Young officer, Franz Bauer, is asked by the leaders of Xhystos to visit the mysterious city of Samaris and research the rumors that have been circulating. Several before him had left to explore the city and never returned. After a long journey by Altiplan and Aerophele, Franz reaches Samaris, only to find that the rumors he had heard in Xhystos don’t compare to the real secrets held within the walls of this fantastic city. His sanity and the fate of the other explorers is at stake in this, the first installment of the now internationally acclaimed THE OBSCURE CITIES graphic novel series.
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 different parts, three in the French Comics magazine, A Suivre, from 1987 through 1989, and in the December 1994 issue of Macadam-plus.
Newly translated by Ivanka Hahnenburger and Stephen D. Smith
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.
The four parts of the Obscure Cities series are: I. The Big Secret, II. Passage to the Louvre, III. The Fugitive and IV. The Strange Case of Dr. Abraham.
Benoît Peeters was born in Paris on August 28, 1956. After publishing two novels early in his career, he experimented with diverse genres: essay, biography, illustrated story, photo novel, film, television, radio theater and of course comics.
An Hergé specialist, he has written three books to date on the subject: The World of Hergé, Hergé, Son of Tintin, and Read Tintin. He is also the author of several books on comics, storyboards and biographical studies on Hitchcock, Nadar, Jacques Derrida and Paul Valéry.
François Schuiten was born in Brussels on April 26, 1956, into a family of architects.
Early in his career, he created two graphic novels with Claude Renard, Cymbiola and Rail. Then with his brother Luc, he created three graphic novels in the Hollow Grounds series. Since 1980, he has worked with Benoît Peeters on The Obscure Cities series. His graphic novels have been translated into a dozen languages and have received numerous international awards. He has also created many illustrations, posters and postage stamps across Europe.
In 2002, he received the prestigious lifetime achievement award from the Angouleme festival. He published his first solo effort, The Beauty, in 2012, and designed a train museum, Train World, which opened in Brussels in 2015. His 2014 exhibition and accompanying book, Revoir Paris, has met with international praise.
96 page full color paperback
IDW Publishing, 2017
