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Graphic novel series by Schuiten and Peeters

The Obscure Cities , first published in English as, variously, Stories of the Fantastic and Cities of the Fantastic, is a bande dessinée series created by Belgian artist François Schuiten and French writer Benoît Peeters. First serialized in magazine format in 1982, the series has been published in album format by Brussels based publisher Casterman since 1983. New installments of the series were published throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2020s, with full color, partial color, or black and white artwork, as well as photo illustration. The artwork of the series is distinguished by Schuiten's realistic rendering of diverse contemporary, historical, and imaginary architectural styles. The series is commonly labeled as steampunk, based on frequent appearances of anachronistic technology, storytelling and visual traditions of the scientific romance era, and its retrofuturist parallel world setting of imagined cities and cultures inspired by Jules Verne's literary depiction of Europe in the late 19th century. In 1968, Schuiten and Peeters became friends while attending Catholic school, and the two worked together to write and illustrate a student publication. Ten years later, they reunited in Brussels and resumed their creative collaborations. purports to be a scientific essay bent to debunk the events of La fièvre d'Urbicande. The text is heavily annotated in emotional handwriting by Eugen Robick, the main character of La fièvre d'Urbicande who is now locked up in Brüsel's Sixth Hospice, the city's mental asylum. Schuiten contributed the book's illustrations under the pen name Robert Louis Marie de la Barque (whereas the French word barque, meaning barge or rowboat in English, translates to schuiten in Dutch). and a full world map shown in the opening pages of La Fièvre d'Urbicande labeled many more city names. In Le Guide des Cités, Schuiten and Peeters directly incorporate assertions and quotes from this correspondence, even where the claims contradict published material.

In 1996, Urbicande. be, the official website of the Obscure Cities went online, soliciting fan accounts of their own experiences in search for Obscure Passages. The response was so overwhelming that Schuiten and Peeters were able to expand their online activities into a network of in universe sites, mainly branching from the URL ebbs. net of their official Obscure magazine called Obskür, where many amateur reports, illustrated by photos and Schuiten's drawings, and various mysterious Obscure artifacts can be found. Along with these, a number of conspiracy theories are explored, regarding authorities of our world intending to prevent the spread of knowledge regarding the parallel world and destroy various Obscure Passages. In May 2015, Urbicande. be was taken offline and archived at AltaPlana. be, an official online encyclopaedia of the Obscure Cities universe.

After having colorfully satirized the destructive modernizing fad of Bruxellisation in the Les Cités obscures album Brüsel in 1992, Schuiten and Peeters convinced the community of Schuiten's childhood district Schaerbeek to acquire one of the last remaining buildings in Brussels built by Art Nouveau architect Horta, La maison Autrique, and in 1999 opened a permanent pseudo documentary exhibition inside, regarding the Obscure Cities, 19th century Art Nouveau Brussels, and detailing its ongoing Bruxellisation destruction during the 20th century, tying in with aforementioned conspiracy theories whereby Bruxellisation is supposed to be an attempt by the authorities to destroy a number of Obscure Passages situated in Brussels. In 2004, Schuiten and Peeters published the illustrated book La Maison Autrique: Métamorphose d'une maison Art Nouveau (published as Maison Autrique – Metamorphosis of an Art Nouveau House in English) about the building, its restoration during the 1990s, and Horta's life and work. Also, their latest Les Cités obscures two part graphic novel album La Théorie du grain de sable (2007; 2008) deals with the maison Autrique. As of 2021, the house also hosts a Cités obscures themed escape room game.

The album Le retour du capitaine Nemo, published in October 2023, depicts the "Nauti pouple", a part animal imaginary vehicle inspired by Jules Verne's Nautilus. In a multi year collaboration with French sculptor Pierre Matter, Schuiten co designed the Nauti pouple as a 6 metre tall public sculpture, which will be displayed in Brussels, followed by permanent installation at Amiens station in 2025 to commemorate the city's connections to Verne. The album, likewise, shows the Nauti pouple journeying through various Cities to arrive at Samarobrive, the Obscure Cities counterpart of Amiens.

The full series is available in French and Dutch from Casterman; in German, Spanish, Polish (Manzoku and Scream Comics) and Portuguese by local publishing houses; in francophone Canada by Flammarion; and in Japanese in four collected volumes by Shogakukan Shueisha Productions. The first Japanese volume, published in 2012, won the annual manga award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. This success encouraged the compilation of the original French albums by Casterman. In 2016, Alaxis partnered with IDW Publishing as the new North American publisher of The Obscure Cities, with Alaxis Press co branding, and the original staff handling translation and editing. IDW and Alaxis published The Theory of the Grain of Sand in 2016, Samaris in 2017, The Shadow of a Man in 2021, and The Tower in 2022. IDW then released The Fever in Urbicande and The Invisible Frontier in 2022, without Alaxis's involvement; the entire Obscure Cities series was delisted from IDW's website prior to release of these books. In 2023, concurrent to the French release of Le retour du capitaine Nemo, Alaxis Press launched another Kickstarter campaign, funding a simultaneous English release as The Return of Captain Nemo. The Leaning Girl received a 2015 Eisner Award nomination as Best U. S. Edition of International Material, and The Shadow of a Man won the same award in 2022.