Le mal des montagnes

As the series draws to its end, the threat against mankind grows imminent: the upcoming birth of Aleksi’s and Anika’s child, who promises to be the most powerful of all members of the Imun line, has raised the stakes for both of the occult powers vying for control of this side of the two worlds: the Light and his Men From Above, and the Shadow and his dreaded Entities, which he is about to unleash against the world. An alliance between the Velikiistok, the Ieretiks and the Southern Territories could help Earth present a more united front against what’s coming, but ultimately, the fate of the planet lies somewhere else…

He’s a chick unlike any other! Right from day one, Chick the 1st is beleaguered by the doubts and questions that come with the capacity to reason. When the farmyard dog asks him “What are you?”, little does he suspect the turmoil of endless enigmas he provokes in our little chick’s mind. While seeking answers to his endless questions, Chick the 1st shakes up all the social conventions of the chicken coop, causing scandal left, right and center. With the help of his Aunt Gallina and the mouse that devours books, Chick the 1st grapples with reality, both in the abstract and literal sense!

Episode 1

Algeria 1957. In the heart of the war that pits the French troops and the rebels fighting for the independence of their country against each other, an event occurs which is worrying in the extreme for French headquarters: since a fortnight, a platoon of twenty-two men has disappeared with their weapons and luggage. This platoon, consisting or Harkis, Algerians enrolled in the French army, was under the command of lieutenant Messonnier. Captain Valéra, charged with finding Messonnier and his section, leads the inquiry into the Kabyle mountains, to the same spot where the section disappeared. Have Messsonnier and his men defected to the enemy? Was the platoon wiped out by the armed groups of the F.L.N., the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale? Was Messonnier betrayed by his second in command, Mohan Djeddar, who was an F.L.N. militant before he joined the French army? A strange person, this Messonnier. Nicknamed Azrayen’, the Angel of Death – according to the local beliefs of the Kabyle people, Messonnier was the lover of Takhlit Allilat, a young Berber teacher. This means that the testimony of Takhlit is of vital importance to captain Valéra if he wants to stand a chance to find Messonnier again. And in spite of herself, Takhlit participates in the searches.

Episode 2

Continuation and ending to tear your heart out.
Algeria 1957. Lieutenant Messonnier and his platoon have disappeared in the Kabyle mountains. This second episode of Azrayen’ leads captain Valéra on the quest, up to the ultimate conclusion of his inquiry. A strange and terrifying end and surprising also, when everything that has come to light is wiped out by a single stroke of fate. It is as if the disappearance of Messonnier and his men was to symbolise the frightful uselessness of war in general and the war in Algeria in particular.

Anika Borodine, the Imperator’s niece, brings Aleksi Stassik to the Epicenter, the heart of the terrible cataclysm that ravaged the Azbuska region 15 years earlier. In the ruins of the orphanage where Aleksi spent part of his childhood, he finds answers to questions about his origins and troubled past. But Aleksi’s deep-seated powers, coveted by others, will end up being more terrifying and destructive than anyone could ever have imagined.

“What’s going on? Where is my dad? Are we at war? The city is so quiet and dark that it seems hostile and it scares me.” Marzi is a little girl like any other. She plays with dolls, gets lost in the woods, covets chewing gum and ballet lessons… Except that she’s growing up the behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s, and the Soviet regime sometimes casts an unsettling shadow over her otherwise carefree childhood. But, somehow, she always manages to bounce back! Marzi’s clear-eyed, playful storytelling continues in this third volume of coming-of-age tales from Communist Poland.

How does a volunteer for a humanitarian aid program turn into a terrorist? While Fouad, a Belgian nurse, is working for a humanitarian mission to stamp out AIDS in deepest darkest Columbia, he is witness to a kidnapping. A bit of delving soon leads him to fear the worst. What if the WWOA (World War on Aids), the world renowned foundation he’s employed by, were using this admirable campaign to eradicate AIDS as a facade for another, much more sinister project? What if they were actually using the populations of developing countries as guinea pigs for pharmaceutical experiments? Fouad could just go on with his life as though he hadn’t seen anything. That would probably be better for him. But that’s just not really his style…