Les Cités obscures

The mysterious cities ( in the original French Les Cités obscures ) is the name of a multiple award -winning comic book series of the artist François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters Comicszenaristen.

Content and style

Similar to the French comic book series by Marc -Antoine Mathieu at the ministerial JC Acquefacques the albums of the mysterious cities in terms of content mostly deals with the burglary of a surreal appearance in the daily life of a protagonist. Thus, in The Shadow Man (L' Ombre d'un Homme, 1999) a man realizes that his shadow has become colored, while in the fever of the town planner ( Fièvre d' Urbicande, 1985) a suddenly immersed on the desk of an architect gray cube expands further and unstoppable.

One common feature of the otherwise usually only loosely connected albums is the backdrop for the action, namely a fictional planet whose surface is colonized by largely autonomous city-states that have each formed very own civilizations, which corresponds to an independent architectural style. The town planner, also known Urbitekten that often seem to take over the function of a historic town founder, take their task to create an organically interlocking, cohesive and at the same time the habitats in which social and cultural reality as well as the political realities of each with the Architecture correspond, very seriously; at the same time it is not clear whether the city planners have been inspired by these existing conditions, or whether they have also created the entire social structure, way of life and politics of their city even on the drawing board. Another subject of the series are accentuated, bloated bureaucracies and hierarchies that seem to dominate on Kafkaesque way more people than the reverse, similar to the architecture seems to subjugate the people more, rather than invite them to a relaxed and comfortable living life and work.

The drawings of the mysterious cities are typical of Schui Tens style: In his clear and distinct strokes his affiliation shows ligne claire. The strong influence of architecture on his work is reflected in the architectural styles of the cities, Art Nouveau and gigantomaniac rococo style architect and painter Giovanni Battista Piranesi are influenced by Art Deco.

Characteristic of almost all cities are clothing and art of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century ( zeppelins, iron railway bridges). Typical of the literary genre of the Steampunks this style means Victorian and Wilhelmine dress, language, technology and technological optimism are associated with futuristic utopian or dystopian techniques and alternative worlds or histories; Steam power and mechanical movements often found in a technique use as later by the electricity became a reality only, whereas the use of electricity itself up to isolated using about by telegraph is still quite rare, and the electric current as a utopian future energy are similar mystical healing powers awarded as in the mid-20th century of nuclear power.

The mysterious cities as a parallel world

The world of the mysterious cities is created as an alternative to earth. By guides, including Le Guide des cités (1996 ) and a history of the town newspaper called L' Écho of Cités (1993 ), enclosed recordings ( as in 1990 at Le Musée A. Desombres ) and DVDs ( 2002 L'affaire Desombres ) give Schuiten and Peeters their creations a semblance of reality. The fact that their world is still invisible to us, they are certifying that they had seen from the Earth is on the other side of the sun.

In the comics, there are still ways between the two worlds back and herzureisen, namely so-called portals ( always a reemerging traveler, for example, Jules Verne ), most of which are located in similar or identical buildings on both planets.

On the Internet, on sites like Tram 81 and the Office of the Obscure Passages, blur Schuiten and Peeters fiction and reality by presenting many alleged, often illustrated with photos and drawings advice from people who accidentally through one of the portals for a short time in the world mysterious cities are advised for years or are looking for portals. The portal to the world of the housing estates obscures the viewfinder, in French and English, respectively called obscurantist (e) s ( cf. Letters of Obscure Men, Latin Epistolae obscurorum virorum, from which the term obscurantist developed as a rear-facing enemy of the Enlightenment ), concentrate on buildings, to the style of certain city-states of the mysterious cities meet, raising the possibility that there is a portal could be located that connects our world with each city-state.

Reception

The volumes of the comic series were mostly reviewed individually by the literary criticism; a consideration of the entire work is to be found in comic magazines and the tape Schuiten & Peeters: Autour des Cités Obscures. In the individual meetings Schui Tens drawings are referred to as "depressing beautiful" and drawn parallels to the stories of Franz Kafka and the novels of Umberto Eco. One reviewer raised the question whether the works " on the occasion of discussions on current issues of architecture and urban development could take, or whether it does not rather yet again escape open spaces in a postmodern quote any game."

Awards

Expenditure

Since 1983, 18 comics and books in the series of mystery have appeared cities in France, Belgium and the Netherlands Casterman, in Germany by Egmont Ehapa ( in 1991 bought up Feest series of the former Rainer- Feest -Verlag, in the Egmont Manga & anime series, were published as well as taking the easy shortcuts Ehapa, Egmont and Egmont Ehapa ) and more recently by writer & reader:

• Les murailles de Samaris (1983 ), Germany: The Walls of Samaris (1st edition Feest 1990, 2nd ed Feest 1992, 3rd ed Egmont Manga & Anime 1992, 4th ed Feest 2007)
• La fièvre d' Urbicande (1985 ), Germany: The fever of the town planner (1st edition Feest 1989, 2nd ed Ehapa 1991)
• Regis de Brok ( = Thierry Smolderen ), Francois Schuiten: Le Mystère d' Urbicande (1985 ) dt: The Secrets of Urbicande (bound booklet A4 - Format, ed / year not specified - probably a side dish to another band. )
• L' archiviste (1987 ), Germany: The Archivist ( large-format picture book without words; 1st edition Egmont Ehapa 2002)
• La Tour (1987 ), Germany: The Tower - The man who traveled him true story (1st edition Ehapa 1991, 2nd ed Ehapa 2000)
• La route d' Armilia (1988 ), Germany: The Way Armilia (1st edition Feest 1992, 2nd edition Feest 1992 deluxe edition )
• L'Encyclopédie des transports et à venir présents (1988 ), dt handbook of current and future transport ( in German only published as an annex in the deluxe edition of The Way Armilia )
• Le Musée Desombres A. (1990 ) (Book with Audio CD )
• Brüsel (1992 ), dt: Brüsel (1st edition Ehapa 1992, 2nd ed Ehapa 1993, 3rd ed Ehapa Manga & Anime 1995 Special Edition, 4th Edition Egmont Ehapa 2002)
• L' Écho the cités (1993 ), Germany: The town of Echo - The story of a newspaper (1st edition 1994 Ehapa; 2nd ed Ehapa Manga & Anime 2001)
• Le Guide des cités (1996 ), Germany: A guide through the mysterious cities ( illustrated book; 1st edition Ehapa 1997, 2nd edition Ehapa Comic Collection 2001)
• L' enfant penchée (1996 ), dt: Mary (1st edition Ehapa Manga & Anime 1996 Special Edition, 2nd ed Egmont Ehapa 2001), after not originally associated with the series of children's books Mary la penchée 1995
• L' ombre d'un homme (1999), Germany: The Shadow Man ( 1st Edition Feest 2000; 2nd edition Egmont Ehapa 2000; 3rd ed Egmont Ehapa 2002)
• La frontière invisible, Part 1 ( 2002), dt Across the border 01 (1st edition Schreiber & Reader 2002; 2nd Ed Schreiber & Readers 2004)
• L'affaire Desombres (2002) (Book with DVD)
• Les portes du possible (2005)
• La frontière invisible, Part 2 ( 2006), Germany: Beyond the limit of 02 (1st edition Schreiber & Reader 2007)
• La Théorie du grain de sable (2007), Germany: The grain of sand theory (1st edition Schreiber & Reader 2010)