Wake (comics)

Sillage (Wake)
Cover of the first issue (US version). Note the censorship.
Publication information
Publisher	Delcourt Production (France) / NBM Publishing (USA)
Genre	science fiction
Publication date	1998 – present
Number of issues	10+
Main character(s)	Navee (Nävis)
Creative team
Writer(s)	Jean-David Morvan
Artist(s)	Philippe Buchet
Colorist(s)	Christian Lerolle

Wake (titled Sillage in the original French) is a science fiction graphic novel series created by Jean-David Morvan and Philippe Buchet. The series has been translated to English and published in the United States by NBM Publishing. The issues are published in a large format (19 cm by 25.4 cm) as soft cover graphic novels. Issues 1 through 3 were published individually. Issues 4/5 and 6/7 were published together as single books. NBM Publishing have stated that they will not be publishing the remainder of the series in English in the United States.

Wake is space opera, exploring social themes about inequalities, corruption and colonization.

The foreword to the art book 1000 Navïs states that the series was conceived at the prompting of publisher Guy Delcourt, who wanted a space opera to add to his catalogue. Jean David Morvan presented the name Sillage to Philippe Buchet, who conceived of the space convoy, but made them entirely alien to avoid comparisons to Battlestar Galactica. Similarly, the main character was made female to avoid comparisons to Tarzan.

The protagonist of the series is Navee (Nävis in the original French), a young human female who was shipwrecked and orphaned on an alien planet. She was raised from infancy by one of the ship’s robots, Nsob, and has never met another human being. The series uses Navee as an outside viewer of the Wake convoy as she adjusts to life in this alien civilization.

The first volume of the series depicts the adolescent Navee topless. As a prerequisite for publication in the United States, the American publisher covered her breasts with a black felt marker in the American edition.

Navee is the only living example of humanity known to Wake. She is also unique in being neither a "psi active" nor a "psi passive"; that is, she has no telepathic abilities, but her mind cannot be read either. This lack of psionic talent of any sort comes in handy at times during the series.

Navee has white rectangular tattoos on her body. There is evidence to suggest she is not a true human being and these markings has something to do with it (Wake Vol 3;Nävis Vol 2&4).