Les Mondes d’Aldébaran: L’Encyclopédie Illustrée, by Christophe Quillien
First page of second chapter, with illustrations:
Kim Keller
Lorsque s'ouvre le premier volume d'Aldébaran, Kim Keller est une jeune fille âgée de 13 ans, écolière à la basic school d'Arena Blanca. Vingt-quatre albums plus tard, à la fin du troisième tome de Retour sur Aldébaran, le temps a passé : Kim a 26 ans. Elle est devenue une femme accomplie, confrontée à un destin hors du commun et dont elle n'aurait jamais osé rêver. Au départ, rien ne laissait supposer qu elle vivrait les folles aventures dans lesquelles Leo l'a précipitée. Ce même Leo était loin de se douter que « sa » Kim serait la première humaine à avoir un enfant avec un être venu d'une autre planète, et qu un peuple extraterrestre la désignerait comme interlocutrice privilégiée. Les auteurs de bande dessinée sont parfois dépassés par leurs personnages, tels de modernes docteurs Frankenstein.
La toute première page d'Aldébaran dessine déjà le portrait de Kim Keller. Celui d'une jeune fille intelligente et curieuse de tout, fascinée par l'histoire de la Terre, rompue à l'argumentation et décidée à exprimer ses idées, même quand elles sont en contradiction avec la doctrine officielle. Dans les pages suivantes, victime d'un enchaînement d'événements dramatiques bouleversant sa vie d'adolescente, Kim fait face à la situation avec un courage et une capacité d'adaptation exemplaires, dont elle fera preuve tout au long de la saga. Ce qui ne l'empêche pas d'être aussi une ado exaspérante...
Kim Keller
When the first volume of Aldebaran opens, Kim Keller is a 13-year-old girl, a schoolgirl at the Arena Blanca basic school. Twenty-four albums later, at the end of the third volume of Retour sur Aldebaran, time has passed: Kim is 26 years old. She has become an accomplished woman, faced with an extraordinary destiny that she would never have dared to dream of. Initially, nothing suggested that she would live the crazy adventures into which Leo has thrown her. Leo himself was far from suspecting that "his" Kim would be the first human to have a child with a being from another planet, and that an extraterrestrial people would designate her as their privileged interlocutor. Comic book writers are sometimes overwhelmed by their characters, like modern Dr Frankensteins.
The very first page of Aldebaran already portrays Kim Keller as a young girl, intelligent and curious about everything, fascinated by the history of the Earth, experienced in argumentation and determined to express her ideas, even when they contradict official doctrine. In the following pages, as a chain of dramatic events that changed her teenage life, Kim faces the situation with exemplary courage and adaptability, which she will demonstrate throughout the saga. Which does not prevent her from also being an infuriating teenager...
Without Maï Lan and Pad's help, I'd have lost it. I was this close to
throwing myself into the void, me and my little aquatic monster baby!
POW!
It's not easy to love a woman like Kim, Doctor...
I know, Suria, but she's worth the risk!
Am I really sure about it? Time will tell, but I'd prefer not to
have any doubt about it. I'd prefer a less complicated life.
As my regular reader knows, I have been a huge fan of the Aldebaran sequence of graphic novels by Brazilian writer Leo for years and years. (I have to thank Samantha for introducing me to them.) This is a lovely tribute to the sequence, by French comixologist Christophe Quillien, going through the planets, people, aliens and themes of Leo's fictional worlds. (The excerpt above concerns the main character, Kim Keller.)
I was particularly interested to read that Leo explicitly credits Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Robert Charles Wilson's Spin as inspirations. I love both of those books too, but I found it interesting that Leo acknowledges the Anglo-American sf tradition so firmly. Other influences mentioned are Tarkovsky's Solaris and the great Moebius.
I have only read the books in French, so I have no idea if the Cinebooks translation into English is any good, but you can get it here, here, here and here. I do know that it famously censors the female characters' breasts, giving them bras in some scenes where in the original they are topless. Also, you can get L’Encyclopédie Illustrée here.
