Comic Art Museum - Brussels

In the summer of 2013, Apple, one of the most modern companies in the western world, imposed a ban on the online sale of some 1,500 Franco-Belgian comic strip albums for reasons of "pornography". Needless to say, the pornographic nature of these albums is entirely questionable and exists mainly in the eyes of the fundamentalists of globalized morality.

Fortunately Dargaud has more than one trick up its sleeve. There will now be two editions of the Murena albums: the first intended for the global market, the second for sale in bookshops to the adult Franco-Belgian market which is old enough to make its own decisions.

The Belgian Comic Strip Center, a great defender of freedom of expression, is more than happy to join the fray by exhibiting the complete version of Les épines by Jean Dufaux and Philippe Delaby.

J.C De la Royère, Belgian Comic Strip Center.

We are in Ancient Rome. The emperor Claudius is presiding over the spectacle of the gladiators who are locked in combat in the centre of the arena in a desperate fight for survival. Meanwhile on the fringes of these tragic events, other dark plots are being hatched in the eternal struggle for power!

In this new volume of the Murena stories, Jean Dufaux and Philippe Delaby rebuild Ancient Rome and expose the roots of Judeo-Christian culture. Nero fears that the Roman people, aghast at the Great Fire of Rome, will turn against him if he cannot find any culprits to appease them. So the Christians would seem the perfect scapegoats! Will the relationship begun by Lucius Murena with the beautiful Claudia prevent him from fighting against this injustice?

Jean Dufaux has written over 200 works, the latest of which include Murena - La Complainte des Landes perdues (Delaby), Double masque (Jamar), Croisade (Xavier), Djinn (Miralles), Le bois des Vierges (Tillier) and Barracuda (Jérémy). His world revolves around themes such as power, madness, solitude, the passing of time or the wounds of the past. Dufaux’s œuvre, supported by the graphic skills of the best artists, has sold in hundreds of thousands of copies.

Philippe Delaby was born in Tournai in 1961 and entered the city’s Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 14. In 1994 he received the Clio award from the Salon de l’histoire de Paris for his album Richard Cœur de Lion published by Lombard. His albums Arthur au Royaume de l'impossible (Yves Duval), Bran (J.L. Vernal), L'Etoile polaire (Luc Dellisse) were published by Lombard, and Murena et La Complainte des Landes perdues by Dargaud.

Raphaële Perret, Dargaud