Thorgal is a fantasy adventure series created in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD) tradition by Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński. Debuting in 1977, it has incorporated elements of Norse mythology and the legend of Atlantis, as well as science fiction and horror. In 2002, it was adapted as an adventure video game, Thorgal: Curse of Atlantis, by Cryo Interactive Entertainment.

Development

The comic first appeared in serial form in Tintin magazine in 1977, with the story La Magicienne Trahie. Originally a stand-alone 30-page project, its early success encouraged turning it into a longer series. It has subsequently been published in hardcover volumes by Le Lombard from 1980 on. Translations have appeared in among others, English, Dutch, German, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Tamil and Greek. Covers for all comic books, or rather comic albums c.q. BDs (in North-American understanding though, "graphic novel" is the more applicable terminology in this case, particularly where the physical properties of the book format are concerned, the distinction being otherwise a non-issue in native Francophone Europe) are drawn by Rosiński, even for the spin-off albums which sometimes are drawn by other artists.

Reception and significance

Thorgal is critically acclaimed and one of the most popular French language BDs, with more than 11 million Thorgal books in print. There are currently three ongoing successful spin-off series, in addition to the continuation of the main Thorgal series. It has been called the most popular series published by Le Lombard. D. Aviva Rothschild in her 1995 book Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-length Comics praised the series, stating that it is "better than an American swords-and-sorcery comic" when it comes to both art and stories. Commenting on The Archers volume, Rothschild described it as "one of the finest pieces of heroic fantasy I have ever set my eyes on". The series has also been credited with popularizing the BD in Poland.

Main characters

Other characters

Fictional character biography

After being lost at sea, the ship of Viking leader Leif Haraldson suddenly finds its way home, guided by a mysterious light in the fog. To the superstitious Vikings, the light is seen as a sign from the gods. Once on shore, they find a sort of capsule, which appears to be the source of the mysterious light. Leif opens the capsule and finds a newborn baby boy. He names the child Thor-gal Aegirs-son, after Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, and Aegir, the ruler of the sea, because he considers Thorgal to be a gift from the Gods. Leif takes Thorgal under his care as his adoptive son. As Thorgal grows up, he is curious about his origins and often ostracized by his peers for not being a "real" Viking. On his sixth birthday, Leif gives him two strange artifacts taken from the capsule he was found in. One is a jewel made from "the metal that doesn't exist". The jewel brings Thorgal on his first adventure, and binds his fate forever with that of Aaricia (his future wife). When Thorgal is twelve, the other gift prompts him to visit an old wiseman, who reveals to Thorgal his origins and true identity. He tells him that he's one of the last survivors of a group of technologically advanced space-farers who came to the planet in search of new energy sources. His people have great supernatural powers like changing the molecular composition of matter with their mind; powers that Thorgal himself seems not to have. Thorgal learns about his real parents and grandfather, and the events that preceded his birth. The old man decides to erase Thorgal's memory of their encounter and the knowledge he just learned, believing that it will be better for Thorgal to grow up as a "normal" Viking boy with no supernatural powers. Thorgal, however, continues to grow up as curious and conflicted about his true identity as ever. Soon after this event Leif Haraldson dies and Gandalf the Mad is chosen as his successor. Gandalf repeatedly tries to get rid of Thorgal, because -– as he constantly reminds everyone – Thorgal is an outsider and not of Viking blood. In reality, Gandalf feels threatened because Thorgal is Leif's heir. In the meantime, Thorgal's relationship with Aaricia, Gandalf's daughter, develops and strengthens. While her wishes do not have much influence on her father, she is able to save Thorgal from certain death (by her father's hand) through her determination and ingenuity. The first album of the series starts some years later, when Thorgal is already an adult, and Gandalf devises a plan to kill him after realizing how deep the love his daughter has for Thorgal really is.

Collected French language editions

The albums consist of several story arcs and many stand-alone stories.

Mainline series

Jean Van Hamme (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (art) Le Lombard editions: Notes The 29th volume, The Sacrifice, was the final volume scripted by Jean Van Hamme. Here, Thorgal escapes the curse of Odin. He finds peace in the only home he knows: the Viking village of his adopted father, but then must make a choice. Danish translation of the series appeared in a different order, beginning with the chronicles of Thorgal's youth. The first album in the series La Magicienne Trahie is number 22 in the Danish series. In Denmark numbers 22-23 (#1-2) were first published by the publisher Interpresse under the name "Cormak", probably to capitalize upon the popular series Conan. The name was soon changed back to "Thorgal" when Carlsen Comics took over the series. Yves Sente (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (art) Notes Following the 29th volume, the series was written by Yves Sente. These albums initially focussed on Jolan rather than Thorgal. Xavier Dorison (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (art) Yann (story) and Grzegorz Rosinski (art) Yann (story) and Fred Vignaux (art)

Les Mondes de Thorgal - Kriss de Valnor ("The Worlds of Thorgal – Kriss of Valnor")

Yves Sente (story) and Giulio De Vita (art) Xavier Dorison and Mathieu Mariolle (story) and Roman Surzhenko (art) Xavier Dorison and Mathieu Mariolle (story) and Fred Vignaux (art)

Spin-off Les Mondes de Thorgal - Louve (Thorgal - Wolf)

Yann Le Pennetier (story) and Roman Surzhenko (art)

Spin-off Les Mondes de Thorgal - La Jeunesse de Thorgal (Thorgal - The Youth of Thorgal)

Yann Le Pennetier (story) and Roman Surzhenko (art)

Thorgal Saga homage series

In this series, started in 2023, other writers and artists create a separate story set in the Thorgal universe but outside the canonical series, and without the 48-page constraint the regular albums had, occasionally even exceeding the 100-page count.

Supplementary print publications

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English releases

All English-language Thorgal album releases have to date adhered to the approximately standard European BD A4-format, a book format US and UK readerships have historically not been accustomed to, they instead being born and bred with the much smaller, standard US comic book format. The closest format resembling the European one, US and UK readership are traditionally familiar with, is that of the US graphic novel format, though it too is somewhat smaller. Donning Company Publishers (US) had the earliest three English-language titles published in the 1980s Cinebook Ltd (UK) released the English-language (main) series up until volume 24 in the softcover print format starting with Child of the Stars and Aaricia in 2007. Europe Comics, partnered with Cinebook along with other publishers, took over the English language publications following their formation in 2015 and released the main series (including rereleases of older titles) plus the spin-off series in digital format only. They started in 2019 with the digital release of the main series, starting with volume 21 which was as the only one released under the same ISBN for both formats. With volume 22 digital releases had from 2020 onward overtaken Cinebook's print releases, which from then on was lagging far behind with their print releases, aside from the circumstance that Cinebook did none of the spin-off series.

Mainline series

Kriss of Valnor

Wolfcub

The early years

In other media

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