signal, because a naiad has gone missing from Bird Lake. Will Élina be able to figure out how to see the fairy creatures in time to help them in their search?

Olive

Olive, age 17, has a rich and vivid inner life. She has created an imaginary world that she’s able to visit whenever she chooses. But her daily life on earth is shaken up by the arrival of a new roommate at boarding school, who won’t leave Olive alone. And even more upsetting: a mysterious spaceman makes a surprise appearance in her imaginary world! A coming-of-age story that will take Olive far from her comfort zone, as she discovers unsuspected sides of herself and the world around her.

Rainbow Girls

When middle school friends Mel, Lisa, and Gwen, along with a pet rat named Razzie, go looking for Gwen’s missing older sister, they find themselves in a greenhouse with giant carnivorous plants, a mad scientist with an evil plan, menacing thugs, and… newly developed superpowers that they mysteriously develop just in time to save the day (and their own butts)!

Lost in the Future

A group of students is on a field trip to an ancient castle when a storm erupts. As they are about to leave, four friends are cornered by the class bully, who tries to pull one of his usual pranks. Instead, they all get the scare of their lives when they fall down a tunnel that takes them into the future: a future where mankind has nearly disappeared from the face of the earth, and where nature has taken control. The friends will have to face up to this hostile new world—as well as their nemesis—if they’re to have any chance of making it back home…

Devil on her Shoulder

Hell and damnation! The Bruja is missing! When the most powerful witch alive disappears without a trace, Norah, her 17-year-old niece, decides to investigate. But upon entering her aunt’s manor, she interrupts a summoning ritual and finds herself face to face with the devil… Or half of him, anyway, as he has been cut in two and is now stuck in a pentagram. Unable to return to Hell without Norah’s help, Lucifer agrees to assist her in finding the Bruja—a devilish task when you’re the most feared and hated being on the planet!

Magic

A baby girl born with purple hair is promptly handed over to a convent by her horrified father, who fears she bears the sign of the witch. And indeed, little Evelyn seems to have strange powers and to attract supernatural manifestations as she grows up among the nuns, who patiently put up with it as best they can. But after one scary “trick” too many, she is entrusted to the care of a hat-maker, who whisks her off to London, where she will learn about much more than making hats! For as Evelyn and her talking cat Benedict will soon find out, Master Neil has a few tricks up his sleeve, too, and his hat shop might not be exactly what it seems…

School of Love

Linon and Garance are best friends with very different ideas about love. To get to the bottom of what all this romance stuff is really about, they decide to conduct an investigation into some of the older students at their middle school. Why are certain kids more popular than others? Why do some already have a “bad reputation” by the 8th grade? Why is everyone so obsessed with appearances? Along the way, the pair discover that, for best friends who are supposed to share everything, they’ve both been keeping some pretty big secrets of their own.

Ayak & Por

Wild adventures are on the horizon for little girl Ayak and her one-eyed dog Por. In the first story of this two-part tale, Ayak, Por, and the wacky professor seek shelter in an abandoned house, after their biosphere in Kamchatka explodes. But the discovery of an old teapot will soon whisk them away to a far-off land. In the second story, Ayak meets a lonely crown prince who is kept away from his people. Everyone thinks he is foolish, but what if he is just misunderstood?

Island Adventures

Many different beings live on the tiny but magical Island of the Sun, unknown to humans. Some were created at sea and others on land. Owley, the wise owl of the island, built a holiday resort so all of them can live together in harmony, while having fun on the same beach. But Starfizz, a human-like starfish who is full of ideas and loves building things, unwittingly drags sweet Shelly and tiny Magna Alga into a wild adventure across the sea on Shell Island, where the legendary Sand Games are being held… Will our friends emerge victorious and find a way back home?

The Forest of Time

Deep in the heart of an enchanted forest, a small village of children lives unaffected by the passage of time thanks to a powerful stone that protects them from it. But when the stone is shattered and a thief runs off with one of the shards, four of the children must set out at once in search of the missing shard before their village is swallowed up by time and everybody in it dies. Armed with four crystals with special powers, the children bravely make their way through the dangerous forest to hunt down the thief, making friends and enemies along the way and encountering one strange creature after another.

Cosplay

is a cosplayer. His parents don’t get it. His brother’s a big, dumb jock. Still, the geek heaven of Comic-Kon is just around the corner, and this year, Abel plans to win the cosplay contest as his hero, Batman. But the convention has other surprises in store. When an intelligence team invades the floor in hot pursuit of a rogue agent, Abel and his friends have a chance to be the heroes they only dress up as. A series of chases and double-crosses ensues that will teach these eager kids what being a true hero really means.

Menji and the Sea Dragon

Once every thousand years, the incredible Sea Dragon reappears! It is said that the first person it lays eyes upon will become its master and be able to control its extraordinary powers. The time has come: the Sea Dragon is about to return at any moment! Master Fox wishes to use the Sea Dragon’s powers to reign over the Squirming Archipelago. But he will need the help of his servant, the cowardly and naive cat Menji. But others are also searching for the legendary Sea Dragon… and they will stop at nothing to get there first!

Magic 7

On his first day of class at a new school, Leo, a boy who talks to the ghosts of famous dead people for fun, meets Hamlin, who can talk to animals, and Farah, a human flamethrower. The new friends band together to track down the thief who has made off with the school’s prized trophy, and must use all their powers to fight off an army of gigantic robots intent on destroying them. What they don’t know is that this is all just part of a much, much bigger plan…

Billie Bang Bang

Header image: Tosca © by Teresa Radice & Stefano Turconi, Tunué 2016

Science fiction will always have a special place within the world of comics, as perhaps no other literary form allows the storyteller’s imagination to run so wild and free. Ranging from the quirky Cosmonauts of the Future all the way to a true space opera like Valerian, here is a list of comics filled with fantastical narratives and visually stunning ideas of what the future might look like.

Cosmonauts of the Future

It all starts in a school playground, and then it moves to a classroom, where Larcenet’s superb graphic camera zooms in on two ten-year-old kids: Gildas and Martina. The pair of them are ever so slightly obsessed with Sci-fi. To the extent they think they’re surrounded by robots and aliens. As far as they’re concerned, their entire world is made up of false appearances, and they’re soon to be the victims of a huge intergalactic plot! You read, you smile, you snigger. But then suddenly, it’s all turned on its head…

Distant Worlds

18 year old Paul, his mother and his sister land on Altair-4, a recently established human colony. They expect to be reunited with Paul’s father there and start a new life, but he doesn’t show up to welcome them at the spaceport… Later, they are rescued from a gang of thugs by a Stepanerk, a member of a sentient alien species. An encounter that will prove invaluable to Paul when he decides to go and look for his father…

Drones

Two women–each other’s nemeses. Louise Fernbach and Yun Shao. One a European soldier, the other a Catholic terrorist from China. Ever since she discovered Yun Shao was behind the deaths of some of her fallen comrades, Louise has been out for her blood. Whatever it takes. Louise shows no mercy. Louise is a drone pilot. For her, wars are just video games she plays from Copenhagen HQ. For Yun Shao, they are a fight to the death with disposable machinery. Welcome to modern warfare…

Harmony

One day, Harmony wakes up in an unfamiliar basement having completely lost her memory. All she now knows of the world is the name of her “host,” the mysterious voices in her head and a newly discovered talent for telekinesis. She’s going to have to get her memory back pretty quickly in order to face the dangers that await her.

IAN

Intelligent Artificial Neuromechanoid… Ian. It’s the name of the newest recruit in Team 21 of the SRS – the ‘Special Rescue Section.’ Ian is an android, impossible to tell apart from a human being with the naked eye, and his creators claim that he’s controlled by a true artificial intelligence – capable of learning, adapting, and even of experiencing emotions. Not every member of the team is happy about their new partner, but their higher-ups aren’t giving them a choice – and the mission comes first…

Harden

Ismaël seems like a regular nice-guy fallen on hard times. He’s living with his adoring sister and her son following his return from his posting in Iraq. But he has a dark past with the gangs of L.A. and an even darker one with his combat experiences in the US army. These experiences haunt him, giving rise within him to a monstrous second self that he’s trying desperately to control… but just when things seems like they’re on the up, tragic events send Ismaël plunging into the abyss.

Karma City

Karma City is a town of virtue governed by the universal laws of karma and where public interest primes. Emma List, a paleontology researcher, presents herself at the gates of the “white zone” of the capital city. She is authorized entry despite her negative karma level. A few minutes later she has a stroke and dies in a car crash. What initially appears to be a routine case for agents Cooper, Napoli, and Asuka soon transforms into a wide-ranging investigation. For Emma List had moved into the grey zone to pursue proof that pre-karmic societies once existed.

Keepers of Lost Time

Keepers of Lost Time is a Serbian science-fiction comics trilogy wrriten by Miroslav Marić and drawn by Vujadin Radovanović.
It is rightfully considered to be a significant work in the history of Serbian fantasy and comics. The first episode was published in 1990, the second in 2000, but it wasn’t until 2012 that the trilogy finally saw its highly anticipated conclusion, published by Darkwood. This future-fantasy comic depicts two cultures – one of high technology, the other – tribal, in moments of their internal crises. They exist synchronously and interdependently, yet are in conflict due to their vastly different perceptions of the world and spiritual values.

Mermaid Project

Paris, end of the 21st century. Inspector Romane Pennac is the only white woman in her station. The world has suffered devastating wars and ecological disasters, and the old powers of Europe and America are now the third world. Amidst it all, it is to this young woman, now a member of a discriminated-against minority, that a couple of devastated parents turn. A mysterious letter has just announced that the body of their daughter, recently deceased in New York, is missing from her coffin…

Reality Show

In a future age where robots take care of most of the more tedious tasks, humans have a lot of time on their hands. So what to do with it? Well, obviously, they’re going to watch the Norman K. Barron show! Norman is a handsome and heroic policeman, whose dealings have already cost the life of his partner, who has now been replaced by Oshi Feal, a young recruit fresh out of police school. But nothing could have prepared Oshi for this kind of mission, where unexpected developments are a must… After all, you gotta keep the viewers happy!

Shingouzlooz Inc.

An apparently simple mission – apprehending a speculator-droid – turns into a race against time when the Shingouz drop in uninvited mid-arrest, begging Valerian and Laureline for protection against someone who means to kill them. To the agents’ surprise, it’s an old friend who soon pops up in hot pursuit, guns blazing. The ensuing shoot-out does little to simplify an already complicated situation: our heroes’ favourite information brokers have managed to … lose Earth in a card game!

