The major work in one of Europe's most popular comic series is finally available in English.  Several titles in Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters' Cities of the Fantastic series, including The Great Walls of Samaris, Fever in Urbicand, and The Tower, have already been published in English by NBM.  In July, NBM adds Brusel, the acknowledged masterwork in the series.  Brusel is the graphic novel that inspired one of the most popular comic art exhibitions in the past decade; it traveled all over Europe and was viewed by over a million people.  It's a superbly crafted 120-page full color graphic novel that reeks of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, capturing perfectly the limitless vision and quirky inventions that are so characteristic of early science fiction writing.  Like Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or the 'steampunk' retro sci-fi of books like The Difference Engine, Brusel is a vision of an alternate history that has plenty of relevance for our current situation.

 

Brusel is one of the few comic graphic novels whose subject is architecture -- and as such plays to the strength of Schuiten's considerable artistic abilities. In Brusel, an obscure florist discovers the miracle of plastics.  His discoveries are soon taken up by the city's technocratic elite and used to transform the city into a futuristic 'paradise' filled with skyscrapers, dirigible taxis, and autogyros.  The eye-popping backgrounds and vistas that Schuiten creates for this 'ultra-modern' city (circa 1900) are the real subject of this dream-like comic.

 

Schuiten, who made an appearance at the San Diego Comic Con a few years ago, is becoming a little better known in this country, but selling his books in the U.S. requires some effort on the part of retailers.  Since four books in Cities of the Fantastic will be available from NBM, it will definitely be worth it to recommend Brusel to fans of retro science fiction.  Readers who enjoy the works of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman are the natural audience for this book.  All the major comic publishers are experiencing growth in sales of graphic novels in traditional bookstores at the same time that newsstand sales of comics are slowing.  Increasingly new patrons for comic shops will come from bookstores not newsstands, and titles like Brusel are exactly the sort of intriguing works that will keep these new customers coming back for more.