Thorgal is a critically acclaimed[1] Belgian comic book series created by the Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and the Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński. It first appeared in serial form in the "Tintin" magazine in 1977, and has been published in hardcover volumes by Le Lombard from 1980 on. The Thorgal series with its bright plot that mixes science fiction, fantasy and adventures and very beautiful art, has won several prizes over the years.
Authors[]
- Artwork:
- Issue 1-36: Grzegorz Rosiński
- Issue 37 onwards: Fred Vignaux
- Coloring:
- Issue 1-18: Grzegorz Rosiński
- Issue 19-28: Graza
- Issue 29-36: Grzegorz Rosiński (direct coloring)
- Story:
- Issue 1-29: Jean Van Hamme
- Issue 30-34: Yves Sente
- Issue 35: Xavier Dorison
- Issue 36-37: Yann
Albums[]
The albums consist of several story arcs (marked with color) and some stand-alone stories.
Issue | French title | English title | Year | Story arc | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | La Magicienne trahie | The Betrayed Sorceress | 1980 | The queen of the Frozen Seas | Contains two stories: "The Betrayed Sorceress" and "Almost Paradise..." |
2. | L’île des Mers gelées | The Island of the Frozen Seas | 1980 | The queen of the Frozen Seas | |
3. | Les trois vieillards du pays d’Aran | The Three Elders of Aran | 1981 | ||
4. | La Galère noire | The Black Galley | 1982 | The masters of Brek Zarith | |
5. | Au-delà des ombres | Beyond the Shadows | 1983 | The masters of Brek Zarith | |
6. | La Chute de Brek Zarith | The Fall of Brek Zarith | 1984 | The masters of Brek Zarith | |
7. | L’Enfant des Étoiles | Child of the Stars | 1984 | The origins | 3 short stories from Thorgal's youth |
8. | Alinoë | Alinoë | 1985 | ||
9. | Les Archers | The Archers | 1985 | The Great Country | |
10. | Le Pays Qâ | The Land of Qa | 1986 | The Great Country | |
11. | Les Yeux de Tanatloc | The Eyes of Tanatloc | 1986 | The Great Country | |
12. | La Cité du Dieu Perdu | City of the Lost God | 1987 | The Great Country | |
13. | Entre Terre et Lumière | Between Earth and Sun | 1988 | The Great Country | |
14. | Aaricia | Aaricia | 1989 | The origins | 4 short stories from Aaricia's youth |
15. | Le Maître des Montagnes | The Master of the Mountains | 1989 | To the north | |
16. | Louve | Wolf Cub | 1990 | To the north | |
17. | La Gardienne des Clés | The Guardian of the Keys | 1991 | To the north | |
18. | L’Epée-Soleil | The Sun Sword | 1992 | Shaïgan the merciless | |
19. | La Forteresse invisible | The Invisible Fortress | 1993 | Shaïgan the merciless | |
20. | La Marque des Bannis | The Brand of the Exiles | 1994 | Shaïgan the merciless | |
21. | La Couronne d’Ogotaï | Ogotai's Crown | 1995 | Shaïgan the merciless | |
22. | Géants | Giants | 1996 | Shaïgan the merciless | |
23. | La cage | The Cage | 1997 | Shaïgan the merciless | |
24. | Arachnéa | Arachnea | 1999 | The Wandering Viking | |
25. | Le Mal bleu | The Blue Plague | 1999 | The Wandering Viking | |
26. | Le Royaume sous le Sable | The Kingdom Beneath the Sand | 2001 | The Wandering Viking | |
27. | Le Barbare | The Barbarian | 2002 | The last trip | |
28. | Kriss de Valnor | Kriss of Valnor | 2004 | The last trip | |
29. | Le Sacrifice | The Sacrifice | 2006 | The last trip | |
30. | Moi, Jolan | I, Jolan | 2007 | The successor | |
31. | Le Bouclier de Thor | Thor's shield | 2008 | The successor | |
32. | La Bataille d’Asgard | The Battle of Asgard | 2010 | The successor | |
33. | Le Bateau-Sabre | The Blade Ship | 2011 | Red Magi | |
34. | Kah-Aniel | Kah-Aniel | 2013 | Red Magi | |
35. | Le Feu écarlate | The Scarlet Fire | 2016 | Red Magi | |
36. | Aniel | Aniel | 2018 | Red Magi |
Translation[]
The original language of Thorgal is French. It has been translated into the following languages (not a complete list, please add):
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- Finnish
- German
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Serbian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Tamil
- Turkish
English publication[]
Thorgal was first published in English by Donning Company Publishers in 1986.