Human Stock Exchange

This opening episode of H.$.E presents us a world in the midst of an unprecedented financial crisis. Still, although the economy of
industrialized countries is in tatters, unemployment has rocketed and millions of small business have gone bankrupt, there does seem to be one thing maintaining its financial value: the human being. Members of the social elite can have themselves listed on the stock market. So the stock market is no longer exclusively the privilege of corporate bodies, but of individual human bodies too! They can collect capital by wearing a “rate watch” indicating their popularity ratings. Felix Fox needs money. He wants one thing and one thing only: to get listed. After much persuasion, he finally gets there. With the backing of the creator of the Human Stock Exchange, he sits back and watches as his ratings soar. But of course, there is always a price to pay…

The Mandelberg Circuit

A suspense thriller from Denis Robert and Franck Biancarelli that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat. How can an old, ill, rich man become immortal? By transplanting his brain into the body of a young athlete being pursued by the Mafia…

Alter Ego

Camille, a French girl living in Singapore, is going through a tough time in her relationship with her mother, Suzanne Rochant, a high-flying psychology and neuroscience researcher. Out of the blue, Suzanne is brutally killed in tragic circumstances. Almost immediately afterwards, Camille sets off for an Angolan village in search of the man who could be her father… the father that she’s never met. She carries a letter left to this man in her mother’s will, but the truth awaiting her isn’t exactly what she’d had in mind… Camille soon finds herself wrapped up in the shady goings-on of her mother’s business, as she desperately tries to get to the bottom of all the unanswered questions her Suzanne left with.

Revolutions

Technological revolutions are a time of incredible inventions, brilliant minds, and fantastic discoveries. As well as bad inventions, failed experiments, and bizarre ideas. “Revolutions” brings to life a series of alternate histories, and offers inventions so fantastic they could never be brought into existence in our world. Instead, these inventions disappear into oblivion, or transform into something completely other than what their makers intended. A truly “revolutionary” series of graphic novels.

Mayam

Lenny June is your average happy-go-lucky expat, out for a good time and a quick buck. And on Tyr Mayam, a technologically backward planet riven by religious rivalries, he has it easy. It helps that he’s quick-witted, handsome, and an exclusive member of the Galactic Confederation’s Terran delegation to a world that’s been declared an ethnologically protected zone for the next 500 years. But Lenny’s life is about to change. For one, his fiancée is due from Earth any day now. And Tyr Mayam, with its doomsday cults and competing sects, has surprises in store, buried deep in ancient history…

Alt-Life

On a dying Earth in a not-so-distant future, Josiane and René are the first to enter a new virtual world where just about anything is possible… Part dystopian love story, part psychedelic meditation on human nature, “Alt-Life” takes the reader down a mind-bending rabbit hole of desire, loneliness, and self-discovery.

Medina

In a post-apocalyptic future, Medina has become the last bastion of a humanity fighting the nightmarish and infectious creatures known as the Drax. The shield that protects the city won’t hold out much longer, and humankind appears to be condemned. The only ray of hope is a “package” ripped from the Drax by the soldier, Karloff. This package is in fact 14-year-old Hadron, said to carry within her the Great Redemption. But will the humans manage to control this young girl’s force?

The Kingdom of the Blind

The era of privacy is over. With the proliferation of cameras, social networks, and automated surveillance systems, everyone is being watched at all times and people have begun to give in to the surveillance state. Well, almost everyone… Laurette is a young, rebellious teenager in London plotting an attack on a major government data center with a group of activists. But when the plan goes wrong, Laurette disappears, kidnapped by unknown agents. Dissatisfied with the police’s lack of progress, Adil, Laurette’s brother, decides to investigate on his own. A science-fiction story that explores a future not too far from our own, tackling the issue of surveillance from both sides of the law.

Of Gods and Men

The world turned upside down in 1929, starting in the United States. As the Great Depression shook the nation, so-called “gods” began to appear along Route 66, and quickly grew in number. With humankind slowly dying out, history then took a different course… This is the story “of gods and men,” set in the year 2047.

Hercules

Hercules and his friend Marlon have just enrolled at the School of Intergalactic Agents, but they’re both having problems. Hercules is a little young—and a little short—to make the grade, while Marlon just can’t help being a coward. For their first Surveillance Operation, they’re sent to Earth to gather information on a girl who’s behaving strangely. But while they’re away, the dreaded Blackbird plans to attack the School…

Aion

Captain Lexi Neel thought she’d sacrificed years of life with her daughter when she left Earth on a decades-long journey through the depths of space. But when a distress signal takes her out of hypersleep years ahead of schedule, she finds herself on the mysterious moon Aion, home to exotic wildlife and a research station dedicated to study of the moon’s “particularities.” It might mean a chance to start over as if she never left… As Lexi is about to learn, time is an experience.

Human

Planet Earth: 500,000 years in the future. Humans have been extinct for millennia. Two scientists, Robert and June, have been orbiting the Earth, waiting for the planet to become habitable once more. With the help of a team of robots, they plan to start over from scratch: a new Adam and Eve who won’t make the same mistakes as their ancestors. But first Robert has to find June, who seems to have landed somewhere else in this vast jungle—their Eden—full of grotesque creatures and strange primates…

Aster of Pan

The year is 2068. The place, Fontainebleau forest, ancient home of some of France’s mightiest monarchs on the outskirts of what was once Paris. The post-apocalyptic society of Pan survives by growing rice and scavenging among the ruins of a destroyed civilization. Their precarious existence comes under threat when the powerful, technologically advanced Federation of Fortuna forces them into a dangerous choice—submit to Fortuna’s rule, or try to best them in a barbaric, ritualized game known as Celestial Mechanics. Pan’s only hope? A hot-headed outcast they’d rejected for being “un-Pan”: a girl named Aster.

Renaissance

Swänn and Sätie were born on Näkän, a major planet in the Complex, a federation of extraterrestrial civilizations. The young couple hoped to live a peaceful life in an environment where nature and technology coexist in balance. But they are forced to mobilize when the leaders of the Complex decide to launch a vast expedition to save a planet that has exhausted its resources: Earth.

Biotope

A police captain and his two detectives arrive on Biotope, a distant planet on which a scientific base has been erected, to investigate a murder-suicide. They soon realize that all is not right on this self-sustaining base and that the scientists, some of whom are downright hostile towards them, aren’t telling them everything. A sci-fi thriller dripping with mood and atmosphere, in which the mounting tension is palpable and the jungle that lies beyond the glass walls of their claustrophobic interior is dense, oppressive and full of deadly secrets…

Creatures

In a post-apocalyptic New York City obliterated by a Big Night that wiped out most of civilization, bands of children struggle to stay alive in the wreckage, hunting for food under billowing clouds of toxic fog and running from hungry zombies. One child is endowed with the power to keep them at bay, but will it be enough to protect the survivors from the terrifying creature that has just risen out of the Hudson River? Meanwhile, a raving old man with a house full of books says the worst is yet to come…

Inhuman

A small exploratory vessel crashes onto an unknown ocean planet after its crew is seized by a sudden madness. After escaping their sinking ship, the five survivors are helped to the surface by giant squid-like creatures who guide them to what appears to be the planet’s only island. To their surprise, they are greeted on the shore by primitive humans, who prove to be welcoming despite their cannibalistic rituals. But their fixed smiles and total docility suggest that something more sinister is going on. Are the castaways doomed to join them in submitting to the will of the mysterious Great One?

Elecboy

In a devastated cityscape, a lone man fights off creatures of fearsome power: white, winged, serenely impassive, and capable of terrifying transformations… Decades later, in a desolate American southwest, a meager colony of human survivors ekes out a precarious existence between dwindling water supplies and magnetic shields that screen them from roving bands of aerial attackers. An ancestral upper class presides, while in the lower city, laborers do the hazardous work of keeping everyone alive. But all that may be about to change when the mysterious Joshua comes of age…

The Man for the Job

Manu always embraced his role as a strong, protective man, until one day his world is turned upside down. In quick succession, his girlfriend walks out on him, and he’s passed over for a position at work in the name of gender parity. In an effort to regain his bearings, he clings to a family of seven troubled children, determined to rescue them from their social misfortunes. Thus begins a long descent into the heart of his fears…

Yojimbot

In a dystopian not-too-distant future in Japan, Hiro lives with his father on an island populated by androids, where they eke out a meager existence while trying to keep out of sight. But when they run afoul of a troop of high-tech military thugs, Hiro’s dad sacrifices himself to save his son, turning Hiro’s already-bleak world upside-down. He is then rescued by a samurai robot called a “yojimbot,” and together they seek to avenge his father’s death and make contact with a mysterious associate known only as the “rights holder,” before the soldiers and their drones close in…

Love Love Love

In a futuristic Paris, robots have evolved into sentient beings whose rights are being revoked due to the perceived threat they pose to human society. But not everyone has turned their backs on these so-called mechas. When the cherish bot Karel and down-on-her-luck Elle meet in the subway, they soon become friends, and something more… But a robot resistance is forming, and the two of them are dragged unwittingly into the chaos. Not only that, but Karel’s programmed life expectancy is mysteriously decreasing… Will they be able to stop the countdown, and steer clear of both the robot rebels and human police?

The Omniscients

When five teenagers wake up one morning imbued with absolute knowledge, the news travels fast, and before long the young geniuses are taken into hiding by the FBI. What would you do if you were 15 and never had to set foot in school again? Our heroes won’t have long to think about it, as a secret organization is hell-bent on capturing them. And they also have a puzzle to solve: where did this gift come from, and who are these mysterious beings seemingly playing with their destiny?

Our Alchemical Bodies

Are you ready for revolution? Revolution of the mind. Revolution of the body. At Camille’s invitation, Sarah and Aniss arrive in the Tuscan countryside to take part in a unique experience. Camille hopes to achieve a complete fusion of three souls and three bodies into a single organism. An act of spiritual and organic alchemy. Revolution!

The Extraordinary Part

Nineteen-year-old Orsay lives an uneventful life in the French countryside, until the day he gains extraordinary powers in his hands after an encounter with a mysterious creature known as a whol. On a trip to Paris in search of a cure, he meets and falls for Basma, a passionate activist for whols’ rights. But Orsay isn’t convinced that whols should be considered equal to humans. Especially once Melek, another human with the same powers, embarks on a murderous rampage to avenge those she sees as her kin.

