in 1987, an illustrated novel about the mysterious disappearance of a cargo vessel, the Lady Polaris. The narrative comprises various documents related to the lost ship: comic strips, log books, even an investigative journalism account by a fictionalised Mézières and Christin. The action takes place against the backdrop of many of the great seaports of Europe. Mézières undertook considerable research in putting together this book, visiting the ports of Liverpool, Copenhagen, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Lübeck, Bordeaux, Bilbao and Genoa. Another collaboration with Christin was Canal Choc, a series of four albums about a television news team investigating strange phenomena. Mézières did not draw these albums but supervised a team of artists including Philippe Aymond and Hugues Labiano. In 2001, Mézières was approached by the city of Lille, which had been designated European Capital of Culture of 2004, to produce something for the celebrations. He created a series of futuristic arches, called Chemin des Etoiles (The Way of the Stars) along the Rue Faidherbe in the city, similar to those seen at the Port Abyss spaceport depicted in the Valérian album At the Edge of the Great Void which was first published the same year. Death Mézières died on 23 January 2022, at the age of 83. Legacy Mézières' arrival on the French comics scene with Valérian was contemporaneous with the debuts of other notable French science-fiction strips including Luc Orient by Greg and Eddy Paape and Lone Sloane by Philippe Druillet. The success of these strips eventually led to the creation of Métal Hurlant, the highly influential French comics magazine dedicated to science fiction. Mézières' influence has been noticed in such strips as (by Víctor Mora and Carlos Giménez) and Gigantik (by Mora and José Maria Cardona). His visual style also influenced some American comics artists, notably Walt Simonson and Gil Kane. On occasion this went beyond mere influence – following a complaint by Mézières, the artist Angus McKie admitted that several panels of his strip So Beautiful and So Dangerous were copied from the Valérian album Ambassador of the Shadows. Outside of comics, Mézières' art has been especially influential on science fiction and fantasy film. In particular, several commentators, such as Kim Thompson, Jean-Philippe Guerand and the newspaper Libération, have noted certain similarities between the Valérian albums and the Star Wars film series. Both series are noted for the "lived-in" look given to their various settings and for the