The first album of Valérian to be translated into English was L’Ambassadeur des Ombres as Ambassador of the Shadows, in the January-April 1981 issues of Heavy Metal Magazine. After that, four books were released by the short-lived Dargaud USA, in 1982-83: Ambassador of the Shadows, World Without Stars, Welcome to Alflolol and Heroes of the Equinox. In 2000, NBM Publishing reissued these same four titles. Finally, in 2004, iBooks published The New Future Trilogy: On the Frontiers, The Living Weapons and The Circles of Power in one volume reduced to US comic book size. Cinebook is also publishing English language editions of Valérian. So far the following volumes have been released: The City of Shifting Waters – (July 2010) and The Empire of a Thousand Planets (July 2011).

The first story published in Pilot never counted as an album it just didn’t have enough illustration boards (30) to qualify for album size. It was only in 1983 that Bad Dreams was re-edited and in 2000, thirty-three years after its publication, it was published in an album in the normal series with the number “0” for placing the story in order of publication. In 2010, the last album, L’OuvreTemps (The TimeOpener), was published. With this album the authors concluded the entire comic series with the intention to prevent the series from becoming weak, or staggering behind newer comics. Valérian & Laureline is the comic series with the greatest universal longevity and appeal. It holds this honor along with great works like Asterix by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, and Lucky Lucke by Maurice De Bevere. They all are masterpieces but Valérian & Laureline holds a special place in my comic book collection.

Christophe Chanel