Cinebook Ltd has begun reprinting the series in 2007.[2] Unfortunately they've printed the series in the wrong order and numerous albums have been collected into single volumes. An employee of Cinebook Ltd explained the confusing decision as being a response to "customer feedback":
- Regarding the volumes versus stories thing, this change was in response to customer feedback. Personally, I think I prefer the double-albums, but it is a bit harder to get people to pick up the first volume when it costs that little bit more. Also, it means we can translate and publish them faster. So, you get less, more often.
- - CaNNoN_FoDDa[3]
The current volumes released by Cinebook Ltd are:
- Child of the Stars (ISBN 9781905460236) - (collects Child of the Stars and Aaricia)
- The Three Elders of Aran (ISBN 9781905460311) - (collects The Three Elders of Aran and The Black Galley)
- Beyond the Shadows (ISBN 9781905460458) - (collects Beyond the Shadows and The Fall of Brek Zarith)
- The Archers (ISBN 9781905460670) - (collects Alinoë and Les Archers)
- The Land of Qa (ISBN 9781905460809) - (collects Le Pays Qâ and Les Yeux de Tanatloc)
- City of the Lost God (ISBN 9781849180016) - (collects La Cité du Dieu Perdu and Entre Terre et Lumière)
- The Master of the Mountains (ISBN 9781849180238) - (contains Le Maître des Montagnes)
- Wolf Cub (ISBN 9781849180351) - (contains Louve)
- The Guardian of the Keys (ISBN 9781849180504) - (contains La Gardienne des Clés)
- The Sun Sword (ISBN 9781849180573) - (contains L'épée-soleil)
- The Invisible Fortress (ISBN 9781849181037) - (contains La Forteresse Invisible)
- The Brand of the Exiles (ISBN 9781849181365) - (contains La Marque des Bannis)
- Ogotai's Crown (ISBN 9781849181426) - (contains La Couronne d'Ogotaï)
Censorship[]
Cinebook Ltd's English publication of Thorgal is marred by censorship. Panels with nudity are altered so that nipples among other things are covered up. An employee of Cinebook Ltd had this explanation:
- "We do censor some of the imagery in our books. There are some restrictions on what we can publish, particularly in the US, in terms of adult content. Mainland Europe are much more liberal about these things than the UK or US and, in the US, if we were to publish some scenes of nudity in one book we would run the risk of distributors dropping us completely. In order to reach the largest audience possible, we have opted to censor nudity (by adding clothes, steam, hair...) with the consent of the right-holders (usually including the artist).
- The boss does have a vague idea to create an imprint for adult titles, but we want to concentrate on getting books to the widest possible audience for the moment."
- ...
- "We're not censoring for the sake of censoring - I think we'd all prefer to keep the original art. But if it's a choice between getting distributed and making a few small changes to elements not key to the storyline, it's a bit of a no-brainer. You have to be looking for it to notice it (or compare the original)."
- - CaNNoN_FoDDa[4]
The following issues have been censored by Cinebook (not complete list, please add!):
- The Fall of Brek Zarith (Thorgal part 6)
- The Archers (Thorgal part 9)
- Between Earth and Sun (Thorgal part 13)
- The Guardian of the Keys (Thorgal part 17)