The Obscure Cities (French: Les Cités Obscures), first published in English as, variously, Stories of the Fantastic and Cities of the Fantastic, is a bande dessinée series created by Belgian artist François Schuiten and French writer Benoît Peeters. First serialized in magazine format in 1982, the series has been published in album format by Brussels-based publisher Casterman since 1983. New installments of the series were published throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2020s, with full-color, partial color, or black-and-white artwork, as well as photo illustration. The artwork of the series is distinguished by Schuiten's realistic rendering of diverse contemporary, historical, and imaginary architectural styles. The series is commonly labeled as steampunk, based on frequent appearances of anachronistic technology, storytelling and visual traditions of the scientific romance era,: 118–119  and its retrofuturist parallel world setting of imagined cities and cultures inspired by Jules Verne's literary depiction of Europe in the late 19th century.: 44  However, diverging from steampunk conventions as well as science fiction and fantasy in general, the setting is neither a speculative world nor an alternate history, but rather a "plausible" world for readers to "relate to", as Peeters has emphasized.: 143  The Obscure Cities has no unifying narrative, instead telling a series of unrelated stories, which have spanned genres such as pseudo-documentary, travel literature, psychological drama, and political satire.: 18 Taking the Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Best Album in 1985 established The Obscure Cities as a prominent work of Franco-Belgian comics. The series has received analysis from literary and artistic scholars, and both authors are active in art, literature, and film projects in Belgium and France. Source: Wikipedia (en)