#code lyoko comics

yall are going to have to give me more ideas for themes after this 😂 I’m running out

Back in 2007-2008, there was a French magazine called Code Lyoko 2.0 that published news and information about the series, and included 32 pages of original comics. The magazines are hard to come by these days but if you’re interested in owning the comics, the first 3 (of 5) were published as standalone books in France and Spain.

In French, Panique à l’usine ! contains the first comic “Secouée.” In Spanish, Pánico en la fábrica contains the first comic, and Ataque en la academia contains the next two, “Abeilloïde” and “Un vrai casse-skate !” Pánico en la fábrica was released in both hardcover and paperback; the other two books are in hardcover only.

Even if you don’t speak either language, maybe you’d like to own a copy of the comics so you can look at the illustrations in high quality. So, you have three options when it comes to owning the first comic - which one do you aim for?

When I looked at the sketch versions of the comics (which have draft dialogue written on them), it became more clear. The illustrator had planned out the speech bubbles and the panels so they both flowed perfectly together, but the letterer apparently preferred to condense as much dialogue into as few bubbles as possible.

This page was the most offensive example in my opinion - they even switched two of the bottom panels around, ruining what could've been some really good emotion in this scene.

Here we have the final page as it was published (I added the bubbles to the blank page and did the English translation). Aside from Odd's open mouth in the second panel, nothing seems too amiss, though Delmas's rant might feel a bit condensed. But then you look at the concept version.

Odd's speech bubble is in the right place and Delmas's rant isn't so condensed. But then you also have Odd and Ulrich sharing that look in the middle panel because they are off battling the forces of evil. Suddenly this shared glance turns from "Oh no we're in trouble" to "He hit the nail on the head but we can't tell him that." And Delmas facing away from them as he says they may need to repeat the year gives a more sombre tone to the end of this scene. He's not angry, he's disappointed. He knows they can do better.

There are plenty more examples of the letterer not following the illustrator's plan for the speech bubbles, but I think most of them read as a little awkward and not as tone-destroying as this one. Still, I think it's a shame everything was planned out so well and then it got ignored.