The Universe Chronicles

Who hasn’t dreamed of traveling through space, on the hunt for knowledge? In the distant future, that’s the mission statement of the Academy of Universal Historical Sciences. Onboard the Thucydides, a group of students and their dean are on a mission to explore the edges of Alpha Cygna when their ship is mysteriously absorbed by a galactic phenomenon into the unknown. Shipwrecked, but curious and determined, Oot-Jah, Mark, Qsi, Polly, and Adya explore a mysterious planet in order to understand the phenomenon they fell victim to. As they explore the temple of an ancient civilization, they make a discovery of the highest importance that risks changing their understanding of the entire universe…

The Man Who Invented the World

What do we really know about the nature of the universe, and about what is hidden in the dark depths of space? Navigator Captain John Bowman is the sole survivor of an exploratory mission to the far reaches of the cosmos. Upon his return, he is plagued by terrible nightmares… but also endowed with an extraordinary power. A power capable of destroying our world… or perhaps reshaping it?

Underworld

Hades, God of the Underworld, is seeking a successor. The prize? His fabled horn of plenty, source of boundless wealth. But to winnow down the applicant pool, Hades has devised a series of challenges as deadly to hopefuls as they are enlightening to readers, taking us all on a tour of the soil: its uses and abuses, riches and resources. Beneath our feet lies a world teeming with life, whose fate is intimately tied with our own. In this fantasy adventure Mathieu Burniat deftly blends pop science and mythology to educate and enthrall on a topic vital to our troubled times.

Gunblast Girls

Heroines who fear neither God nor man, these big-hearted bad girls will take you to every corner of the known universe. Assuming, obviously, that a universe has four corners: there might just be a multitude! You’ll follow them through multiple layers of the space-time continuum. Fasten your seatbelts, because adventure for these ladies is a game who’s purpose is to live at the speed of light. That said: light-speed is for oldsters!

Lost in the Future

A group of students is on a field trip to an ancient castle when a storm erupts. As they are about to leave, four friends are cornered by the class bully, who tries to pull one of his usual pranks. Instead, they all get the scare of their lives when they fall down a tunnel that takes them into the future: a future where mankind has nearly disappeared from the face of the earth, and where nature has taken control. The friends will have to face up to this hostile new world—as well as their nemesis—if they’re to have any chance of making it back home

Header image: Valerian ©Mathieu Lauffray/ Dargaud

Every life is a story. And some lives are so extraordinary that the stories they create can compete with the most enthralling fictional narratives. Here are some of the most remarkable stories of people from all walks of life. From artists and scientists to organised criminals. From political activists and Holocaust survivors to electric heiresses who’ve managed to make their lives a piece of art in itself.

Gauguin: Off the Beaten Track

Fed up with his life in France, Paul Gauguin sets out for Tahiti, where he subsequently decides to settle. As he immerses himself in the culture of a tropical country that couldn’t be more different from his own, the painter not only gains a new lease on life, but begins producing some of his most inspired work.

Second Generation: The Things I Didn’t Tell My Father

This is an autobiographical tale in which Michel Kichka goes back over the significant moments of a childhood, an adolescence, and a life overshadowed by the Holocaust, from Belgium to The Promised Land, from nightmares to funny anecdotes, moments of joy and liberation.

Marie Curie: The Radium Fairy

Marie Curie is the only woman ever to have received two Nobel prizes: the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, shared with her husband, Pierre Curie, and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her work with polonium and radium in 1911. She was also the first woman ever to teach at the Sorbonne. This inspired comic is set at the time she received her second Nobel Prize, when a vicious press campaign was launched against her, denouncing her affair with the physician Paul Langevin. Through her flash-backs, we’re invited to witness the key moments of this exceptional woman’s life and work.

The Red Poster

This is the story of Marcel Rayman, a young Polish Jew whose face is featured on the infamous ‘Affiche Rouge’, propaganda circulated in occupied France in an attempt to discredit the Parisian resistance. The Nazi abomination drove Rayman to set aside his pacifist principles and take up arms in the ranks of Missak Manoukian’s resistance movement. For two long years, during which he saw his entire family deported, Marcel Rayman led a clandestine life, shrouded in death, fear and treachery.

Daubigny’s Garden 

Charles-François Daubigny was one of the painters of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of Impressionism. Born in Paris, into a family of painters and was taught the art by his father Edmond François Daubigny and his uncle, miniaturist Pierre Daubigny. Initially Daubigny painted in a traditional style, but this changed after 1843 when he settled in Barbizon to work outside in nature.

Escobar: El Patron

Pablo Escobar is widely considered to have been the most successful criminal in history and to have invented modern-day drug trafficking. At the height of his career, the Colombian kingpin was making a million dollars a day smuggling cocaine into the United States. Here is the tale of the final days of “El Patrón,” folk hero to some, public enemy number one to others, doting father and family man, ruthless murderer and an outlaw like no other.

Casati: The Selfish Muse

This is the tale of Luisa Casati Amman, otherwise known as ‘The Marchesa’, an Italian heiress whose life ambition was to transform herself into a living, breathing work of art. She was obsessed with beauty and extravagance, and devoted her entire family fortune to purchasing the means to astonish her contemporaries with her daredevil style. But her originality extended to more than just the adornment of her own person; she embellished her whole life with a succession of fantastical parties, large houses, ostentatious pets and outrageous public appearances. But, as ever, such exorbitance can hardly last forever… This intriguing biography traces the rise and fall of one of the 20th century’s most fascinating personalities.

Marzi

“Before, there were trees and countryside. Man didn’t intervene. Stalin decided to “rectify” that space, and now, instead of trees, there are concrete buildings, everywhere. Stalin had a factory built. Thanks to that, lots of people got jobs, like my dad.” Born in 1979, Marzi is a 7-year-old Polish girl who looks wide-eyed at the world around her: her parents, her family, her school friends and the crabby women at the grocery store who don’t even smile for a fruit delivery. Marzi lives on a council estate in an industrial town, and is a cheerful, carefree, mischievous and perceptive little girl, bound to run into many adventures!

Bandit

Based on the life and crimes of François Troukens, “Bandit” delves into the former armed robber’s childhood and early criminal acts, recounts some of his most famous and audacious heists and the life on the run that followed, and shows how even a Public Enemy Number One can change his ways and embark on the path towards redemption.

Cervantes

This is the story of the distinguished Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, and the misfortunes andblessings to be visited upon him over the course of his most remarkable life. The life of the most renowned Spanish writer, father of Don Quixote and Sancho Pansa,  are told in a light and funny way in this two-part graphic novel.

The Muse

From his Barcelona studio in 1939, an aging Catalan painter shares with his model the mystery of his best friend Vidal Balaguer, “the forgotten genius” of Catalan Modernism, who vanished on the eve of 1900. His story his linked to the disappearance a few months earlier of his muse and lover, Mar, the subject of his most famous painting, “Young Lady in a Mantón.” But there are other disappearances, too, of people, a corpse, some oranges, and a stubbornly silent canary named Stradivarius. A police detective is convinced that Balaguer murdered his model but by the end of the story we may come to believe that, as the painter himself reflects, “the murder weapon is not always what you might think!”

The Summer of Irreverence

Mexico, August 1923. Edward Weston has just abandoned his wife and children and joined his mistress Tina Modotti. Daughter of Italian emigrants, Tina started out on a career as a Hollywood actress before discovering a passion for photography, in Edward’s wake. In Mexico, the lovers soon discover that revolution goes hand in hand with artistic expression. The walls of public institutions are colored with the vibrant paintings of Diego Rivera, Xavier Guerrero and all those who would go down in art history as ‘ the muralists.’ In this pivotal period between the old world, still struggling in the aftermath of the First World War, and the new world, yet to be constructed, Tina and Edward become deeply involved in the artistic political movement of the epoch. For Tina, sex, freedom, art and politics become the pillars of her lifestyle, leading her to sometimes make choices that are difficult for Edward to deal with. But passion burns the senses, and suffering kindles the fires of creation…

Stevenson the Pirate Within

This is the fascinating life story of Robert Louis Stevenson, the beloved author of classics such as “Treasure Island” and “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” from his early days as an aspiring writer to his first published works, his love affair and then marriage to Fanny Osbourne, his success as an author, his many travels across Europe and the U.S., and finally his voyage to the islands of the South Pacific, where he eventually built the house of his dreams. Stevenson never let his weak lungs (which he referred to as pirates waging a battle inside him) and delicate constitution stand in the way of his insatiable thirst for adventure, living life on his own terms until the very end.

Violeta – Corazon Maldito

Violeta Parra was a musician, a poetess, an all-round artist, and the soul of the popular tradition of Chile. The year 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of her birth. Violeta’s life was painful and intense, devoted to art and love: for decades, she crossed America and Europe making people all around the world fall in love with the authentic folklore of her homeland. Virginia Tonfoni (writer) and Alessio Spataro (artist) tell her incredible story for the first time here in graphic novel format.

History’s Greatest Villain’s – Dracula

Everyone knows about Dracula the vampire, but have you ever heard of Voivode Vlad Dracula of Wallachia? Perhaps you know him better by his nickname: Vlad the Impaler! The bloodthirsty prince was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s notorious character, but although the real Dracula gained infamy for his favorite method of execution—impaling—few know the true details of his life. Swysen and Solé have created an intimate and accurate portrait of this vicious tyrant, allowing you to follow his journey from childhood to death, with guaranteed laughs along the way.

East-West

Prolific comic book author Pierre Christin, who penned the game-changing classic sci-fi series “Valerian and Laureline,” switches to autobiography here to bring us the thoughtful, enlightening tale of two vastly different lands, the American West during the civil rights movement and the counter-culture phenomenon, and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, as seen through the eyes of an inquisitive French artist and journalist with a love for travel, intellectual query, gypsies, and jazz. Christin and his faithful road companion and “Valerian” co-creator Jean-Claude Mézières drive across landscapes ranging from Utah to Bulgaria in a series of cars each more dilapidated than the next, encountering people and adventures of all kinds in a story that is part travel journal, part geo-political documentary, and part artistic coming-of-age.

Shelley

Born into an aristocratic family, Percy Bysshe Shelley has no intentions of following in his father’s political footsteps. The rebellious young poet finds himself drawn to more scandalous pursuits: supporting anti-royalist and anti-clerical causes, championing vegetarianism, and extolling the virtues of atheism, an act that ultimately leads to his expulsion from Oxford University. Book 1 of “Shelley” lets us dive into Percy’s tumultuous childhood, giving us an insight into his friendships with some of the finest progressive thinkers of the times, not to mention his blossoming relationship with his future wife and author of “Frankenstein,” Mary.

Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin

A few months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, kicking off the U.S. civil rights movement, making headlines around he world and becoming an enduring symbol of the fight for dignity and equality, another young black woman refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the wrong person at the right time, and so History did not choose her. Her name was Claudette Colvin and this is her story.

Man in Furs

In 1870, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch publishes “Venus in Furs,” an erotic novel revealing the author’s desire to be dominated by a woman. After the success of the novel, a woman turns up at his doorstep and offers to take on the role of the dominant woman. He submits to her completely and they get married. Years later, Leopold has remarried and lives a quiet life, far removed from the sexual escapades of his first marriage. This is when he learns that his surname is being used, to his detriment, to describe a new sexual perversion: masochism.

