Les murailles de Samaris is a graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

 by Belgian comic artists François Schuiten

François Schuiten

Baron François Schuiten is a Belgian comic book artist. He is best known for drawing the series Les Cités Obscures.-Biography:François Schuiten was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1956....

 and Benoît Peeters

Benoît Peeters

Benoît Peeters is a comics writer, novelist, and critic. He has lived in Belgium since 1978.His best-known work is Les Cités Obscures, an imaginary world which mingles a Borgesian metaphysical surrealism with the detailed architectural vistas of the series' artist, François Schuiten...

, the first volume of their ongoing Les Cités Obscures

Les Cités Obscures

Les Cités obscures is a graphic novel series set on a Counter-Earth, started by the Belgian comics artist François Schuiten and his friend, writer Benoît Peeters in the early 1980s...

series. It was first published in serialized form in 1982 in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine

Franco-Belgian comics magazines

Belgium and France have a long tradition in comics. They have a common history for comics and magazines.In the early years of its history, magazines had a large place on the comics market and were often the only place where comics were published. Most of them were kids-targeted.In the 1970s,...

 À Suivre

À Suivre

or was a Franco-Belgian comics magazine published from February 1978 to December 1997 by the Casterman publishing house....

(#46-49), and as a complete volume first in 1983 by Casterman

Casterman

Casterman is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, specializing in comic books and children's literature. The company is based in Tournai, Belgium.Founded in 1780, Casterman was originally a printing company and publishing house...

. In English, it was published as The Great Walls of Samaris (Stories of the fantastic) as a serial in Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal (magazine)

Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...

from October 1984 to March 1985, then in 1987 as a complete volume by NBM Publishing

NBM Publishing

NBM Publishing is an American publisher of graphic novels. The company specializes in non-superhero comic genres and has translated and published over 150 graphic novels from Europe and Canada, as well as several works by Americans...

.

In 1988, Schuiten & Peeters took the opportunity of the second French edition to revise their story, adding more content to fit in better with their Les Cités Obscures series that had begun to develop in the years since the book's first publication, and slightly edited the ending for better continuity and logic to the story.

In French

• Les murailles de Samaris, 1984, Casterman
• Les murailles de Samaris (revised edition), 1988, Casterman
• Les murailles de Samaris, 1993, Casterman
• Les murailles de Samaris, 2007, Casterman

In English (first and unrevised edition only)

• The Great Walls of Samaris (Stories of the fantastic), 1987, NBM Publishing
• The Walls of Samaris, 1984-1985 Heavy Metal

External links

• The Walls of Samaris: A Classic French Comic You Probably Haven't Read, an extended study of the book
• Les Murailles de Samaris, a few annotated pictures from the album (French)
• Series overview on A comprehensive review of the Obscure Cities series for English-speaking fans
• Les Cités Obscures by Julian Darius on The Continuity Pages