Trains are commonly seen in comics. In comic book scenes, trains break down traditional scenery, move into space, unfurl an image, and excite the imagination.

Comic strips and graphic novels are full of trains - careering at breakneck speeds through the Andes in the Tintin album "Prisoners of the Sun" (by Hergé, pub. Casterman), or disappearing into the vast horizons of the American prairies with a trail of white steam in the Lucky Luke album "Des rails sur la prairie" (by Morris and Goscinny, pub. Dupuis). In the Spriou and Fantasio adventure "Du Glucose pour Noémie" (pub. Dupuis), a steam train is derailed and flies through the glass fronting of the station and careering out into the city! This portrayal of unrestrained energy makes a great deal of sense.
In the Blueberry adventures "The Iron Horse", "Steel Fingers" and "General Golden Mane" (by Charlier and Giraud, pub. Dargaud), trains represent the relentless march of progress, the conquest of the American Wild West and the end of Indian civilisations. In Europe, the 19th century rail revolution is keenly portrayed in the Juillard and Rolland album "Cheminot, histoire et légende des hommes du rail" (pub. Temps actuels), which features a locomotive crossing France, and tearing up the map of the country.

However, once inside the train carriages, the question of movement is no longer so relevant. We now have a dramatic psychological and even political reality, built on dialogue and confrontation. In "Rails" (pub. Delcourt), authors Chauvel and Simon tell the story of black pirates, who after being rejected by a racist society, rebuild alternative, mobile cities of refuge inside trains, which they use to lay siege to their enemies. In "Transperceneige" by Rochette and Lob (pub. Casterman), the world's biggest train transports mankind's survivors through a snow-covered plain as they escape from an encroaching ice age. All the social classes of humanity are gathered and grouped together into separate quarters. The hero of the graphic novel, Proloff, moves through the train from the lowest classes until he reaches the locomotive, spreading the deadly revolution virus.

Stations too, are portrayed as a sanctuary.In Poppoya (Choo-Choo Man), a manga comic by Nagayasu and Asada (pub. Panini), Otomatsu, stationmaster on a small country branch line, thinks back over his life, marked out by the rhythms of trains going by, a symbol of time passing. Has he sacrificed his love for his wife and daughter on the altar of his railwayman's duty?

The train can also take readers on a poetic journey. In "La merveilleuse Odyssée d'Olivier Rameau" by Greg and Dany (pub. Joker), a group of unassuming notary clerks are taken into a parallel world on a gentle little country train. In Hallucinaville, capital of Rêverose (Dreamland), the ticket collectors stamp out kisses in the place of tickets and the trains take little naps in the stations! In "Haruka Na Machi He" (Quartier Lointain) by Taniguchi (pub. Casterman), Hiroshi inadvertently gets on the "Super-Hakuto", an express train from Tokyo to the little town of Kurayoshi, and finds himself magically back in his past as a teenager in his home town.

In comics and graphic novels, trains are mental spaces that travel both through the physical landscape and the imaginary landscape of the comic book itself, caught up in the strips and taken on an incredible journey.

"Lucky Luke, "Des rails sur la prairie", p. 46, frame 4.
© Dupuis/Morris and Goscinny

"Rails, volume 2 "La garde blanche", page 31, first 3 frames.
© Delcourt/Chauvel and Simon

"Transperceneige", volume 1, "L'échappé" p.3.
© Casterman/Rochette and Lob