Kinderland

East Berlin, summer of 1989: Mirco Watzke is caught in a bind. Usually a model student, the seventh grader has got himself in trouble with a couple of bullies from the Free German Youth, and the only person who can help is the mysterious new kid in school… Vivid and funny, tender and nuanced, “Kinderland” chronicles East Germany’s final months as seen through the eyes of a child. It’s a story of friendship, courage, and trust, but also of growing up between Young Pioneers and the church, fathers who “disappear,” and a ping-pong tournament interrupted by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Winner of the Max & Moritz Award for Best Comic at the 2014 Erlangen International Comics Festival.

Falafel with Hot Sauce

Acclaimed political cartoonist and comic book author Michel Kichka (Second Generation) brings us the fascinating, informative, and uplifting autobiographical tale of his love affair with Israel, a land he was inspired to move to at the age of twenty. From culture shock and Israeli customs to the mandatory military service, from art school to political conflict and human tragedies, he delivers a richly detailed account of his life as an artist, family man, peace advocate and Belgian Jew turned Israeli, living in the beautiful and troubled city of Jerusalem.

The Great Outdoors

“Girls, living in the country will be your chance,” her parents tell her. And so Catherine Meurisse spends her childhood outdoors. Construction all around her: an old farmhouse renovated into a home, trees planted, a garden created, dreams cultivated. They dig, they graft, they plant a rosebush “adopted” from Montaigne, a fig tree from Rabelais. They observe the tumult of the outside world: new developments in industrial agriculture, the citification of rural France… With her characteristic humor, Catherine Meurisse has composed a witty poem dedicated to the countryside where her vocation as an artist first took form. The Great Outdoors, like Lightness, her previous album, is a testament to her conviction that nature and art —everything that grows, everything that lives against all opposition— always offer us a chance.

Gérard

Mathieu Sapin has made a career as a nonfiction cartoon chronicler. In a blend of witty, insightful diary and documentary vérité, he has tackled topics from moviemaking to the making of a presidential campaign, and provided behind-the-scenes looks at the presidential Palais d’Élysée. But the French government is no match for his latest subject: larger-than-life film star Gérard Depardieu, the most famous Frenchman in the world! From Azerbaijan to Bavaria, passing through Moscow and Portugal, Sapin tags along on a wild ride, creating a faithful portrait of a man full of contradictions.

Delacroix

In 1864, a year after the death of Eugène Delacroix, Alexandre Dumas recounted the memories that marked his friendship with the great painter. From one anecdote to the next, Dumas’ text reveals the personality of both painter and writer. All the while, a colorful portrait of the period takes shape; a period in which works of art are subject to fiery debates, intense admiration, and irrevocable rejection. With humor and passion, Catherine Meurisse invites herself into this very personal adaptation of Dumas’ tribute to his friend.

Tom Thomson

Tom Thomson, whose grandiose landscapes of Ontario’s wilderness marked the entry of Canadian art into the modern era, died at a young age under troubling circumstances. His career as a painter was as brief as it was fundamental, in that it inspired the next great generation of Canadian painters, the iconic Group of Seven. Returning to the circumstances of the painter’s sudden disappearance just as he was beginning to attain recognition, Sandrine Revel retraces his journey, sketching a subtle portrait of the artist while questioning nostalgia in art as it attaches itself to artists. This is a book about memory and the past: troubling, beautiful, and melancholic, like the passage of time.

Little Sister

Susie has two older sisters: the vivacious Effie, and the elegant Sandra. Life is hard when you’re the baby of the family! No one ever lets you do anything. No one ever pays any attention to you. Everyone makes fun of you. Bestselling children’s author Susie Morgenstern takes readers back to 1950s Newark and all the everyday charms and heartbreaks of the year she turned ten: spelling bees, synagogue, Christmas lights, Halloween candy, nights out at the movies, sneaking fast food. In his joyous art, Johann G. Louis lovingly evokes the era and a young girl awakening to life.

Mademoiselle Baudelaire

Baudelaire: poète maudit, enfant terrible, lyric genius, crippling perfectionist. Bereft of a father at age five, he spent his days squandering the former’s fortune on prostitutes and paintings, opium and alcohol, finery and laundry bills for his impeccably white dandy’s collars. He loved a woman and gave her syphilis. This is her story. Muse, mulatto, mistress, mystery… little was known of Jeanne in her day, and even less remembered since. Yslaire pays tribute to a brimstone-and-hellfire affair from the annals of literature, two misunderstood souls who in their mutual misunderstanding afforded each other what little solace they found in life.

Degas & Cassatt

Founder of the Impressionist movement of which he was one of the most merciless critics, too bohemian for the bourgeois and too bourgeois for the artists, Edgar Degas was a man of many paradoxes. A loner, he loved only one woman without ever courting her. Looking into this unique relationship at the twilight of Degas’ life, Efa and Rubio open the pages of the artist’s notebooks hoping to unravel the mystery of this genius full of contradictions.

Header:  Gauguin: Off the Beaten Track © Maximilien Le Roy and Gaultier /  Le Lombard

Black Cotton Star

Philadelphia, 1776: George Washington asks Betsy Ross to design the first flag of the future United States of America. Her housemaid, Angela Brown, adds to it a secret tribute to the black community: a black cotton star that she slips under one of the white stars. Dover, 1944: A soldier named Lincoln receives a letter that reveals Angela Brown’s memoirs. Does the star that she mentions truly exist? In light of this revelation, three African-American soldiers set out o
n a dangerous mission, ranging from liberated Paris to the snow-covered Ardennes, seeking answers, and the ultimate prize…

Conquests

Many years ago, the plains of Mesopotamia were dominated by three powerful nomadic tribes: the Scythians, the Cimmerians and the Sarmatians.  Weary of their endless battles, the monarchs of the three tribes forged a sacred alliance.  Together, they constructed the most fearsome army in the known world, otherwise known as “The Horde.” Little did they know that at that very moment, the Hittites were regrouping on the edge of their territory and preparing to invade. Neither did they know that the Hittites had infiltrated their ranks with master spies — starting with the radiant Thusia, a mysterious scribe whose beauty has drawn the attention of Kymris, the Cimmerians’ warrior-king.  It is the dawn of the Horde’s greatest challenge: a war that will set all Mesopotamia aflame.

The Eagles of Rome

The strategic general Drusus is entrusted with the mission of bringing the indomitable barbarians of Germania under the Roman Empire’s control. Once the battle is won, Prince Sigmar offers his son, Arminius, as a hostage to the Romans. Caesar consigns the education of the young barbarian to one of his most trusted companions, Titus Valerius Falco. Titus has a son of the same age as Arminius, an unruly young man called Marcus, also in need of an education worthy of his name. Together, these two budding soldiers go through full training, and are time and again subjected to the steely discipline and harsh tests of their tutor, an ex-legionary. Through these trying experiences, the insolent young Roman and the hot-headed German gradually transform their reciprocal hatred into a strong friendship… especially as they begin to discover the irresistible charms of their various female contemporaries…

Chinaman

In the second half of the 19th century, a Chinese man wanders the plains of the American West. In the first volume, John Chinaman lands in San Francisco, tasked by the Elders of Canton with disciplining the local Triads. But this mission will be his last. now on, his fate will be irrevocably tied to America’s westward expansion. From now on, his fate will be irrevocably tied to America’s westward expansion.

 Olympia

Allow us to introduce Olympia, an exquisite young woman living in post-First-World-War Berlin, a time when the town was continually shaken up by internal revolutions and cultural turbulence. Olympia is beautiful. Louise Brooks-style beautiful. She is the archetype of that generation of war-women, the likes of which we’ll never see again. Her father, Count Van Den Golzt, sends his daughter to Berlin following the Bolsheviks’ establishment in Courlande, a move that he knew was a threat to the safety of his family. She soon becomes a fascinating character, with lovers from all walks of life, from bespectacled Communist intellectuals, to pimps. Alongside her decadent lifestyle, she fights passionately for the Socialist cause. Nihilistic, but driven, she ends up in the arms of the most unlikely suitor.

The Reprieve

June 1943. Julien Sarlat jumps from the train transporting him to Germany and manages to get back to his small village in the Aveyron, Cambeyrac, where he hides, without the villagers’ knowledge, to await the end of the hostilities. In a strange turn of fate, the train that he was on is bombed, and one of the corpses is identified as his. In the eyes of society, he is now dead. Taking advantage of this unexpected situation, he hides away in the attic of his old school teacher, who was arrested by the French Gestapo for suspected communist leanings. From that moment on Julien, from his observatory overlooking the village square, is the spectator of this everyday theater of ordinary people going about their business. Love, hatred, envy, cowardice, passion and heroism: the onlooker sees the most.

Blue Note

New York. November 1933. Seven years of Prohibition is about to come to an end—seven years of mafia control of the illegal alcohol trade, of high-level corruption … and of the speakeasy, whose clientele enjoy not only liquor, but the Golden Age of Jazz. A world Irish boxer Jack Doyle is reluctantly drawn back to, to settle old scores. But what he thinks will be a simple fight turns into a web  of exploitation and double-dealing … and a tangle with the elusive Miss Lena. To get free he will have to use all his native cunning…

Muchacho

In 1976 Nicaragua “Tacit” Somoza rules the small Central American country with the support of the ruthless Guardia. The son of a powerful family from the capital, Managua, Gabriel is a young priest with an incredible talent for sacred art. He is sent to enhance his painting skills with Ruben, a priest in San Juan–a little village located at the base of a mountain. Despite his difficulty integrating with the villagers due to his father’s reputation, Gabriel slowly gets to know them and, eventually, to love them. Encouraged by Ruben, he paints the villagers. He paints them as they are–men and women of flesh and blood. But Gabriel is soon witness to acts of military repression of the locals. It doesn’t take long for him and the villagers to get swept away in these times of growing rebellion and smoldering revolution. Artistic passion, romantic passion, revolutionary passion. Passion courses though the pages of Muchacho, a two-part series. 

 
Game of Masks

Paris, 1802. Bonaparte has just been proclaimed First Consul, provoking Fouché’s departure from the Police headquarters. The two men are now both set on finding a certain object, stolen by a beautiful prostitute, which could change their destiny. Bonaparte calls on the services of François, a petty thief otherwise known as “The Torpedo,” to recover the mysterious object.

