The Towers of Bois-Maury

The Towers of Bois-Maury (original French title: Les Tours de Bois-Maury) is a series of graphic novels created in the Franco-Belgian "Bande Dessinée" (BD) tradition, that begun in 1984 by Belgian comic book creator Hermann.

Plot

Set in 11th-century Europe, the series concerns the efforts of the wandering noble Sir Aymar de Bois-Maury, knight, to reclaim his ancestral home, Bois-Maury. Less focused on action than other series by Hermann (like Jeremiah), Les Tours de Bois-Maury deals more with human thoughts and considerations.

Albums

Original publications in French

In Europe, it had been customary for a series to first see a serialized comic magazine pre-publication, before the volume was released in its entirety as a comic book, or rather comic album in Europe's case. In France, six volumes of the original story cycle were serialized in the Glénat Éditions parent publisher comic magazines Circus (volume 1, issues 73-78, 1984) and Vécu (volumes 2-5 and 10, issues 3, 1985-34, 1988 and 58, 1993), before the comic magazine pre-publication format became largely defunct in the 1990s because of the waning interest in the format, resulting in that after "Alda", subsequent volumes were directly released in the album format with "Olivier" as the sole exception. With the 2021 Johnny-Come-Lately volume 16 as the stated conclusion of the series, the series comprises the following albums:

Les Tours de Bois-Maury (the original story cycle as published by Glénat)

1. Babette, 10/1984, ISBN 2-7234-0475-7

2. Eloise de Montgri, 11/1985, ISBN 2-7234-0533-8

3. Germain, 11/1986, ISBN 2-7234-0661-X

4. Reinhardt, 11/1987, ISBN 2-7234-0857-4

5. Alda, 01/1989, ISBN 2-7234-0984-8

6. Sigurd, 01/1990, ISBN 2-7234-1178-8

7. William, 12/1990, ISBN 2-7234-1345-4

8. Le seldjouki, 04/1992, ISBN 2-7234-1423-X

9. Khaled, 03/1993, ISBN 2-7234-1617-8

10. Olivier, 08/1995, ISBN 2-7234-1783-2

Bois-Maury (spin-off series dealing with Aymar's descendants – excepting volume 16 which was situated between volumes 9 and 10 of the original cycle – initially published by Glenat under the abridged series title before reverting back to the full series title)

11. Assunta, 03/1998, ISBN 2-7234-2503-7

12. Rodrigo, 08/2001, ISBN 2-7234-3608-X

13. Dulle Griet, 08/2006, ISBN 2-7234-5579-3

14. Vassya, 08/2009, ISBN 978-2-7234-7051-3

15. Œil de ciel, 04/2012, ISBN 978-2-7234-8658-3

16. L'Homme à la hache, 09/2021, ISBN 978-2-344-04731-6

All albums have been written and drawn by Hermann, except "Rodrigo", "Dulle Griet", "Vassya", "Œil de ciel" and "L'Homme à la hache", which had been written by his son Yves H.

Foreign translations

In continental Europe, the series became a runaway success anywhere the series became published and albums have seen publications in Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Slovenian, and Spanish. Like in France, the majority of European countries saw the first few volumes serialized in local comic magazines, before their respective album publications. And like in France, they too switched over to the direct-in-album publication format as well for the same reasons.

English translations

In the UK (and US) the series did considerably less well, resulting in that only the first few albums and the "Rodrigo" title were published in English by different companies, all of them under the series title, The Towers of Bois-Maury.

1. Babette

• Titan Books, UK, 1985 ISBN 0-907610-47-1 Paperback. Reprinted with different cover in 1989
• Dark Horse Comics (Strip Art Features), USA, 2002 ISBN 1-56971-768-0 Hardcover

2. Eloise de Montgri

• Titan Books, UK, 1989 ISBN 978-1852861131 Paperback.
• Dark Horse Comics (Strip Art Features), USA, 2002 ISBN 1-56971-769-9 Hardcover.

3. Germain

• Catalan Communications, USA, 1990 ISBN 0-87416-100-2, but which was likely not released as its ISBN was reassigned to Catalan's unrelated "Dorm Girls" title which did see a confirmed publication a year later, unlike the "Germain" title.
• SAF Comics announced its publication for October 2003 ISBN 1-59396-006-9, but never had published it.

4. Alda

• Heavy Metal magazine's July, 1990 (Vol. 14 No. 3) issue features the graphic novel

12. Rodrigo

• Dark Horse Comics (Strip Art Features), USA, 2001 ISBN 978-1569716328 Hardcover.