Kim Keller
Lorsque s'ouvre le premier volume d'Aldébaran, Kim Keller est une jeune fille âgée de 13 ans, écolière à la basic school d'Arena Blanca. Vingt-quatre albums plus tard, à la fin du troisième tome de Retour sur Aldébaran, le temps a passé : Kim a 26 ans. Elle est devenue une femme accomplie, confrontée à un destin hors du commun et dont elle n'aurait jamais osé rêver. Au départ, rien ne laissait supposer qu elle vivrait les folles aventures dans lesquelles Leo l'a précipitée. Ce même Leo était loin de se douter que « sa » Kim serait la première humaine à avoir un enfant avec un être venu d'une autre planète, et qu un peuple extraterrestre la désignerait comme interlocutrice privilégiée. Les auteurs de bande dessinée sont parfois dépassés par leurs personnages, tels de modernes docteurs Frankenstein.
La toute première page d'Aldébaran dessine déjà le portrait de Kim Keller. Celui d'une jeune fille intelligente et curieuse de tout, fascinée par l'histoire de la Terre, rompue à l'argumentation et décidée à exprimer ses idées, même quand elles sont en contradiction avec la doctrine officielle. Dans les pages suivantes, victime d'un enchaînement d'événements dramatiques bouleversant sa vie d'adolescente, Kim fait face à la situation avec un courage et une capacité d'adaptation exemplaires, dont elle fera preuve tout au long de la saga. Ce qui ne l'empêche pas d'être aussi une ado exaspérante...
Kim Keller
When the first volume of Aldebaran opens, Kim Keller is a 13-year-old girl, a schoolgirl at the Arena Blanca basic school. Twenty-four albums later, at the end of the third volume of Retour sur Aldebaran, time has passed: Kim is 26 years old. She has become an accomplished woman, faced with an extraordinary destiny that she would never have dared to dream of. Initially, nothing suggested that she would live the crazy adventures into which Leo has thrown her. Leo himself was far from suspecting that "his" Kim would be the first human to have a child with a being from another planet, and that an extraterrestrial people would designate her as their privileged interlocutor. Comic book writers are sometimes overwhelmed by their characters, like modern Dr Frankensteins.
The very first page of Aldebaran already portrays Kim Keller as a young girl, intelligent and curious about everything, fascinated by the history of the Earth, experienced in argumentation and determined to express her ideas, even when they contradict official doctrine. In the following pages, as a chain of dramatic events that changed her teenage life, Kim faces the situation with exemplary courage and adaptability, which she will demonstrate throughout the saga. Which does not prevent her from also being an infuriating teenager...
Without Maï Lan and Pad's help, I'd have lost it. I was this close to
throwing myself into the void, me and my little aquatic monster baby!
POW!
It's not easy to love a woman like Kim, Doctor...
I know, Suria, but she's worth the risk!
Am I really sure about it? Time will tell, but I'd prefer not to
have any doubt about it. I'd prefer a less complicated life.
As my regular reader knows, I have been a huge fan of the Aldebaran sequence of graphic novels by Brazilian writer Leo for years and years. (I have to thank Samantha for introducing me to them.) This is a lovely tribute to the sequence, by French comixologist Christophe Quillien, going through the planets, people, aliens and themes of Leo's fictional worlds. (The excerpt above concerns the main character, Kim Keller.)
I was particularly interested to read that Leo explicitly credits Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Robert Charles Wilson's Spin as inspirations. I love both of those books too, but I found it interesting that Leo acknowledges the Anglo-American sf tradition so firmly. Other influences mentioned are Tarkovsky's Solaris and the great Moebius.
I have only read the books in French, so I have no idea if the Cinebooks translation into English is any good, but you can get it here, here, here and here. I do know that it famously censors the female characters' breasts, giving them bras in some scenes where in the original they are topless. Also, you can get L’Encyclopédie Illustrée here.