Giant

March 1932, New York. Dan Shackelton is an Irish migrant. Like many of his fellow countrymen, he has found work on the construction site of the Rockefeller Center. He is to replace Ryan Murphy, a worker who died on the site. Dan works with a quiet, broad-shouldered man named Giant who is in charge of informing Ryan Murphy’s family of the news. But Giant decides not to say anything. Instead, he sends a substantial sum of money accompanied by an unsigned, typewritten letter. When he receives a response from Ryan’s widow, Mary Ann, Giant writes to her again, tangling himself up in a web of lies. Little by little, the enigmatic Giant starts to come out of his shell, until one day, when Mary Ann shows up in New York with her three children, ready to join her husband.

Gloria Victis

There was a time when certain mortals could become gods. At this time, two thousand years ago, men would pass into legend by risking their lives to entertain the crowds; famous charioteers who, perched on their chariots like Apollo, would fight for their lives and their honor in the arena. This is the story of one of  those heroes: Aelio Hermeros, perhaps one of the greates chariot riders of all time. He was a mortal immortalized in the memory of those who saw him compete, who witnessed his defeats, his victories, his blood spilled and, most of all, his glory.

Golden Dogs

Fanny, like so many other girls of her time, has been driven to selling her body to survive. She has since become the most sought-after prostitute of her brothel. She knows people, she knows things, and she is determined to one day move on to a better life. One day, the handsome and enigmatic James Orwood seeks her out, and makes her a proposition that might just be the making of her. He wants to use her reputed powers of seduction to get information from the rich and powerful. They form an alliance, along with Lario and Lucrecia, all four of them bringing a unique skill to the table. This could be the beginning of something great…

Murena

It’s stinking hot, and the crowd is beginning to lose interest in the last few gladiators still fighting for survival in the arena. Only the Emperor Claudius is still riveted, determined to stick it out until the death rattle of the last fighter announces the end of the day’s frivolities. Life is just as ferocious outside the arena. Everyone wants the power; everyone is willing to kill to get it… For Agrippina, Claudius’ second wife, her dear husband has served his purpose. Now that he has acknowledged her son, Nero, as his heir, it’s high time he disappeared.
But Agrippina has time against her: there’s talk of Claudius wanting to renounce her in favor of the woman he loves, Lolia Paulina. Needless to say, it doesn’t end well for poor Lolia…

Pin-Up

It’s 1943 and all-American Joe is heading off to fight the Japanese. His distraught fiancé Dottie Partington is fired from her job as a movie usher, and a friend helps her find employment at the Yoyo Club, a cabaret favored by soon-to-be-deployed US Air Force personnel. In the meantime, Joe is marooned on an atoll in the South Pacific, where he experiences firsthand the terror of war, and encounters a motley crew of fictional and real-life characters. Back in the States, famed cartoonist Milton approaches Dottie and uses her as the model for his new comic strip, “Poison Ivy,” which centers on the adventures of a patriotic vamp capable of making soldiers “forget their girlfriends back home.” The strip is a runaway success and kindles the fantasies of GIs across the globe, eventually reaching even Joe.

Shi

During the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, two women’s lives become irrevocably intertwined when they both fall victim to a nefarious underground fraternity of ex-soldiers from England’s upper crust who have sworn their lives to defending the British Empire—as well as their own decadent lifestyles. In this first volume, young rebel Jennifer Winterfield and the mysterious Kitamakura from Japan forge an unlikely alliance along with Jennifer’s doctor uncle and a street urchin named Pickles. Together they lay the groundwork for a criminal organization that will go on to sow terror in the hearts of the colonialists and industrialists who tried to put them down.

The Bleiberg Project

The life of Jeremy Corbin, an unhappy, alcoholic Wall Street trader, takes a drastic turn when he learns shocking news about his long-lost father. He soon finds himself headed to Switzerland to pick up a mysterious safe deposit box whose contents hold the key to a terrible secret: horrific experiments carried out by the Nazis during WWII in their quest to create the Superman. With modern-day Nazis on his tail, a pretty, wise-cracking CIA agent assigned to protect him, and a deadly spy from Israeli intelligence blasting onto the scene at the most critical moments, his early-morning cocktail is suddenly the last thing on Jeremy’s mind.

The Folies Bergère

We’re right in the middle of World War I, deep in the trenches. The soldiers are confronted by unimaginable suffering and violent death on a daily basis. Considered as nothing more than cannon fodder by their superiors, they try desperately to survive. Partly as an act of defiance in the face of hardship, partly as the ultimate irony, the soldiers nickname their regiment after the famous Parisian cabaret club “Folies Bergère.” They laugh and joke, they write, they draw, they fight, they die in appalling circumstances, they kill themselves, they lose their minds. And then one of their number is sentenced to death by firing squad — and miraculously survives…

Dixie Road

The United States… the late twenties. Like many others, the company Fisherman’s Dream staggers under the ‘crash’. In the midst of this economic nightmare, we meet a young girl, Dixie. The recent events will push her and her family to hit the road, in pursuit of the elusive American Dream.

Jewish Brigade

In 1945, the war in Europe is over. Camp survivors have no homes to go back to and they want only one thing – to leave Europe. No country wants to welcome them. They could feel safe in only one place, a Jewish state that does not yet exist, though it had once been promised by the British. Without any hesitation, “displaced persons” are once again herded behind barbed wire. In some cases, they remain in the same camps from which they were supposedly liberated. A brigade forms along the frontiers of Italy, Austria and Yugoslavia, under the watchful eye of the British army. This brigade decides to do justice as it sees fit. Across Europe, the news spreads – a Jewish army in Europe! Armed Jewish soldiers! The brigade goes into action. It devotes itself to saving Jews and will stop at nothing. It is willing to go even further; tracking down Nazi war criminals not being a priority for the Allies, the brigade decides it will find them on its own. When it succeeds, it settles the score quickly and mercilessly.

The Roots of Chaos

March 1953. Alexander is walking through the streets of London with a bomb in his hand. It is destined for Marshal Tito, during his controversial visit to Great Britain. Alexander’s story began several months earlier, when his mother was struck by a car and instantly killed. Trying to understand why and how his mother, who was in an institution for senile elderly people, wound up so far from her home, Alexander finds himself caught up in a spiral of terror involving the British secret service, strange Serbian nationalists, and the island of Majorca… all of which culminate, several months later, with Alexander finding himself on the bank of the Thames, holding a bag with a bomb in it…

Vice Squad

It is the winter of 1937, and Aimé Louzeau lives with his mother and their servant. One day, he goes to the Quai des Orfèvres, the police prefecture of Paris, to speak with the vice squad. He currently works in the Criminal Investigation department, but crimes of passion and back alley stabbings really aren’t his thing, so he requests a transfer from Chief Inspector Séverin. The atmosphere immediately darkens, as Louzeau is thrown straight into the interrogation of a pimp called Guapito and his prostitute.

You Can’t Just Kiss Anyone You Want

A little boy tries to kiss a little girl. No big deal. The little girl gets away and sends the little boy packing. Nothing more than an anecdote amongst many others of any normal childhood. But if this event takes place at school in a Socialist republic, half way through a propaganda movie, years before the wall is even showing the slightest sign of giving out… Well, it’s asking for trouble. This is the story of two children in a society in which paranoia and obsessive control mean that even the most innocent gesture can be blown completely out of proportion.

The Wolves of La Louvière

Belgium, 1940. The German army is spreading across Europe, and tiny Belgium is conquered in 18 days. During the four long years of the Nazi occupation, the women of La Louvière have to figure out some way to stay alive, to live their lives, and to keep up hope. Their world is drawn through teenage Marcelle’s journal: What does she do? How do her family members endure? Which women in town collaborate with the occupying forces, and which women choose to fight? As always in wartime, the women take over for the absent men and keep their world spinning.

Operation Copperhead

Adventure, drama, spies, secrets, and even a dash of romance. This extraordinary story tells the tale of two movie stars being pulled into the intrigue of counterintelligence and disinformation campaigns during World War II. Churchill is looking for someone to impersonate Britain’s top general, and it’s up to David Niven and Peter Ustinov to train the lucky lad. They’re in a race against the clock and a battle against all the usual vices—wine and women included—to turn a second-rate actor into General Montgomery in this uproarious and award-winning graphic novel, where the truth might be stranger than fiction.

Michigan

When Julien arrives in Michigan to meet his wife’s American family, he gets to know the American Midwest, as well as some unusual cousins. But above all, he meets Odette, his French great aunt with what one might call a resilient personality. Originally from Paris, she married an American soldier at the end of the Second World War. Like her, 200,000 other European “war brides” left behind their families and their countries to be with the G.I.s they loved.

The Czech Coup

A former actress and spy, Elizabeth Montagu, is tasked with guiding British author Graham Greene around postwar Vienna, as he conducts research for a screenplay. However, the visit of “G.,” a former spy himself, soon proves to be just as mysterious as his best-selling thrillers, winding through Vienna’s shadowy underground before leading to a Prague on the cusp of revolution…

Hibakusha

Ludwig has never been a soldier. A childhood injury left him lame in one leg, which has allowed him to largely sit out the war on the sidelines, as a translator. Fleeing his passionless marriage, he accepts an assignment in Japan, allowing him to return to the land of his youth. But the year is 1945. It is not a good time to be Japanese, or German… much less stationed in Hiroshima. Ludwig is tempted by love and, in furtively tampering with his translations of classified documents, by the chance to do something heroic. But none of that will save him…

Charlotte Imperatrice

At sixteen, Princess Charlotte falls in love with an Austrian archduke, Maximilian of the House of Habsburg. Soon enough, she finds herself enmeshed in the cruel and unpredictable world of international diplomacy as her marriage founders. Increasingly shrewd, naïveté and idealism replaced by practicality and skepticism, Charlotte will help ensure that she and Maximilian are sent to Mexico to reign as emperor and empress…

The Daughters of Salem

Colonial Massachusets, early 1690’s. When a young girl in a Puritan town rejects a farmer boy’s gift and instead slips out into the forest to dance with a young man from the Abenaki tribe, it sets off a chain of events resulting in one of the worst cases of mass hysteria in U.S. history, as neighbor turns against neighbor and friends accuse friends of the most terrible things. A fictional re-imagining of the Salem Witch Trials, in which gender politics, religion, xenophobia, innocent games of fortunetelling, and one man’s sinful indiscretion are all factors that lead to the deadly witch hunt.

Wings of War

The son of a hero from the Great War who made his fortune in the steel industry, James O’Brady is destined for a great career in politics. When his father is appointed ambassador to Germany, James goes with him, to get an inside of view of the geopolitical landscape in the mid-1930s. But James follows his own path… which is destined to cross that of a young German fighter pilot.

