The Chronicles of Legion Vol. 1: Rise of the Vampires

Les chroniques de Légion #1

by Fabien Nury, Mathieu Lauffray (Illustrator), Mario Alberti (Illustrator)

THE MAGNIFICENT PREQUEL TO THE INFAMOUS AND CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED "I AM LEGION!"
Three lives... Three different faces of evil... Three incarnations of Dracula, locked in eternal battle!

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Horror, Vampires, Bande Dessinée, Collections

56 pages, Hardcover

First published May 4, 2011

About the author

Born in 1976, Fabien Nury began his career by co-writing with Xavier Dorison the script of W.E.S.T (Dargaud), a hit series illustrated by Christian Rossi (six volumes between 2003 and 2011). Nury independently wrote Je suis Légion (2004-2007, Humanoids Associés), a trilogy illustrated by the American John Cassaday. Translated into eight languages, the series continues with several other illustrators under the title Les chroniques de Légion (Glénat). In 2007 he also started working on Le maître de Benson Gate (Dargaud) with Renaud Garreta. From 2007 to 2012, Nury wrote the script for the six volumes of Il était une fois en France (Glénat). The historical series, illustrated by Sylvain Vallée, received wide critical and public acclaim (850,000 copies sold). Amongst other achievements, in 2011 he received an award for best international series at the Angoulême Comics Festival. Since then Fabien Nury has been gaining success in various genres: Mort de Staline (The Death of Stalin, Dargaud/Europe Comics, forthcoming), in historical narrative; Steve Rowland, volume 5 of the XIII Mystery series (Dargaud, art by Richard Guérineau) in thriller; Corey Silas ( Glénat, art by Pierre Alary) in detective series; and Atar Gull (Dargaud, art by Brüno) in literary adaptation, based on the novel by Eugène Sue. In 2013, he created Tyler Cross with Brüno, (Tyler Cross, Dargaud/Europe Comics, 2015) a noir graphic novel. The album was praised by both critics and readers (over 50,000 copies sold) with volume two in August 2015. In 2014, Fabien Nury published the fourth and final volume of L'or et le sang (Glénat), the script by Maurin Defrance and art by Merwan and Fabien Bedouel. With Tierry Robin he created the two-part series Mort au Tsar (Death to the Tsar, Dargaud/Europe Comics, 2015). In 2014, with Eric Henninot he also published Fils du soleil (Dargaud), an adventure album adapted from two novels by Jack London. As for audiovisual, Fabien Nury co-wrote with Dorison the scripts to a feature film Les brigades du Tigre (directed by Jérôme Cornuau, 2006) and a TV movie Pour toi, j'ai tué (directed by Laurent Heynemann, 2012).

Reviews

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upíry moc nemusím, ale námět se mi tu hodně líbí. Jenže jak autor skáče v čase, stane se tu dost prd a celé dvě alba pořád působí jako úvod a (ne úplně dobré) seznámení s postavama. A to je u čtyřdílné série docela problém...

[Florin Pitea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, very good graphics.

[William Bainbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Solid comic has some very solid themes/base ideas but loses itself in trying to pull grand ideas like a 500 year time skip in such a small amount of pages. Great foundations, somewhat poor executions.

[Dimitrios Mistriotis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that good, or at least as thought it would be. I bought the first instalment a couple of years before, remember back then something was stopping me for purchasing the second book always opting in for something else. I decided to get all three of them on a sale of a local (UK, forbidden planet) online store. After finishing them all realised what was going on.

The elements of a good series are there in theory but once they are put into place and mixed they do not produce a great result for someone to invest their time and money into. Different people draw with different styles, each on a corresponding period, which although as an idea is great, although not that novel, it hurts the story. The story is a bit incoherent while at the same time there is nothing really novel that has not already been explored about vampires. At the end after reading the last page, I did not feel that I wasted my time but rather that given the options out there should have chosen something else.

Good parts: European style drawing, which we definitely need more of in English.

Note: did not know until posting this that this was a prequel to another series.

[Kate Dostálová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Příběh Vlada Drakuly Tepese trochu jinak. Sledujeme jeho život napříč časem a ne chronologicky, ale na přeskáčku. Má spor se svým bratrem a jeden druhého se snaží dostihnout. Díky své krvi se mohou převtělit do jiné osoby a tak se zdá jako velmi snadné zmizet tomu druhému. Ale toto převtělení má své nedostatky, postupem času začnou podléhat lidským nemocem a citům...

[Matej Mika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parádna myšlienka. Veľmi sa mi páči odlíšenie jednotlivých dejových/časových línií štýlom ilustrácie. Príbeh je trochu mätúci a to je jediné negatívum - občas neviete o ktorého z bratov sa jedná a o čo vlastne ide.

[Tanneke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nederlandse vertaling

[Kasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect drawings, plot all is clear in comparison with part one this book I’m legion) represents huge progress into clarity of the story. Very pleasant to read.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Chronicles of Legion Vol. 1: Rise of the Vampires
Originally published in France this tale is simply a progression of dracula-isque reincarnations that have no subtlety, just ghastly. **

[La Espada en la Tinta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Los aficionados al género vampírico encontrarán en los cuatro actos en que se divide Las crónicas de Legión una interesante propuesta que presenta el recurso de la ficción histórica y la importancia que el vampiro han tenido desde la Edad Media, refiriéndose para ello al mito de Drácula desde un punto de vista distinto gracias al guionista Fabien Nury. No es la primera vez que un autor llega para contar la enésima versión del vampiro romántico e hiperpoderoso, pero Nury plantea las cosas de una manera diferente, más enfocada hacia la idiosincrasia y valores del vampiro como criatura solitaria, que como el típico monstruo plagado de clichés que ha visto potenciada su popularidad a lo largo del siglo XX.

Sigue leyendo: http://www.laespadaenlatinta.com/2014/05/resena-cronicas-legion-comic-yermo-nury.html

[Stéphanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plusieurs dessinateurs se relaient sur cette bd, et du coup on a un rendu très inégal, avec des planches de toute beauté d'un coté et de l'autre des visages, parfois très mal exécutés, par un autre dessinateur...
Au niveau de l'histoire, il s'agit d'une mise en place... A suivre donc. En tout cas, pour le moment cette préquel à Je Suis Légion ne me passionne que moyennement...

[Carles Muñoz Miralles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuatro autores distintos para reflejar las distintas eras de Vlad Drakul, el vampiro por antonomasia, que nos lleva desde sus orígenes en la Edad Media hasta la era victoriana. Una forma diferente de acercarse a este gran mito del terror.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if I like it or not. Too little to go on. It's only 50 pages. Nice presentation. Attractive book. Nice art. Very Euro.