Fever, illusion and danger in Urbicande

'The Obscure Cities', a series of comics by draftsman François Schuiten and screenwriter Benoît Peeters about modern metropolises, metropolises that appear at the same time unreal and real - if not surreal. Urbicande is certainly a dark city. For example, it is a complete mystery why one day the cube on the desk of the 'urbatect' Eugen Robick grows into a gigantic, city-spanning grid.

The comic is primarily about Urbicande's city architect (or 'urbatect') Robick, who tries to win over the city council for the realization of his urban planning dreams. He has made a grand, symmetrical city design, but he is unable to realize the necessary bridge connection with the city district on the dark north bank. The proliferating grid network puts a definitive end to his plans.

Urbicande is also the realistic, yet obscurely drawn story of the growing latticework that appears to offer unsuspected possibilities for the townspeople. Ultimately, it forms a superstructure that still creates a connection across the river between the two city districts. In the eyes of Robick, this is complete chaos, but in the eyes of entrepreneurs and residents an opportunity to develop new activities. Only one day, when Robick is leaving town and looking back from a distance, he recognises the gigantic latticework had only seemed chaotic to him: “What a sucker!” For there he perceives a perfectly regular pyramid shape.

Then one day the lattice structure starts moving again. Again the grid expands at high speed. In recent months, the roster had been put to use as regular, connecting infrastructure, which will fail miserably when growth resumes. On April 10, it became clear: "In a few hours, the grid network will be just a memory." The story does not end with this, because the city council desperately tries to build a new grid and Robick returns to his desk to chisel his own cube from natural stone. The story of Urbicande thus shows us the fever, the illusion and the danger associated with overly large urban planning dreams.

Source:
François Schuiten en Benoît Peeters, La fièvre d'Urbicande. Les Cités Obscures. Parijs/Brussel, Casterman 1985.

Type:
Obscure cities.

Copyright:
Schuiten en Peeters / Casterman.

The work of Schuiten and Peeters has of course been the inspiration for our type designation 'Obscure cities'. As early as October 1997, they were found willing to participate in our comic strip project (At that moment, in Paris).