Les Cités Obscures is one of the best BD ever made. François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters describe an incredibly rich world, striking by its diversity, coherence and organization. And beauty. Their books can be read in several degrees of depth. We can read just one or two books by themselves, we can just follow the stories and the nice drawings, or we can start making connections between the different books and between the books and our world. One of the most interesting things is the way the authors mix invention and reality. As an example there are many passages between the two worlds (the ones known to date are listed in the official site of the series). There are also many symbols and literary references present in the books, whose study gives some hints to understand the meaning of the obscure world...

Well, this should give you a vague idea about the richness, specificity and originality of this series, subject already of conferences and PhD thesis! Having said this, it is easy to understand this is not a site about Les Cités Obscures. This is just my modest tribute to François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters and their nice work. I hope you like it and, mainly, that it is able to interest you in the world of the Cités.

PS: In 2002 François Schuiten won, for the ensamble of his work, the most important prize in BD, the Grad Prix of Angoulême BD festival!

To learn more:

• Le site d'Urbicande, made by the authors themselves: the cities, the characters, the symbols, the passages, the albums of the series, and much more. Be prepared to spend some hours there...
• The same site is available in portuguese!
• The Brief Dictionary of the Universe of the Obscure Cities
• A good article by Frédéric Kaplan
• The Schuiten Link Page and the links from the official site

Move on to the images

The albums