Francois Schuiten, the architectural student turned comic book artist who created the fascinating series of graphic novels known in English as 'The Cities of the Fantastic,' ('Les Cites Obscures' in French) won the grand prize at the International Comics Fair in Angouleme, France.  Schuiten's loosely knit series takes place in a parallel world, which seems to be frozen in a turn-of-the-century time warp with autogyros buzzing between the mammoth skyscrapers that dominate the feverish urban landscape.  Schuiten and his co-creator, writer Benoit Peeters, even created an elaborate and hugely successful museum exhibition, which purported to contain artifacts gleaned from the ruins of a museum from one of the cities they created in their graphic novels.

Schuiten was a guest of honor at the San Diego Comic Convention a few years ago, but he is certainly not as well known here as he is in Europe, where his books are bestsellers. Still once fans have been exposed to his soaring art and Jules Verne-inspired visions, this unique artist wins a lot of converts.  The growth in interest in serious comics and graphic novels definitely favors increasing prominence for Schuiten in the U.S., and NBM, his current publisher, has done a good job of keeping most of his Cities of the Fantastic volumes in print.  Currently The Great Walls of Samaris, Fever in Urbicand, and Brusel are all available.  NBM plans to publish the latest volume in the 'Cities' series, The Invisible Frontier later this year.  In addition to the NBM titles, Humanoides U.S. has also published two of Schuiten's earlier works in inexpensive English language versions.