Eugen Robick thought he had designed the perfect city, efficiently divided between the consummately aesthetic and the irrational. But then a small but mysterious grid of beams invades and exponentially expands into an indestructible city-engulfing lattice, allowing a bridge between the city's two halves. As well-laid plans are thrown into disarray, readers will join in Robick's search to learn the cube's secret and the errors of his own ways. Illustrated in b/w throughout. 'Marvel at one of Europe's master draughtsmen' - Amazon.com

Visit a land full of mystery, ancient alchemy, and modern technologies in this award-winning graphic novel series, now in a new edition with all-new colors and an updated translation! The second book in the original The Obscure Cities series, The Fever in Urbicande was first published in English by NBM in 1990 in black-and-white. This updated edition features an all-new translation and beautiful new coloring supervised by Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters. Eugen Robick, Urbatect of Urbicande has been designing a new bridge to connect the southern portion of the city to the north, but his bid to commence construction has been denied by the Commission. Unconcerned with the politics of the situation, Eugen only cares about the balance it will bring to the city. While contemplating how he can convince the Commission to see things his way, Eugen is brought a cube made of beams discovered during construction of another project. Initially small enough to fit on his desk, it begins to grow, adding beam after beam, until it soon takes over his entire office. Growing exponentially, it eventually takes over the entire city, disrupting the social order as citizens begin using the beams to travel back and forth between the southern and northern parts of the city, previously only accessible via the guarded bridges. While the Commission wishes to put a stop to any such social change, the cube’s impact is overpowering and irreversible.

"Mary Von Rathen is with her family in Alaxis when during a ride on the Star Express the world shakes. Afterwards Mary is leaning. Doctors can not help her and she is sent to a private school in Sodrovni. Mary is not happy at the private school and she escapes. She joins the Robertson Circus and stays with them for some time, until she hears from Stanislas Sainclair that Alex Wappendorf might be able to help her"--Alta Plana website.

Paris is seen through the eyes of artist Fabrice Moireau, with sketches in watercolor and pencil perfectly matched by an introduction by Mary A. Kelly. These residents of the world's most romantic capital city are the perfect guides to its streets, monuments, gardens and delightfully hidden corners.

The fourth release in Alaxis Press' The Obscure Cities series to be published by IDW brings the award winning graphic novels to readers in English for the first time! Albert Chamisso, a newlywed of just a few weeks to Sarah, begins to have nightmares. Dr. Polydore Vincent helps him to get rid of the nightmares, but a strange side effect of the treatment is that his shadow is in color afterwards. He struggles with this, losing his wife and his job in the process. He moves to the outskirts of Blossfeldtstad where he meets the lovely Minna. Together they create a light show that becomes very popular in this bittersweet romantic noir tale.

Whereas in English-speaking countries comics are for children or adults 'who should know better', in France and Belgium the form is recognized as the 'Ninth Art' and follows in the path of poetry, architecture, painting and cinema. The bande dessinée [comic strip] has its own national institutions, regularly obtains front-page coverage and has received the accolades of statesmen from De Gaulle onwards. On the way to providing a comprehensive introduction to the most francophone of cultural phenomena, this book considers national specificity as relevant to an anglophone reader, whilst exploring related issues such as text/image expression, historical precedents and sociological implication. To do so it presents and analyses priceless manuscripts, a Franco- American rodent, Nazi propaganda, a museum-piece urinal, intellectual gay porn and a prehistoric warrior who's really Zinedine Zidane.

Another retro-SF city, full of classic European elements a la Jules Verne. This world has been so successful in Europe as to elicit a life-size roving exhibition recreating it, with even metro stations in Paris and Brussels designed after it. A long awaited title in the obscure and mysterious Cities of the Fantastic series. In full-colour throughout.

"Samaris is the first volume of the chronicles of The Obscure Cities, published as a graphic novel in 1983 in French and published for the first time in English in 1987 as The Great Walls of Samaris. This edition, marking the 30th anniversary of the original English language publication, features an expanded main story, an all-new creator-approved translation, and new coloring. The book also contains the never before published-in-English "THE MYSTERIES OF PAHRY," a THE OBSCURE CITIES story, originally published in four parts, three in the French comics magazine, A Suivre, from 1987 through 1989, and in the December 1994 issue of Macadam-plus"--Provided by publisher

Includes international essays on possibly the most important aspect of the aesthetics and narratives of comics - urban topography and environment.

Comics Beyond the Page in Latin America is a cutting-edge study of the expanding worlds of Latin American comics. Despite lack of funding and institutional support, not since the mid-twentieth century have comics in the region been so dynamic, so diverse and so engaged with pressing social and cultural issues. Comics are being used as essential tools in debates about, for example, digital cultures, gender identities and political disenfranchisement.