Arale

The year is 1934. Rasputin holds the reins of government. When the Czar is mortally wounded in an ambush, the mad monk turns to his Council of Dark Mages and his former mentor, Baba Yaga. Together, they concoct a plan that involves trench warfare mechas, mind-to-mind transfers, and the long-lost heir to the Romanoff throne: Kyril Noskov, a hero of the war that’s been raging since 1914, to which generations of Russian youth have been sacrificed. Roulot and Rodier’s reimagining of a Russia that never was blends science fact and dark fantasy into a spellbinding fable of the price of power.

The Revenge of Count Skarbek

1843, Paris. A sensational trial stuns the art world and has the streets of the capital buzzing. Is the famous art dealer Daniel Northbrook nothing but a swindler? Count Skarbek, a rich Polish businessman, will do everything he can to prove it. A gripping romantic thriller and a poignant story of love, hatred, passion, and revenge in the vein of the great popular fiction by Hugo and Dumas.

Children of the Resistance

On May 10th, 1940, Nazi Germany attacked France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Their advance was swift, and led to the fall of France just six weeks later. In the fictional French village of Pontain-L’Écluse, 13-year-old François is shocked to see his fellow villagers—and even some of his family members—accept this occupation and submit to the laws and behavior of the German invaders. Determined to thwart the enemy, he enlists his friend Eusèbe to help sabotage the Nazis and motivate his village to unite against them. A fascinating tale of the Resistance and of actions taken by its youngest activitsts, inspired by true stories.

Louisiana

Louisiana, 1961. The elderly Louise shoos away questions from granddaughters eager to know more about the family’s distant past. But what is she hiding? As she unburdens herself to Hazel, the maid, memories and legends come pouring out from the years following the birth of the American nation: a sugarcane plantation, an abusive patriarch, a fearful wife, a headstrong daughter, and a mysterious voodoo priestess. What other dark secrets lurk, long-repressed, in the recesses of history? Léa Chrétien and Gontran Toussaint deliver a vivid, atmospheric story of generations of strong women and the secret things they do to survive, from the Civil War to the civil rights era.

The Lions of Leningrad

On January 27, 1962, a concert at the Maly Theatre in Leningrad is interrupted by a gunshot and an ex-state prisoner is arrested. At the police station, the mysterious gunman recalls the early summer of 1941… When the German army begins its invasion of Soviet Russia, four children are evacuated to the countryside: Maxim, the son of a senior Communist Party official; Pyotr, the son of writers; Anka, the daughter of a concert violinist; and Grigory, the son of a pilot that was executed for insubordination. The farm where they are staying is attacked and the train that is supposed to take them to safety is blown to bits by German planes. The four children must find their way back to Leningrad through enemy lines. This adventure will test their friendship to the limit…

Swan Song

1917. Nivelle “The Butcher” commands the French Army, and the attacks he keeps ordering are pointless slaughters. The soldiers can’t take it anymore. Discontent is turning into rebellion, and a petition begins to circulate in secret. When it makes its way to the men of Sergeant Sabiane, they see an opportunity, and what started as a simple cry of defiance becomes a full-blown mutiny when a handful of them decide to take the petition to Paris…

Spirou: Hope Against All Odds

It seemed inevitable that Europe would once again be in the dark clutches of war, and now that conflict has broken out, Spirou must face its horrible reality while staying true to himself. He does his best to maintain his friendship with Fantasio, even as the latter enlists in the Belgian army. And when Spirou meets Felix, a German‐Jewish painter, his eyes are opened to the “Jewish issue” and the dangerous situation in Europe and beyond. On top of all that, Spirou’s girlfriend Kassandra has been lost in the confusion of the war. In the first of four volumes, the orphan bellhop’s adventures will take him all across war-torn Belgium, discovering the world as it falls apart around him.

Spirou in Berlin

Spirou and Fantasio are caught up in another amazing adventure, set in a real historical context. It’s summer 1989, a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the evil Zantafio is trying to take over East Germany. When he kidnaps the Count of Champignac, our two heroes find out and try to rescue him. But to do that, they have to cross Europe’s most heavily guarded border. East Germany’s notorious Secret Police, the Stasi, are soon hot on their trail, and Fantasio is arrested. So Spirou now has to free his friend as well as foil Zantafio’s diabolical scheme.

Crusade

After years of violence, a relative peace has returned to the Holy Land. Yet the magic and afflictions that permeate the region haven’t gone away. When Gauthier of Flanders, a wandering knight, stops at a caravansary and gives water to a Christian woman who is held prisoner by the Order of Assassins, he has no idea what evil is about to be unleashed upon the world… nor that he will be brought to stand against a deadly demon. The opening chapter of a new arc, following the 4-volume Hierus Halem cycle (published by Cinebook).

Harlem

Harlem, 1931. Prohibition is still in effect, the Great Depression is getting worse by the day, and people are desperate for hope. For a decade, Stephanie St. Clair, a.k.a. Queenie, an immigrant from the French Antilles, has been running a lottery in Harlem that has provided just that: a chance for a way out. But with the end of Prohibition looming, bootlegger Dutch Schultz is looking to diversify his business before the booze industry dries up. And he sees Harlem as ripe for the picking, especially with the police and politicians for sale to the highest bidder—at least if you’re white. It may be wintertime in New York, but things are heating up in Harlem.

Bootblack

During the depths of the Great Depression, an orphan reinvents himself as Al Chrysler and strives to win the heart of the local grocer’s daughter. In doing so, he falls in with a newly arrived petty criminal who soon has him and his friends working for the local mafia. As the stakes get higher, Al soon realizes he’s gotten in too deep, and is caught up in a chain of events beyond his control.

Black Angel

It is the early 1920s. The Volstead Act has recently prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol, which means that an active black market has sprung up—a market controlled by legendary gangsters such as Al Capone. Supplies must be secretly shipped from France to its outpost in Saint-Pierre, Newfoundland. This dangerous and illegal trade involves aviators flying primitive sea planes—aviators such as Bessie the “Black Angel,” whose mixed heritage also makes her the target of the flourishing Ku Klux Klan. Based on the historical figure of Bessie Coleman, she flies in the face of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination.

White All Around

Canterbury, Connecticut, 1832: a charming female boarding school has found success among the locals, with two dozen girls enrolled. Some in town question the purpose of educating young girls—but surely there’s no harm in trying? At least not until the Prudence Crandall School announces its plans to start accepting black students. Thirty years before the abolition of slavery in the United States, in the so-called “free” North, these students will be met by a wave of hostility that puts the future of the school in question, and their very lives in peril. Even in the land of the free, not all of America’s children are welcome.

The Famous Quartet of Piraeus

The Famous Quartet of Piraeus was formed in 1934 as a café band. It was the first group featuring the bouzouki and the baglama, and consisted of frontman Markos Vamvakaris, Giorgos Batis, Anestos Delias, and Stratos Pagioumtzis. Markos’ fiery love for Zingoala, his first wife, is the main and painful source of inspiration for the founder of rebetiko music. Starting as a skinner at a slaughterhouse, Markos becomes a pioneer who paves new paths for traditional Greek music and entertainment, running constantly afoul of the musical mores of the era—as well as the police, his wife, and the dictatorship of Metaxas. And all the while, war is approaching in the background like an inevitable chorus…

Days of Sand

United States, 1937. In the middle of the Great Depression, 22-year-old photographer John Clark is brought on by the nascent Farm Security Administration to document the calamitous conditions of the Dust Bowl in the central and southern states, in order to bring the farmers’ plight to the public eye. When he starts working through his shooting script, however, he finds his subjects to be unreceptive. What good are a couple of photos against relentless and deadly dust storms? The more he shoots, the more John discovers the awful extent of their struggles, coming to question his own role and responsibilities in this tragedy sweeping through the center of the country. A moving and unforgettable tale, inspired by real-life stories of courage and perseverance against all odds.

Contrapaso

Madrid, winter of 1956. Franco’s fascist dictatorship controls the press and maintains the fiction of an idyllic nation. Faced with the Regime’s attempts to cover up the country’s most sordid crimes, two journalists from the crime beat, the jaded veteran Emilio Sanz and the young and intrepid Léon Lenoir, seek to reveal the truth. Confronted by a wave of unexplained murders, the duo sets out to uncover the dark secret connecting them, buried in a cruel past. Brilliantly written and illustrated by Teresa Valero, Sanz and Lenoir’s investigation plunges us headfirst into an era and society as dark and as violent as it is full of hope. A bracing journalistic thriller revealing the lengths the Francoist regime was willing to go to in its attempts to stifle any form of dissent.

Renée Stone

Renée Stone is a successful English mystery novelist and an independent free spirit. In this first book of the series, she finds herself in Ethiopia for the coronation of Haile Selassie I in 1930. There she meets John Malowan, a bumbling archaeologist whose grandfather unearthed the Epic of Gilgamesh. Unbeknownst to Stone and Malowan, a host of parties are conspiring to take advantage of the grandson in order to get their hands on a hidden treasure that dates back to Mesopotamian times. Renée Stone finds herself in the midst of a murder mystery full of colorful characters who could have come straight out of her novels.

Bear’s tooth

Silesia, 1930. Three children play with toy airplanes. Three friends – Max the Polish Jew, Werner and Hanna the Germans. All dream of becoming pilots, but they won’t all have the same opportunities, and the world is heading down a dark road… 1944. Max is now an ace in the US Navy, while Hanna is one of Germany’s top test pilots. Will anything remain of their old friendship, as the sides they each chose are locked in a struggle to the death?

Three friends, united by their love of flying, torn apart by different origins. Amidst the madness of WW2, what will prove strongest: friendship, or loyalty?

Header image: Black Cotton Star © Steve Cuzor & Yves Sente / Dupuis

If you’re anything like us, you might be craving a different kind of political entertainment to the one taking over our screens these days. Luckily we have a great selection of fascinating political thrillers that are perfect for the job! So sit back, relax and enjoy some ‘old school’ political drama!

Black OP

It’s 1945. Floyd Whitman discovers that ‘those scumbag communists’ have killed his father. He’s just a child, but he resolves to one day join the CIA. By 2003, America has triumphed over the Soviet Union, but the Russian mafia has become the most powerful, and certainly the most violent criminal group throughout the whole country. Through the fate of one man–young and full of illusions in 1965, but rather more embittered in 2003–we see the CIA help the Russian mafia get back on its feet in the squalid back rooms of the American empire. A great spy adventure comparable with the best of Hollywood thrillers.

Reality Show

In a future age where robots take care of most of the more tedious tasks, humans have a lot of time on their hands. So what to do with it? Well, obviously, they’re going to watch the Norman K. Barron show! Norman is a handsome and heroic policeman, whose dealings have already cost the life of his partner, who has now been replaced by Oshi Feal, a young recruit fresh out of police school. But nothing could have prepared Oshi for this kind of mission, where unexpected developments are a must… After all, you gotta keep the viewers happy!

