Between the beautiful adaptations of The Road and of His Majesty of the Fliesand new captivating stories, here is our 2024 comic book guide for Christmas.
Captivating drawings and stories: this guide offers recently published comics, between science fiction and survival, to put under the tree. You can also look into our sci-fi and fantasy book guides, as well as our children’s selection.
Her Majesty of the Flies (Aimée de Jongh)
It’s not strictly SF, but a survival story that will appeal to the same audience (and across several generations). 70 years after the publication of William Golding’s cult work, His Majesty of the Flies enjoys new life in this adaptation. It is by Aimée de Jongh, who depicts this famous story in images: a plane carrying young boys from English high society on board crashes on a desert island. The pilot and adults died in the accident.
In the wilderness, these young boys will have to learn to survive. But they will also have to form a society. By reproducing the social patterns they know. Can this even hold in this difficult context? The group splits, a war breaks out.
Aimée de Jongh delivers a comic book that brilliantly transcribes all the power and complexity of this story, using striking and perfectly immersive drawings.
His Majesty of the FliesAimée de Jongh, Dargaud, 352 pages, 35 euros
The Face of Pavil (Jeremy Perrodeau)
To offer to those who love SF as much as anthropological reflection, The Face of Pavil is a work that ticks all the boxes. Jeremy Perrodeau’s drawings are as beautiful as they are original, and the pleasure of reading is there.
A scribe of the Empire has the misfortune of crashing on a planet, where he is however rescued by the screwing of Lapyoza. He integrates little by little, although with difficulty, by submitting to the tasks of daily life and getting to know the inhabitants. But he notices strange practices, like totems that must be regularly retrieved from the water. A very mastered exploration story.
Pavil’s FaceJeremy Perrodeau, 2024 edition, 160 pages, 29 euros
Detour by Epsilon, volumes 1 & 2 (Lolita Couturier)
A beautiful and touching adventure, that’s how to describe it Detour via Epsilon. Because if Tom is banished from the fortified city, she is nevertheless expecting a child. She will have to survive in a devastated and strange world, also accompanied by a mute child. The author is deliberately discreet about the universe that surrounds her heroine, to better immerse us in a story that lives up to her character.
Lolita Couturier offers a work that will appeal to fans of post-apo “road movie” type films. Volume 1 ended on a cliffhanger, but good news: the sequel was published in 2024. You might as well give away both books!
Detour via EpsilonLolita Couturier, Les Humanoids Associés, 152 pages, 19.95 euros
The Road (Manu Larcenet)
Let’s stay on the side of post-apocalyptic road trips, because Manu Larcenet’s work published this year adapts neither more nor less a huge literary classic: The Roadby Cormac McCarthy.
It is the well-known story of a father and his son, who wander in a devastated and dangerous world, where only their emotional bond remains as the last slice of beauty to cling to. Manu Larcenet adapts both the words and the silences, the atmosphere and the emotions, in a poignant work. We can already consider that this version of The Road is cult.
The RoadManu Larcenet, Dargaud, 160 pages, 29.50 euros
Vertigéo (Amaury Bündgen, Lloyd Chéry)
It was Numerama’s partner comic in 2024, and it’s not for nothing: Vertigeo is truly dizzying for any science fiction fan. A complex and chilling metaphor for the world of work, in addition to a gripping story.
As humanity nears its own end, it has gathered in a huge tower, high to the clouds. Its constant construction always consumes materials… and men. But an engineer sets out in search of answers to the reality behind this unstoppable progress. Is she ready for the truth?
VertigeoAmaury Bundgen, Emmanuel Delporte, Lloyd Chéry, Casterman, 136 pages, 22 euros
Astra Nova (Lisa Blumen)
Lisa Blumen’s comic strip stood out thanks to its very unique approach: intimate science fiction. Astra Nova is the story of Nova, an astronaut who is about to embark on a mission to a planet located 2.5 million light years from Earth. As it is a one-way trip, the agency imposes a departure party. But Nova has devoted herself so much to her work that all she has left are distant friends. It is while being very alone that she receives friends whom she has not seen for a very long time.
This comic is above all a story about solitude and friendship, which will not fail to upset you until the last panel.
Astra NovaLisa Blumen, Employee of the month, 176 pages, 24 euros
