{"id":4193,"date":"2016-11-30T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/?p=4193"},"modified":"2016-11-29T12:29:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T18:29:05","slug":"new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2016\/11\/30\/new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"New (to me) volume of The Obscure Cities coming soon!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I ran across this preview of <em>The Theory of Grain and Sand<\/em> at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbr.com\/the-theory-of-the-grain-of-sand\/\" target=\"_blank\">CBR<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbr3.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TheoryOfTheGrainOfSand-TPB-pr-1.jpg?auto=format&amp;lossless=1&amp;q=40&amp;w=279&amp;h=430&amp;fit=crop\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cbr3.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TheoryOfTheGrainOfSand-TPB-pr-1.jpg?auto=format&amp;lossless=1&amp;q=40&amp;w=279&amp;h=430&amp;fit=crop\" alt=\"\" width=\"279\" height=\"430\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The second book of <em>The Obscure Cities<\/em> series following <em>The Leaning Girl<\/em>. Gholam Mortiza Khan comes to Br\u00fcsel to sell some jewelry, but before the sale can be closed, Khan dies in an accident. Thus begin events sparking an investigation by Mary von Rathen: accumulation of sand in the apartment of Kristin Antipova; accumulation of stones in the house of Constant Abeels, and Maurice who is loosing weight by the day. The events have a catastrophic effect on Br\u00fcsel and time is of the essence.<\/p>\n<p>Newly translated into English by Ivanka Hahnenberger and Steve Smith (translator of <em>The Leaning Girl <\/em>and <em>The Beauty<\/em>) and edited by Smith and Karen Copeland at Alaxis Press for publication by IDW.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<blockquote><p>First time translated into English for western readers!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/1628472278.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL400_.jpg?w=620\" alt=\"\" width=\"309\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To say I&#8217;m excited would be an understatement. When <em>The Leaning Girl<\/em> came out back in 2014, I had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfsignal.com\/archives\/2014\/07\/recent-graphic-novel-reads-of-interest\/\" target=\"_blank\">this to say<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>After a freak accident, thirteen year-old Mary Von Rathen begins to lean at a 45 degree angle. After nothing fixes her affliction, her selfish mother and hen-pecked father send her away to a private school. Shortly after, Mary runs away and quite literally joins the circus where she remains for several years, performing her amazing leaning girl act. A newspaper editor tells her of a scientist, Axel Wappendorf, who is planning on a journey to a planet that might unlock the secret behind Mary\u2019s trouble. Interspersed within Mary\u2019s tale, is the story of fine artist Augustin Desombres, who escapes from his busy world and buys an empty building on the French countryside. He begins painting murals of strange globes and worries about his sanity. Mary\u2019s and Wappendorf\u2019s explorations bring them into a collision course with Desombres and hopefully the answers that Mary\u2019s seeks.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the legendary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altaplana.be\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Obscure Cities<\/strong><\/a> sequence, this extraordinary French graphic novel serves as an ideal introduction to the long running series produced by writer Peeters and artist Schuiten. Expertly employing the tropes of 19<sup>th<\/sup> century science fiction, the duo\u2019s creation achieves the unique duality of both very familiar and very different. Schuiten\u2019s exquisite line work pairs perfectly with Peeters\u2019 prose in creating the mythical worlds, outlandish ideas, and commonplace people. Further enhancing the work\u2019s uniqueness is the Fumetti style of Desombres\u2019 story as envisioned by the black &amp; white photography of Plissart. The riveting, beautiful <b>Leaning Girl<\/b> fascinates, while providing one of the best reading experiences of the year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Years later and, <em>The Leaning Girl<\/em> remains one of my all time favorite comics. I&#8217;m eagerly awaiting the next volume.<\/p>\n<p>Until <em>The Theory of Grain and Sand<\/em> comes out, I&#8217;ll just have to be satisfied with this sample page. Visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbr.com\/the-theory-of-the-grain-of-sand\/\" target=\"_blank\">CBR post<\/a> for more images from the book.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cbr3.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TheoryOfTheGrainOfSand-TPB-pr-3.jpg?auto=format&amp;lossless=1&amp;q=40&amp;w=864&amp;h=1080&amp;fit=crop\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/cbr3.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TheoryOfTheGrainOfSand-TPB-pr-3.jpg?auto=format&amp;lossless=1&amp;q=40&amp;w=864&amp;h=1080&amp;fit=crop\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"1080\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I ran across this preview of The Theory of Grain and Sand at CBR: &nbsp; The second book of The Obscure Cities series following The Leaning Girl. Gholam Mortiza Khan comes to Br\u00fcsel to sell some jewelry, but before the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2016\/11\/30\/new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,19],"tags":[240,239,236,124,237,241,233,238,235,234],"class_list":["post-4193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics","category-reviews","tag-alaxis-press","tag-benoit-peeters","tag-cbr","tag-comics","tag-francois-schuiten","tag-idw","tag-obscure-cities","tag-steve-smith","tag-the-leaning-girl","tag-the-theory-of-grain-and-sand"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2016\/11\/30\/new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New (to me) volume of The Obscure Cities coming soon! - The Geek Curmudgeon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I ran across this preview of The Theory of Grain and Sand at CBR: &nbsp; The second book of The Obscure Cities series following The Leaning Girl. Gholam Mortiza Khan comes to Br\u00fcsel to sell some jewelry, but before the &hellip; Continue reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2016\/11\/30\/new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Geek Curmudgeon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-30T16:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-29T18:29:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cbr3.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TheoryOfTheGrainOfSand-TPB-pr-1.jpg?auto=format&#038;lossless=1&#038;q=40&#038;w=279&#038;h=430&#038;fit=crop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@rickklaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Geek Curmudgeon\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/\",\"name\":\"The Geek Curmudgeon\",\"description\":\"Where opinionated geek Rick Klaw expresses his views\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2016\/11\/30\/new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cbr3.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TheoryOfTheGrainOfSand-TPB-pr-1.jpg?auto=format&amp;lossless=1&amp;q=40&amp;w=279&amp;h=430&amp;fit=crop\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2016\/11\/30\/new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2016\/11\/30\/new-volume-obscure-cities-coming-soon\/\",\"name\":\"New (to me) volume of The Obscure Cities coming soon! 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