Koralovski

Viktor Koralovski was Russia’s Oil King–a title that earned him the wrath of President Khanine and ten years in prison. An unexpected missile attack allows Koralovski to escape. However, he soon learns that while he was locked up, his friends and enemies have become almost indistinguishable, which leads to his current position at the center of a vast conspiracy that threatens to engulf the entire oil industry!

The Roots of Chaos

March 1953. Alexander is walking through the streets of London with a bomb in his hand. It is destined for Marshal Tito, during his controversial visit to Great Britain. Alexander’s story began several months earlier, when his mother was struck by a car and instantly killed. Trying to understand why and how his mother, who was in an institution for senile elderly people, wound up so far from her home, Alexander finds himself caug
ht up in a spiral of terror involving the British secret service, strange Serbian nationalists, and the island of Majorca… all of which culminates, several months later, with Alexander finding himself on the bank of the Thames, holding a bag with a bomb in it…

Sherman

“The bill always comes due…” Jay Sherman is the American Dream come true: a self-made man who worked himself up from the streets to the upper echelons of moneyed society. But when his son Robert, a promising Democratic presidential candidate, is shot before his eyes, Sherman’s world spins into chaos. Threats on his life and that of his estranged daughter soon follow. An old mentor turned FBI chief steps up to offer his protection, but lacking any real leads, they can only look into Sherman’s past… which has more than its share of skeletons. A political thriller with Gatsbyesque overtones.

Lena

Who is Lena? What is she up to? Does she even know her mission? Setting out from an East Berlin neighborhood that is home to former dignitaries, she goes about passing out small, innocent-seeming gifts from Budapest to Transylvania to Kiev. She crosses the Danube delta, the Black Sea, Anatolia, and the Aleppo bazaar. Each time, she crosses borders incognito, claiming to have nothing to declare. A journey at once timeless and inextricable from the great issues of our age, “Lena” combines the intimacy dear to André Juillard and Pierre Christin’s predilection for vast geopolitical canvases.

One 

Julian Lethercore can read minds. Well, actually, what he reads are molecules, borne on saliva and other bodily fluids, with which he can access a person’s memories, the secrets of their very lives and identities. He’s also the result of a top secret military experiment gone wrong. He and the four other “bloodcogs” serve their master, Senator Pershing, a former warhawk now disgraced under a new administration headed by President Harmond. But Harmond may be gunning for more than the Senator’s reputation. He may be out for all the bloodcogs—and it’s up to Julian to find out.

Synchronic 

For Ian Mallory, life as he knew it ended the day his wife was murdered, in an attack that sent him into a coma. Three years later, he’s woken up, with the bullet still lodged inside his brain. Any attempt to remove it will kill him, but that isn’t all: because of the bullet, he feels emotions several hours after they occur. An affliction that may be a gift—at least in the eyes of the NSA.

Sisco

Agent Sisco-Castiglioni—Sisco for short—is responsible for protecting the President… which doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on the President’s side. Nor are his colleagues necessarily on his. When an ill-advised business deal threatens to embarrass the country’s leader, Sisco is called in to take drastic action. But what should have happened behind closed doors is witnessed from a window—and the chase is on to prevent embarrassment turning into national scandal… In Part 1 of this episode, the question is: Is it possible to get away with murder?

Contrapaso

Madrid, winter of 1956. Franco’s fascist dictatorship controls the press and maintains the fiction of an idyllic nation. Faced with the Regime’s attempts to cover up the country’s most sordid crimes, two journalists from the crime beat, the jaded veteran Emilio Sanz and the young and intrepid Léon Lenoir, seek to reveal the truth. Confronted by a wave of unexplained murders, the duo sets out to uncover the dark secret connecting them, buried in a cruel past. Brilliantly written and illustrated by Teresa Valero, Sanz and Lenoir’s investigation plunges us headfirst into an era and society as dark and as violent as it is full of hope. A bracing journalistic thriller revealing the lengths the Francoist regime was willing to go to in its attempts to stifle any form of dissent.

Dantes

The year is 1998. In the merciless world of the stock exchange, Alexandre, a brilliant young trader, finds himself caught in the middle of a game of scheming and manipulation. An employee of the BGCI, he is duped into covering up several risky transactions by his colleague and so-called friend. The losses begin to snowball, becoming ever harder to hide. Facing an audit and with a journalist hovering around, Alexandre’s fall from grace takes a deadly turn. This first volume brings us forward 12 years in the future, when Christopher Dantes, a businessman as rich as he is mysterious, makes his first public appearance at the Millennium Financial Ball, coming face to face with the people involved in the plot of that sordid drama of the past.

Cassio

Rome, 145 CE: Cassio, a prominent lawyer who once saved the Emperor’s life, wakes in the night to noises. Four assassins have entered his villa and overpowered his formidable slave, the warrior Alva. He seems to know them, and knows why they have come… Ephesus, present day: archeologist Ornella Grazzi finds a ruin with a fresco of Cassio’s face. The papyrus scrolls inside tell the beginning of a story she has long suspected and been searching for clues to all her life: how Cassio survived his own assassination and came back from the dead for vengeance…

Bob Morane

Bob Morane is back! This thrilling reboot from Lombard reintroduces the heroic soldier and all his classic associates in a new, present-day world. The whip-smart, physically skilled, and drop-dead gorgeous Morane has volunteered for a peacekeeping mission to Nigeria, where his conscience runs him afoul of his commanding officers and puts some very important people in his debt. Eventually, he finds himself organizing the largest humanitarian operation that has ever been undertaken in Africa. But there are many forces at play, some more shadowy than others—and some are extremely nefarious

Header image: The Roots of Chaos © Cava & Bartolomé Segui Nicolau / Dargaud

It’s that time of February again! And to keep it in the spirit of things we’ve decided to put together the list of our best graphic novels filled with romance both sweet and bitter.

Bearskin

My name is Amadeo. Every morning, I ride my bike up to the top of the hill, where the fig trees grow, to read the daily horoscope to Don Palermo. He’s seen a few things in his time, Don Palermo – over there in Stonefield USA, back in the 1930s. He started out living with a bear. Later, he lived with another one, less hairy but more dangerous: Don Pomodoro, a local Mafia godfather, the kind who kills first, and asks questions later. But Don Palermo has known love, too; the real kind. The kind that still gives you butterflies 70 years later…

Summer of Irreverence

Mexico, August 1923. The American photographer Edward Weston has just abandoned his wife and children to rejoin his mistress Tina Modotti. In Mexico, the two lovers discover that revolution rhymes with expression. The paintings of Diego Rivera, Xavier Guerrero and all of those who will remain in art history under the name of ‘muralists’, exploded onto the walls of public buildings. Tina and Edward commit themselves to the side of the guérilleros of art. From then on, for Tina, sex, freedom, art and politics prove to be inseparable from her way of life; a squaring of the circle that is difficult for Edward to solve. But while passion burns the senses, suffering stokes the fires of creation…

Flora

40-year-old Flora has just gone through a bitter divorce after 20 years of marriage. She would love to find her soul mate, but it’s just not that simple. She has several promising dates, but once the first flush of passion is over, her lovers seem to disappear into the night. Why does this keep happening? Is she not attractive enough? Is she so difficult to be around? Or is she being sabotaged by someone close to her? A story for the divorced (and perpetually single) 40-somethings who just want to take a moment to catch their breath, and maybe even enjoy their singledom, told through the eyes of Flora and her hilarious entourage.

Incognito

This is the story of an invisible man. He’s a man that no one ever notices. He is transparent, whatever he does. This is rather a difficult cross to bear! One night, the man who so wants to be seen loses it. He’s had enough. He wants to feel things too! His outburst costs him an ankle injury, which in turn leads him to Berenice, the lovely young physiotherapist. She soon sets him straight: we are all victims in one way or another! Gregory Mardon develops a narrative based on the infernal spiral of human relationships, in which love is manipulation, kindness is selfishness and cruelty is an art.

Midlife Crisis

Usually around about the 40 mark, the human male has a habit of leaving his well-worn spouse in search of pastures new. As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side. Florence Cestac dissects this subject of common interest, from the very first symptoms right up to the final outbreak. “You’re the love of my life! But with her, it’s something else… she’s a fairy,” declares our hero with the touching honesty of a male en route to adventure. So once our hero’s skipped off into the sunset with his fairy, our heroine begins asking herself a series of counter-productive questions. She manages to raise her spirits with “tiptopform,” drinks a bit, weeps a lot, and buries the dog who decided to die right in the middle of it all – cherry on the cake.

Forbidden Harbour

During the summer of 1807, off the coast of Siam, a Royal Navy ship rescues a young castaway, Abel, who only remembers his first name. He soon becomes friends with the First Officer, who is standing in for the captain as the commander has apparently run away after stealing the treasures that were on board. Abel goes back to England aboard the Explorer, and he finds accomodation in an inn which is managed by the three
daughters of the runaway captain. Abel will find out something truly creepy about himself before recovering his memory, and he’ll realize the true nature of the ones who helped him.

NOIR

An absorbing family drama depicted in dark artwork. Robert Boganiec is a writer. His crime stories are always perfectly narrated, and the heroes of this books consequently do what they should. But as he discovers his wife’s unfaithfullness, he does not hesitate to do what must be done…

Hearts at Sea

Jean-Paul is a shy, slightly gawky young man leading a rather unremarkable life in which his oppressive mother is all too present. As the anniversary of his father’s death approaches, he feels increasingly dissatisfied with his life, and increasingly aware of his loneliness. It’s time for things to change. So, without telling anyone, he embarks on a singles cruise and takes his first steps in a brave new world…

The Muse

From his Barcelona studio in 1939, an aging Catalan painter shares with his model the mystery of his best friend Vidal Balaguer, “the forgotten genius” of Catalan Modernism, who vanished on the eve of 1900. His story his linked to the disappearance a few months earlier of his muse and lover, Mar, the subject of his most famous painting, “Young Lady in a Mantón.” But there are other disappearances, too, of people, a corpse, some oranges, and a stubbornly silent canary named Stradivarius. A police detective is convinced that Balaguer murdered his model but by the end of the story we may come to believe that, as the painter himself reflects, “the murder weapon is not always what you might think!”

Limited Edition

Claire is a thirtysomething neonatal nurse who is becoming increasingly discouraged about her prospects of getting into a long-term relationship and starting a family. She thinks she may have finally met her man in Franck—if not a Prince Charming then at least a friendly and compatible person—but societal pressures and gender norms seem to rear their heads at every turn and Claire begins to wonder if it will ever be possible for her to be happy with another person on her own terms.

