Valérian and Laureline are the eponymous heroes of a sci-fi graphic series like no other. For one thing, the 24 tales, which appeared over a span of over four decades, between 1967 and 2010, echoed societal changes during a period … Read More
There are many affinities between science fiction and detective mysteries/crime drama. When faced with an unknown planet, future or world, or with beings very different from what we have known, we are forced to work out the lay of this … Read More
The French revere bandes dessinées (graphic novels) and consider them the “ninth art,” building on a classification of the arts that originated with Hegel and has been updated over the past 50 years. The ninth art is ranked after architecture, … Read More
One of the main functions – and values – of science fiction is its ability to critique today’s society. Although a story may deal with vastly different cultures and be set in the future, an alien world or an alternate-history … Read More
In the 1980s, a chance discovery revealed that a species of small jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, which self-regenerates and never reaches maturity, is biologically immortal. This process is currently being studied by many groups of scientists around the world with a … Read More
Planet of the Apes, probably the most successful sci-fi franchise after Star Wars, has permeated our culture with parodies and allusions, seen on everything from The Simpsons to the animated sci-fi film Rick and Morty. In 2018, Roseanne Barr infamously … Read More
Although they don’t get much credit for it, the French were pioneers in the literature of science fiction, and they are now excelling in the genre on cinema and television screens as well. In the past few years, several original … Read More
Science fiction has traditionally been dominated by the English-speaking world – think of authors like Ray Bradbury and Ursula Le Guin, and movies like the Star Wars franchise – but France has a surprisingly long pedigree in the field. The … Read More
