Valérian and Laureline

Valérian and Laureline
Valérian and Laureline as drawn by Jean-Claude Mézières
Created by	Pierre Christin Jean-Claude Mézières
Publication information
Publisher	Dargaud
Title(s) Bad Dreams The City of Shifting Waters Empire of a Thousand Planets World Without Stars Welcome to Alflolol Birds of the Master Ambassador of the Shadows On the False Earths Heroes of the Equinox Métro Châtelet, Direction Cassiopeia Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos The Ghosts of Inverloch The Wrath of Hypsis On the Frontiers The Living Weapons The Circles of Power Hostages of the Ultralum Orphan of the Stars In Uncertain Times At the Edge of the Great Void The Order of the Stones The Time Opener
Formats	Original material for the series has been published as a strip in the comics anthology(s) Pilote magazine and a set of graphic novels.
Original language	French
Genre	Science fiction
Publication date	November 1967 – January 2010
Main character(s)	Valérian Laureline
Creative team
Writer(s)	Pierre Christin
Artist(s)	Jean-Claude Mézières
Colourist(s)	Evelyn Tran-Lé
Creator(s)	Pierre Christin Jean-Claude Mézières
Reprints
The series has been reprinted, at least in part, in Dutch, Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Collected editions
Valerian: The New Future Trilogy	ISBN

Valérian and Laureline (French: Valérian et Laureline), also known as Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent (French: Valérian, agent spatio-temporel) or just Valérian, is a French science fiction comics series, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. First published in Pilote magazine in 1967, the final installment was published in 2010. All of the Valérian stories have been collected in graphic novel album format, comprising some twenty-one volumes plus a short story collection and an encyclopaedia. Valérian is one of the top five biggest selling Franco-Belgian comics titles of its publisher, Dargaud.

The series focuses on the adventures of the dark-haired Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent, and his redheaded female colleague, Laureline, as they travel the universe through space and time. Valérian is a classical hero, kind, strong and brave who follows the orders of his superiors even if he feels, deep down, that it is the wrong thing to do. On the other hand, his partner Laureline combines her superior intelligence, determination and independence with sex-appeal. Influenced by classic literary science fiction, the series mixes space opera with time travel plots. Christin's scripts are noted for their humour, complexity and strongly humanist and left-wing liberal political ideas while Mézières' art is characterized by its vivid depictions of the alien worlds and species Valérian and Laureline encounter on their adventures. The series is considered a landmark in European comics and pop culture, and influenced other media as well: traces of its concepts, storylines and designs can be found in science fiction films such as Star Wars and The Fifth Element.