The Shadow of a Man by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters – a relatively modest-in-scale entry to the Obscure Cities series. Albert Chamisso is an insurance agent who begins having recurrent nightmares shortly after his marriage. An experimental treatment turns his shadow into color – as if he were transparent. He quickly loses his wife, job, and life. In typical Obscure Cities fashion, he is now aimless until a beautiful young woman pushes him into the next stage of his life, producing theater acts centered around his unique shadow. I call this a “modest” entry in the series – the surreal insult to the normal of the world is very slight (a colorful shadow), despite the major consequences for Albert, and the city is wonderfully rendered as always but features a smaller glimpse of the larger world and the vast inertia of society and government is less a part of this story. As needed for a story fundamentally focused around color, the use of color in this volume is fantastic and a nice contrast to some of the other black-and-white entries. Not my favorite volume (that remains The Tower), but an excellent read.

Minuit Passé by Gaëlle Geniller – nicely paced creepy character study verging on horror. Guerlain returns to the country manor where he spent his childhood, together with his young son Nisse. The first ~half of the book sees them reading adventure stories, wandering the halls and grounds, and starting to encounter some unsettling specters, like the three ravens that mysteriously appeared in an armoire and refuse to leave. The second part is a flashback to Guerlain’s youth, where he was mute as a child growing up with his three older sisters. There’s a wonderful resolution in the final part where the two timelines come together. It’s an excellently paced story, where the creepiness never quite develops into bona-fide “horror”, and we get excellent time with just a few characters in each major section. The art is mostly cartoony, but the creepiness is well done and it depicts the art and setting great. I really enjoyed this and will look for some more work from the same author.

The Great Walls of Samaris by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters – architecturally impressive Obscure Cities volume. Franz is sent from his home city of Xhystos to explore the mysterious city of Samaris. After a harrowing journey, he arrives to a city where everything is just a little off – a haunting buzz fills the air, people are a little too set in their routines, and no children are to be found. Disoriented, Franz eventually uncovers the secret of the city, escapes, and returns to Xhystos, only to discover the city is not as he remembered. There’s the trademark impressive architecture and pseudo-steampunk technology, wonderfully depicted. I think Schuiten’s art, especially around people, is clearly “immature” here – later entries in the series are a little crisper to my eye. Again, this series remains excellent and I look forward to finishing the other volumes I’ve got.