Cities of the Fantastic: The Invisible Frontier Vol. 1 [Hardcover]

Benoit Peeters (Author), Francois Schuiten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

Even before fully finishing his degree, the brilliant young Roland is offered a job in the Center for Cartography of Sodrovno-Voldachia. He climbs the ladder rapidly. Roland, who must, like his colleagues, live almost like a recluse within the huge center, meets a mysterious young woman whose body seems covered with strange lines which he can barely perceive. Soon, the Center is visited by Marshal Radisic, supreme leader of the country, whose expansionist politics leave little doubt as to the goal: all means will be employed to rebuild the "Great Sodrovnia."

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Roland, scion of a prominent family, comes to an isolated, cavernous mapping facility to launch his cartographic career. His supervisor, old Mister Paul, knowing the turbulent history of their employer, the state of Sodrovno, encourages Roland to learn from the maps. The young man works well, becomes infatuated with a prostitute in the facility's recreation center, and exercises authority beyond his position when there is an influx of new employees. Supreme leader Marshal Radisic arrives to see the facility's big project, an immense model of the "greater" Sodrovno, which he aims to realize somehow. Before Radisic departs but too late to show him, Roland finds a map identical to markings on his love's backside. To be continued . . . Architect Schuiten and comics historian Peeters bring ace drafting talent and knowledge of such architectural comics precedents as Winsor McKay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" to the construction of their Cities of the Fantastic series, which includes this book. Their imaginary world's spaciously oppressive atmosphere comes from the heart of Kafkaesque dread. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156163333X
• ISBN-13: 978-1561633333
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,253,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Indeed, November 15, 2004

By 

J. Bukalski "comic book scholar" (Honolulu, HI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cities of the Fantastic: The Invisible Frontier Vol. 1 (Hardcover)

This book is pretty much a must for lovers of Euro-comics. The series (LES CITES OBSCURES, here translated as "Cities of the Fantastic"), while regretably not entirely available in English, stands as a classic of sophisticated Euro-comics. But each also stands on its own, so you needn't worry about about ever being lost.

This volume's story focuses on a young, capable but not brilliant character amidst a time and place of historical and cultural turmoil. Be prepared to ask yourself how cartography influences culture and cultures' manifest destiny. If that's not a question you can imagine contemplating, this isn't for you; if it is, this is a delight.

Of course, you can always whip over to amazon.fr and get it in the French original...

-- Julian Darius, Sequart.com (for sophisticated study of comic books and graphic novels)

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious mapping, January 25, 2009

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cities of the Fantastic: The Invisible Frontier Vol. 1 (Hardcover)

In volume 1 of this series, a young mapmaker (Roland) sets out across a ruined wasteland toward his life's ambition, the Cartography Center, the place where geography is recorded and made useful to the citizens of Sodrovno.

Despite the cathedral-like scale of the Center, its population has dwindled over the years - until recently. New faces, new techniques, and new goals arrive, driven by the Supreme Leader's expansionism. Mysterious Shkodra arrives on Roland's landscape as well, a Center prostitute who presents a cartographic mystery of her own.

Then, in volume 2, Roland returns from vacation to find bigger changes under way. He has been assigned the section chief position held by his former mentor, who has vanished without comment. Roland becomes ever more unsure of his world, however. Errors in maps, anathema to his precise soul, arise systematically. At the same time, Roland becomes convinced that an omen lies in lovely Shkodra and the birthmark that covers so much of her body. He becomes obsessed with deciphering that omen (incidentally enjoying the body on which nature painted it) and saving the Cartographic Center from ruin.

As in others of Schuiten's stories, action remains low-key when present at all. Instead, delicate art and a subdued palette create sense of foreboding amid the mysteries that the story chooses to leave mysterious. The final events of this series remove the certainty from underneath everything that went before. The more I think about this story, the more possible meanings I find in the gorgeous artwork of this graphic novel.

-- wiredweird

(Note: Any review to either volume in this series gets applied to both volumes. Not my idea, it's Amazon policy as of this writing.)