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Fièvre d'Urbicande (La)

La Fièvre d'Urbicande [Fever in Urbicand] is the second volume of the chronicles of the Obscures Cities, published in 1984. A coloured edition was published in 2020.

This story, which made its debut in the September 1983 issue of (A Suivre) was published in black and white. Although at the beginning, exhausted by the very long coloring of Samaris, Schuiten intended to entrust the coloring of Urbicande to Françoise Procureur. Procureur is a colorist, who worked also with Alain Goffin (Le réseau Madou) and Phillipe Geluck (several Le Chat albums). Although she was very talented, Schuiten and Peeters soon realized that it would not work as the progress of the coloring was too slow. They decided to switch to black and white and have redesigned the first pages and the chapters of the album.

At 94 pages, this story ran for considerably longer than the 48 that used to be considered an unbreakable tradition of the Franco-Belgian school of cartooning. A 1992 re-edition of the album also includes a report by Isidore Louis, from L’Archiviste, about the Network and its effects on the social fabric of the Obscure World. The original term Réseau has been translated by “Web” in some English versions, but “Network” is more accurate.

The deluxe edition of 1983 had an added booklet: Carnet de voyage. A very rare booklet these days.

In 2020 Casterman published a coloured edition, with colours done by Jack Durieux. See the dossier about this project with all the details.

Designs for the 1985 edition of La Fièvre d'Urbicande.

Story

Eugen Robick, Urbatect of Urbicande has been working on restructuring Urbicande for the Commission of High Instances. The South side of Urbicande has been done and he wants to continu with the Northern part: to make the city symmetrical again. But the Rapporter General is not listening. Even the third bridge over the river is denied.

While thinking on how to convince the Commission of High Instances Eugen Robick receives a cube found by Klaus and Friedrich during ground works of the Von Hardenberg company. The cube starts to grow and turns into a network. Soon the network is too big for his house. Eventually the network connects the South and North side of Urbicande with each other. Together with his neighbor Sophie he visits the North side. The network disturbe the whole structure of Urbicande. After the winter the network starts to grow again and soon becomes so big you can not see it again. Robicks friend Thomas, who has become the new Rapporter General, tries to convince Robick to help him to recreate the network, but Eugen denies and tries his own way.

See also the in-depth review of the album by Julian Darius:

Angoulême 1985

At the 1985 comic festival of Angoulême La Fièvre d'Urbicande won the award for best album.

Former president François Mitterrand visited the stand of Casterman during the 1985 festival. You can see Benoît Peeters and François Schuiten on the right in the picture.

Some pages of the original album.

The first five pages of the 2020 coloured edition.

Editions / translations

YearTitleLanguagePublisherPagesHC/SCISBNRemarks
1985De koorts van UrbicandeDutchCasterman96SC9030384190
1985La Fièvre d'UrbicandeFrenchCasterman108HC2203334231
1985La Fièvre d'UrbicandeFrenchCasterman108HC2203337095Deluxe edition. 1020 copies. Including numbered and signed travelnotes.
1985La Fiebre de UrbicandaSpanishEurocomics96SC84860001551
1987A Febre de UrbicandaPortugueseEdições 7096SCNO ISBN
1987Uro i UrbicandeDanishBogfabrikken88SC8772970731
1988De koorts van UrbicandeDutchCasterman100SC903038557XAdditional document by Isidore Louis: “De legende van het stelsel”
1988ΠΥΡΕΤΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΥΡΜΠΙΚΑΝΔΗΣGreekArs Longa / Nemo100SC
1988Det stora gallretSwedishEpix68SC Published in the magazine Epix as a serial in five numbers: 9/1988, 10/1988, 11/1988, 12/1988 and 1/1989
1989Das Fieber des StadtplannersGermanFeest Verlag96SC3893431535
1990La Fièvre d'UrbicandeFrenchCasterman96HC2203343060
1990Fever in UrbicandeEnglishNBM Publishers96SC0918348862
1990ChineseVision Comic Group96PDF-It appears to be a translation based on the English version
1991Das Fieber des StadtplanersGermanFeest comics96SC3893431535
1991Kuumetta UrbicandessaFinishLike96SC9515780748
1992La Fièvre d'UrbicandeFrenchCasterman96SC2203334231
2000De koorts van UrbicandeDutchCasterman108HC9030385472Additional document by Isidore Louis: “De legende van het stelsel”
2005ChineseLIANHUANHUA BAO108SC-Published in 连环画报 number 601 - 606
2009La Fièvre d'UrbicandeFrenchCasterman112SC9782203026346Additional document by Isidore Louis: “La légende du réseau & épilogue: la dernière vision d'Eugen Robick
2010우르비캉드의 광기Korean세미콜론96HC9788983715739
2011Urbikandska groznicaCroatianFibra112HC9789533210360Same as the 2009 French edition
2011闇の国々JapaneseShoPro Booksn/aHC4796871012Part of bundle 1
2013Fieber in UrbicandGermanSchreiber & Leser112SC9783943808285
2015La Fiebre de UrbicandeSpanishNormal Editorial112SC9788467918625
2019A Febre de UrbicandaPortugueseLevoir112HC9789896828165Number three in the “Novela Gráfica” series
2019Gorączka UrbikandyjskaPolishScream Comics112SC9788366291270
2020Segadus Urbicande’isEstonianEesti Arhitektuuri muuseum112SC9789949726288
2020La Fièvre d'UrbicandeFrenchCasterman104HC9782203202924Coloured edition, announced for October 28, 2020
2020La Fièvre d'UrbicandeFrenchCasterman112HC9782203218383Deluxe coloured version, numbered and signed under slipcase. Size 300x400mm, 700 copies, with certificate. Announced for October 21, 2020
2020De koorts van UrbicandeDutchCasterman104HC9789030374824Coloured edition, announced for November 4, 2020
2022The Fever in UrbicandeEnglishIDW104SC9781684058037Coloured edition

A coloured version

After Les Murailles de Samaris that was drawn in colour, La Fièvre d'Urbicande was made in black in white. The initial pages were coloured by Françoise Procureur, but they were never published. The pace of the colouring was too slow, so Schuiten and Peeters had to switch to black and white. This has also impact on the length of the story so it could be treated as a « Roman (à Suivre) », a series that was only published in black & white by then.

La Fièvre d'Urbicande with colors by François Schuiten


Casterman published a new coloured version in October 2020. The album is coloured by Jack Durieux. the brother of Laurent Durieux who did the colouring of Le Dernier Pharaon also based on the black and white drawings by Schuiten.

See: La Fièvre d'Urbicande in colour.


See also