Paul Francis Curie

The Chimera Brigade is a six-volume French comic series created by Serge Lehman and Fabrice Colin, illustrated by Gess, and colored by Céline Bessonneau, published between 2009 and 2010. Set on the brink of World War II, the narrative imagines a Europe where superhumans emerged during World War I but subsequently vanished from collective memory. The story involves Doctor Mabuse's plans for European domination, the involvement of figures like the Nyctalope and the Joliot-Curie family, and an amnesiac named Jean Séverac, who had a past connection with Marie Curie. The series uses these elements as an allegorical exploration of Nazism's rise and the obscuring of European superheroes' history, drawing parallels between their disappearance and the emergence of American superheroes.

The project originated from Serge Lehman's observation in the 1990s that science fiction, particularly European works featuring superhumans, had been largely forgotten after World War II. Initially conceived as a novel, the idea evolved into a comic series launched in 2005 with publisher L'Atalante. The series pays homage to forgotten French science fiction authors and aims to revitalize the genre. It draws inspiration from early 20th-century French popular serials and the "scientific marvelous" genre, and its title is a nod to historical French police forces and early literary works. The series has been recognized with awards and expanded into other media.

The genesis of The Chimera Brigade lies in Serge Lehman's late 1990s realization that European science fiction, particularly its early 20th-century contributions featuring superhumans, had been largely erased from public consciousness. He observed a paradoxical perception of science fiction as primarily an American genre, despite its significant European roots. Lehman initially envisioned an alternate history novel focused on Parisian superhumans and their subsequent disappearance, but the project's scope proved too ambitious. The concept was revived in 2005 when Lehman collaborated with publisher L'Atalante to develop it into a comic series, enlisting Fabrice Colin for the screenplay and Gess for the illustrations. The creators aimed to explain the vanishing of European superheroes from collective memory, contrasting it with the sustained popularity of their American counterparts, and to highlight the neglected French anticipation of the interwar period.

The Chimera Brigade draws heavily on specific literary precedents and thematic concerns. Serge Lehman cites J.-H. Rosny aîné's "L'Énigme de Givreuse" and George Spad's "L'Homme chimérique" as primary inspirations. The former explores themes of memory and dissociation through a character split into two amnesiac entities, a concept echoed by the inclusion of the de Givreuse twins in the comic. "L'Homme chimérique," a novel about Captain Jean Brun de Séverac reappearing as four distinct personalities after WWI, directly influences the series' title and characters, with "The Chimera Brigade" presented as a sequel to Spad's serial "Pirates du Radium." George Spad is revealed to be a pseudonym for Renée Dunan and Huguette Blanche Perrier. The series also pays homage to forgotten French authors and the "scientific marvelous" genre, reinterpreting historical and literary figures within an original narrative framework that seeks to explain the disappearance of European superheroes from the cultural landscape.

The series emerged within a broader 21st-century resurgence of interest in French-language literary heritage, particularly the "scientific marvelous" and popular serial novels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Serge Lehman himself contributed to this revival through his critical writings and anthologies. The Chimera Brigade is often compared to Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" for its use of historical and literary figures, though Lehman's objective is to explain the disappearance of European superheroes rather than simply recontextualize existing characters. The series was published in six hardcover volumes between 2009 and 2010 and received the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in 2011. It has since been adapted into a role-playing game and spawned further comic series, exploring events before and after the original narrative.