Alaxis Press has launched a Kickstarter for The Return of Captain Nemo, the latest instalment of “The Obscure Cities” series in English by the 2022 Eisner Award-winning team of Benoit Peeters and François Schuiten. The project was inspired by an amazing-looking Jules Verne art project.
The Return of Captain Nemo (known in French as “Le retour du capitaine Nemo”, just published by Casterman) is a love letter to Jules Verne and his iconic character, Captain Nemo, presented as a blend of graphic novel and illustrated narrative.
As the creators have themselves explained, it’s inspired by the development of a project around the Nauti-Octopus (‘in French, Nauti-poulpe), a biomechanical hybrid, which is being made into a huge cast iron statue that will be sited in the forecourt of the Freyssinet Hall (“Halle Freyssinet”), Amiens, in 2025.
Conceived by Schutien, landscape gardener Thierry Huau, designer Pierre Matter and lighting designer agency Hervé Audibert, in 2019, a model of the incredible sculpture, the final version to be six metres high, is currently on display in Amiens station until 15th December.
“We worked a little differently than usual, that is to say that François kept drawing the Nauti-oulpe in different situations, different landscapes,” writer Benoît Peeters told France-Info last week. “I saw them accumulate and I said “it’s the beginning of a story”. You could say that the scenario started from the drawings.”
The Return of Captain Nemo the latest entry in the international award-winning graphic novel series, The Obscure Cities (“Les Cités Obscures”), translated into English by Stephen D. Smith, publisher of Alaxis Press, and 2022 Eisner award-winning translator of the Obscure Cities book, Shadow of a Man. (Smith also translated the Obscure Cities books The Leaning Girl, Samaris, Theory of the Grain of Sand, The Tower and Schuiten’s book, The Beauty).
“I am so pleased with the translation and was helped through it by Benoît Peeters himself,” said Stephen last month. “The book is a beautiful tribute to Jules Verne and his most popular character, Captain Nemo. As a Jules Verne fan, translating this book was perhaps one of the greatest honours of my career.”
For those unfamiliar, The Obscure Cities is a graphic novel series set on a counter-Earth, created by the Belgian comics artist Francois Schuiten and his longtime friend, writer Benoit Peeters, in the early 1980s. In this fictional world, humans live in independent city-states, each of which has developed a distinct civilisation, each characterised by a distinctive architectural style.
While English-speaking readers tend to think of the word “Obscure” to mean “little known” or “odd,” the French use the word for multiple meanings, including “mysterious,” “hidden,” or even “secluded.” All of these adjectives could apply to the world imagined in the minds of Benoit Peeters and Francois Schuiten.
In the new story, a hybrid creature emerges from the water. Part animal and part underwater craft, The Nauti-Octopus carries a disoriented man. Where is this little vessel taking him, as it travels through more or less familiar territory? “Captain, I was a captain… I am Captain Nemo.”
Share Nemo’s journey of self-realisation, as his Nauti-Octopus carries him around the world under the sea and ultimately to Samarobrive (the ancient name of Amiens, France), home of Jules Verne…
The Return of Captain Nemo also features Benoît Peeters’ history of Jules Verne himself, who had settled in Amiens, and where a monumental bronze sculpture of the Nauti-Octopus, designed by François Schuiten, will be erected in 2025, the 120th anniversary of Verne’s death.
With funding now in place, but further backers welcomed, this volume that will be released to Kickstarter backers in December 2023, before releasing on 8th February, Jules Verne’s birthday, to bookshops and Amazon by Alexis Press, under license from Casterman.
Alaxis Press was formed in 2013 by Chicagoan, Stephen Smith, with the assistance of Benoît Peeters and François Schuiten, to bring the Obscure Cities series to American in English. A successful Kickstarter campaign late that year, and the subsequent publication of the book, The Leaning Girl, set the stage for the series to reach a wider audience.
Alaxis Press remains committed keeping the English language volumes of the series in print.
• Check out The Return of Captain Nemo by Benoit Peeters and François Schuiten here on Kickstarter
• The Obscure Cities Official Site: theobscurecities.com | Facebook
• Check out Altaplana, the impossible and infinite encyclopedia of the world of The Obscure Cities, originally named Les Cités Obscures and its authors François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters
• France Info: “Les Cités Obscures – Le retour du capitaine Nemo” : Amiens et son futur Nauti-poulpe à l’honneur dans le dernier tome de la BD
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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Schuiten’s drawings are simply incredible. Hopefully Peeters has come up with a story that does them justice!