Here’s something I’ve been wanting to bring to your attention before. Everybody knows the Lonely Planet series of travel books – the alternative, low-cost guides to the wonders the world has to offer. I had seen a Lonely Planet guide to Brussels in a few shops before, with a quite familiar illustration on the cover, but I hadn’t been able to really lay my fingers on it. Until now.
Turns out that Lonely Planet just published a series of four guides to some of the world’s interesting cities (Brussels included), each illustrated with art by celebrated comics artists. And since the books are published in a co-production with Belgian comics publisher Casterman, all the artists involved draw on established Casterman material.
(cover to the guide to Venice with Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese showing you the sights, published by Lonely Planet/Casterman)
The most obvious one would probably be the guide to Rome, in which Jacques Martin‘s character Alix features as a guide. Art by Martin and collaborators Gilles Chaillet and Enrico Sallustio shows Alex walking around in ancient Rome, which the visitor can then compare with the current city. Hugo Pratt‘s Corto Maltese presents a series of tours through the city of Venice, copiously illustrated with elements from Pratt’s work, and spiced with numerous anecdotes from Pratt’s own travels through the city.
(a page from the Venice Lonely Planet with Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese showing us the sights, published LP/Casterman)
It’s quite interesting that the guides try to mimic the effect the cities they cover have on the visitor. The Brussels book, illustrated by François Schuiten, is as labyrinthine as the city itself can be, and Schuiten’s own renderings of its elaborate architecture only contributes to that (I still think that the Brussels Palais de la Justice is one of the most awesome buildings of the world – not necessarily because it’s beautiful, which it isn’t, but because of its scheer magnitude and never-ending succession of nooks and crannies). Finally, the book on New York is illustrated by New York native Miles Hyman, who published the Jim Thompson adaptation Nuit de Fureur in Casterman’s Rivage Noir series. It’s the most typical in the series, with tips on walks, coffee shops and the cooler places in town.
(cover to the Brussels Lonely Planet guide with art byFrançois Schuiten, published LP/Casterman)
All in all, a nice little series of books (so far only available in French though). Probably more aimed at the comics fan than the avid traveller, but nevertheless, the themes seem to fit and what a cool idea. (thanks to BoDoï for the link)
Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium, a country which was actually constructed entirely out of comics designs rather than by architects; you can read more of his comics musings on The Ephemerist blog
March 21st, 2010 at 8:01 pm
What a great idea, although I wonder if they would do similar guides for the English language editions or only for the French as the comics culture is more respectable to mainstream readers on the continent than here or the US. Does add another layer of appropriate culture onto LP’s guides though, which is nice. Also interesting since only a couple of days ago I was talking about less than accurate depictions of famous city landmarks in comics :-) Perhaps we need someone from the comics side of publishing to do a guide to the great cities of the world entirely in comics form?