Body and Soul

The lives of a handful of Parisian characters trying to connect with themselves, their bodies, and each other intertwine in this insightful snapshot of modern society: mothers and daughters, sons and parents, lovers, friends, and neighbors interact and experience each other in ways both simple and profound.

In the Moment

“In the Moment” is a modern Romeo and Juliet in two different time dimensions. In this unusual love story, Dutch author Hanco Kolk and Flemish author Kim Duchateau have found a particular way of working together, in which each of them draws one time dimension. Rafael Falstaff falls hopelessly in love with Sylvia, a chronowoman. He can see her, but he doesn’t see her move, nor can he touch her, because they would both die if he did. But he’s happy with just seeing her, until he realizes her life is in danger. He then decides to take action, with all that it entails… A story in two parts.

Taxi Tales

The Fragrant Lady is a tale that brings to life the recollections of an old gentleman in the back seat of Yalcin’s cab. The man tells of the time he spent with an enviable French woman named Floré during the silver age of Istanbul. His too-good-to-be-true story unravels with rich illustrations by Ergün Gündüz, which are throwbacks to the days of urban glamor in Beyoglu, in stark contrast with the current state of the district.

Double 7

The Spanish Civil War attracted involvement from a wide variety of governments, individuals and political factions, with Italians, Germans, and North Africans helping Franco and his supporters, and the Soviet Union, Mexico, and international brigades aiding the Republicans. Dusting off a little‐known and often forgotten chapter of history, the authors take us back to this remarkable and terrible period of war as only they can, with a tale full of scheming intrigues. The world they uncover is one of no‐holds‐barred plotting to obtain victory at whatever the cost. And in the midst of the backstabbings and despair, one young Russian pilot falls in love with a feisty Spanish freedomfighter. In the hope it will outlast the bitter conflict engulfing them all.

Just Enough

Manuel and Mia live together in Bologna, in a house that is so crowded they have a roommate they’ve never seen. Mia is almost thirty, hates her job, and has a deep desire to dig into life before it’s too late—before becoming hopelessly adult. Manuel is publishing a serial novel online about courtly love, which he hopes might one day find a publisher. Mia and Manuel have dreams, but are unhappy. They don’t know how to face the void created between them. They’re losing themselves, even though they love each other. If they’re to straighten things out, they must find the right measure.

The Princess of Clèves

Entering life at the French royal court, a world in which “what is shown is rarely the truth,” the young Princess of Clèves learns of passion’s torments, of heartbreak, and of the agony of love. Claire Bouilhac and Catel Muller’s graphic-novel adaption of this classic tale—often referred to as the forerunner of the modern psychological novel—remains faithful to the original 17th-century text, while also providing surprising and original insight into both the mystery of the creative act, and the link between the author, Madame de La Fayette, and her heroine, the Princess of Clèves.

Karmen

This is a graphic novel about death and suicide… but not in the way you think. It’s about death that can be reversible, when and if the right angels are looking. The dead person here is Catalina, a self-absorbed student who kills herself out of heartbreak. The angel is Karmen, an angel of the facetious, unusual sort. Her capacity for empathy is so great that she leads “her” dead on a journey toward redemption and, believe it or not, back to life! Full of surprises, metaphysics, and beautiful women, this graphic novel is tender and not devoid of humor.

Header image: Bearskin © Zidrou, Oriol / Dargaud

Mothers are often portrayed in fictions as key elements of family life and decisive figures of childhood. So today, and for a change, we would like to highlight the fathers figures that are depicted in modern franco-belgian comics and graphic novels!

The Single Dad – Dad 

The name’s Dad. Just Dad. He might be an out of work actor, but he has a much more important role to play than any on the stage or in front of the camera. Four daughters from four different mothers, four different ages, four different personalities, one aim – to drive Dad crazy! But the challenge of Dad’s family commitments comes with some sweet rewards. When you look at Dad’s struggles, and victories, it’s hard to imagine a more fulfilling job than raising four headstrong, but equally delightful young ladies.

The Workaholic Dad  – Jean Muchat from Portugal

Jean Muchat could not be more different from Dad. For one thing, he spends a bit too much time in the office. But is Jean really a natural workaholic? Or is he using his job as a means of distancing himself from the family? Jean’s the type to force emergency work meetings, just to get away as often as possible, and then he withdraws into himself once there is no exit strategy.

The Super Dad  – Superdupont

We might throw around the term super dad a lot, but Superdupont is a super dad by definition. France’s number one superhero, on a mission to save his country from a secret organization called Anti-France, now has a lil’ sidekick – Superdupont Jr.! Together, they defend the noble values of France and its savoir-faire. And perhaps together they can finally bring down the enemies of their wonderful homeland! Allez les bleus!

The Enigmatic Dad – Henri Kichka from The Second Generation : Things I Never Told My Father 

It took Michel Kichka until he was 50 to learn his own family history. The artist’s father, Henri, survived the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, but never told his children his story. For years and years “silence was the rule of the game” in the Kichka family, as no one could have predicted if questions about the Holocaust would get answers, or whether they would cause further harm. But years later, following the suicide of Michel’s younger brother, Henri Kichka finally and abruptly opened up…

 The Stay-at-Home Dad – Phillippe from Seeking Dad: 2.0 

Philippe is what you might call a house husband. Unfortunately for Philippe, no one seems to be taking him seriously. As according to the society Philippe lives in, bringing up three small people so that they can become balanced, responsible, knowledgeable adults is less rewarding than firing people and boosting sales of an unnecessary FMCG that pollutes the planet. Some fathers honestly think they serve no purpose. But not Philippe! One day children grow up and go on with their own lives. Every minute counts!

Header image: Seeking Dad: 2.0  © Gwendoline Raisson, Magali Le Huche / Dargaud

Continuing from Part 1…

The next 10 titles that we released on November 10th offer even more of the famous European comics variety, as in this selection we have something for children and comic strip-lovers too.

The children’s title which is actually more of an ‘all ages’ and/or ‘comedy’ title is Pico Bogue. Pico is a special ten-year old, who, with his sister Anna, spends his time expressing his deeply philosophical and original take on life, to the misfortune of his parents. His wit and originality are uncontested, matched by his parents’ patience and the talent of his creators, the mother and son duo Dominique Roques and Alexis Dormal.

Another pair of siblings – the mischievous twins Kinky and Cosy, are the notorious stars of the homonymous collection of strips. They talk less than Pico and Anna, they act instead! Making a victim of everyone around them, and sprawling from the imagination of Flemish author Nix.

This second selection of ours is no less ‘action & adventure’-ous than the first one. Here we have the third volume of Djinn, and another hit Ancient Roman series – Murena. This time however, the events take place at a much higher lever – among the ruthless and deadly entourage of the emperor himself. Here again we meet Dufaux on the script, whereas the art is done by Philippe Delaby, who we lost much too soon but whose art will keep us talking about him for a long time.

Yet again by Dufaux and Marini we have a raw tale filled with dark vampire-friendly streets, mysterious bite marks and skin-tight leather – Raptors, who came long before Twilight. Again in the YA area we have Alter Ego – a very originally written series, where each character tells their side of the story in a separate volume, a story filled with inexplicable events and paranormal experiments.   

On a completely different note, we have something for the lovers of history, big ships, big conquests and very big and bloody battles. In 1066, Tenderini and Weber tell of William the Conqueror and his belligerent accession to the throne of England.

Another title related to real historical events is the semi-fictional Death to the Tsar by Nury and Robin. The story takes place 10 years before the Russian Revolution when the governor of Moscow is publicly considered dead long before he is actually assassinated.
The same author, Fabien Nury, is taking us to a completely different place through the art of Brüno. We are in Texas, in the Fifties, 17 kg of cocaine have been stolen and there is one man, Tyler Cross – a one-of-a-kind noble gangster, who will sort the whole affair out, punishing the bad and rewarding the good.

And another male character, fighting a different kind of battle is the protagonist of Ordinary Victories. Larcenet‘s heart-melting drama tells of a bored photographer who somehow can’t find a meaning in his life, and who luckily finally does, somewhere in the three volumes of this book.

So this is the story of the first 19 titles of the Europe Comics catalog. The next releases are coming on November 25th, led by a very special character – the one, the only, the unique, the irreplaceable superhero of European comics, France’s own, Superdupont!

On October 8th we released the first nine titles of the Europe Comics catalog – the pre-launch special selection. Ten more arrived on November 10th. Nineteen in total, and all very special. Here is why we chose to start with them.

It is no secret that European comics don’t do superheroes. At least not in the traditional meaning of the term (off the record: there is one serious exception, see below). What we do have are heroes, just ordinary ones, all kinds of them. So we thought we’d start with four hero-packed action & adventure series, although, as you will discover yourselves, many of our books fall within multiple genres.

That is the case with the enchanting Djinn, whose story has traits of action, adventure, erotica and historical fiction. We follow her travels across Europe, Africa and Asia, and those of her granddaughter in modern-day Turkey, as she tries to find more about her mysterious ancestor and the Sultan’s missing treasure. A highly successful series, penned by two masterful creators: prolific scriptwriter and something of a living Belgian legend Jean Dufaux, and talented Spanish artist Ana Miralles.

Another mysterious woman is at the center of our second mainstream choice, this time set in the future. In Ghost Money, the enigmatic millionaire Chamza travels the world in high-speed jets and giant yachts, under the close eye of the CIA, who think they’ve discovered the missing September 11th millions. An intricate and fast-paced scenario written by comics theoretician Thierry Smolderen, masterfully drawn by Dominique Bertail.

In our third action-packed series we follow two young and stubborn protagonists, the Eagles of Rome, and their adventures and misadventures as they go from sworn enemies to best friends in the setting of the Eternal city. Both scenario and art of this series is done by Swiss-Italian master Enrico Marini.

In our fourth pre-launch title, Spellbound, we find a couple in the center of a fairy-tale world filled with witchcraft and magic, kingdoms and battles, where princess Blanche of Middleland is torn between her duty to take the throne and her love for handsome Maldoror. Here again the scenario is by Dufaux, beautifully illustrated by the Spaniard José Luis Munuera.

But everyone knows, of course, that Europe is famous for its quality graphic novels, so we thought we’d present two of the best right from the start.
Multi award winning author Manu Larcenet‘s Blast is nothing short of a masterpiece, filled with dark suspense, unconventional characters… and pure poetry.
Cyril Pedrosa’s Partugal, on the other hand, is a story full of color, although often pale and weak, painting the troubles of an uninspired Franco-Portuguese comics artist desperately looking for inspiration on a journey back to his Portuguese roots.

Continues in Part II…