La Quête de l'oiseau du temps

"La Quête de l'oiseau du temps" ("The quest of the Time-Bird") is a French language fantasy comic series written by Serge Le Tendre and drawn by Régis Loisel, published by Dargaud since 1983.

tory

The world of Akbar is in danger : Ramor, the cursed god, is about to be liberated. The sorceress Mara has found a way to prevent the god's ressurection and to bound him, again to his prison. but to succeed during the incantion, she need the legendary Time-Bird, a mythical beast able to control the flow of time. She send her daughter, Pelisse, to a past lover, Bragon, once a fearsome warrior, now an gray-haired lord of the manor, to convince the aging hero to embark on one last adventure...

One of the good point of the comics, apart for the character of Pelisse and Régis Loisel's vivid depiction of the fantasy world of Akbar, its faune and flora, is the melancholic mood that permanates the whole story : how aging heroes deal with their fading glory, how villains accept their past and manage to find peace, and how young heroes arise, take their predecessor'place and learn to accept their first losses...

Publication

* Original story
** Volume 1 : Ramor's Conch ("La Conque de Ramor", 1983)
** Volume 2 : The Forgotten Temple ("Le Temple de l'oubli", 1984)
** Volume 3 : The Rige ("Le Rige", 1985) - « Lucien » price at the Festival of Angoulême the folllowing year
** Volume 4 : The Darken Egg ("L'Œuf des ténèbres", 1987)
* Second cycle (prequel)
** Volume 5 : Friend Javin ("L'Ami Javin", 1998)
** Volume 6 : The Book of the Gods ("Le Grimoire des Dieux ", 2007)