La fièvre d'Urbicande

La fièvre d'Urbicande is a graphic novel by Belgian comic artists François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, the second volume of their ongoing Les Cités Obscures series.

The frame rapidly grows into a cubic lattice, expanding in both tessellation and scale and passing directly through solid objects.

Sophie invites Robick to visit the North Bank with her, over his protests and aversion, and they both experience life in the squalid, yet lively, neighbourhood for the first time.

Now a fixture of the city landscape, the lattice becomes a foundation for new construction and a nexus for travel, commerce, and leisure, permitting citizens to form new friendships and enterprises.

The following year, the lattice suddenly resumes its growth, and all the buildings, thoroughfares, and public infrastructure supported by its frame catastrophically collapse.

The printed passages denounce the veracity of the events depicted in the album, while Robick's notes vehemently refute the author's arguments.

[2] The booklet hints at fallout from the events of the album, describing widespread death and madness in various cities across the same continent, which barricaded themselves for reasons lost to history.

[1]: 213 "La légende du réseau" reproduces portions of Le Mystere d'Urbicande, speculating that the story of the album ends abruptly due to the sudden destruction of Urbicande.