Comic Book / Alone

aka: Seuls

The children of Fortville. From left to right: Terry, Leila, Dodji, Camille and Yvan.

Alone (Seuls in French) is an on-going Franco-Belgian comic series, written by Fabien Vehlmann and drawn by Bruno Gazzotti. Its first volume was published in January 2006, with a release schedule of one volume per year. It is currently composed of thirteen volumes divided into three complete cycles, and, according to the authors, should amount to a total of twenty volumes.

Alone follows the adventures of a group of five children ^note Dodji, Leila, Terry, Camille, and Yvan from a fictional town named Campton (Fortville in French), who wake up one day to discover that everyone else has disappeared. All the adults are gone, and the only other living creatures they meet are animals and, later on, other children. Of course, the heroes attempt to discover what happened, while also trying to survive by themselves. There are many dangers to be faced, from animals gone wild to rival groups of children.

Over time, they discover that this world isn't what it seems. Mysterious forces are at work, and they end up dragged in a conflict between two warring groups, respectively called the First Families and the Last Families.

A movie adaptation has been released in France on February 8th, 2017.

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Seuls provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents:
  • Dodji's stepfather used to beat him up when he was drunk.
  • Implied to be the case with Edwige's parents, if the bruises on her back are any indication. That would explain her destructive behaviour.
  • Enzo's father started beating him up for little reason after losing his job to the Covid 19 Pandemic. To the point of eventually killing him. It's as disturbing as it sounds.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Justified and enforced. Without adults, some children assume the leadership. Saul leads a group of children and thinks he should be the only leader, even if it means getting rid of the competition. Dodji also become a leader, even though he doesn't want to. The leaders of the First Families are children too and want Saul to become the champion of their empire.
• Action Girl:
  • Leila is the second-best fighter of the group, after Dodji.
  • Edwige is fearsome with a bat in hand, but her violent nature makes her somewhat of a deconstruction.
• Action Survivor: Basically all the children are forced to become this.
• Adaptational Villainy: Saul is far worst in The Film of the Book than his comic-book counterpart. His racism is far more explicit and he nonchalantly kills the Master of Knives who has just outlived his usefulness. And his crush for Camille is displayed in a very creepy way. At one point, he locks her in a cage.
• Affably Evil: The Last Families, which contrasts with the First Families' restrained attitude and rigid Fantastic Caste System.
  • Anyone corrupted by the Last Families become monstrous and willing to expand their ranks on hapless victims, but keep treating the children as friends and playground buddies.
  • Camille will always treat the other children of Fortville as her friends and want them by her side. If only she wasn't so intent on corrupting them or cutting them limb from limb... Coincidentally, their refusal to treat her as an enemy leads them to saving her.
• Animal Motifs: Flying insects for the Last Families. The places they haunt is plagued by immense swarms of flies and black vermin.
  • The Midnight Child, (l'Enfant-Minuit in French) anointed by the forces of darkness, is covered with red insects usually associated with cuteness (ladybugs and butterflies) but here creepy as heck. Not unsurprisingly, considering that she was the sweetest character of all before her Face–Heel Turn.
  • Spiders for the Mad Master (Maître Fou in French), who hides hundreds of them in the cage he wears on his head. Or rather, which replaces his severed head, with the spiders being part of him.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Terry's power can turn things into sentient beings with a will of their own.
• Anti-Villain: Several instances.
  • The Master of Knives was ultimately only trying to protect a baby girl from the heroes. A Freeze-Frame Bonus on one of the last comic strip boxes shows that one of the windows Leila and Yvan exploded when, while drunk, they had fun shooting with Yvan's father's gun was a window of the building where he was living with the baby.
  • Alexandre and Selene, who try to kill the Children of Fortville. But only because they want to prevent another war between the Last Families and the First Families. They think that one of them will become the Midnight-Child, aka the Champion of the Last Families.
  • Arguably, the less extremist leaders of the First Families are this, mostly Diane and Lucius. On one hand, they do advocate for harsh measures, they rule over a society based on a Fantastic Caste System in which a whole group is treated as slaves and they end up antagonizing the heroes because they suspect they may be linked to the Last Families. On the other hand, they do what they think is best to protect their subjects, while having to fight an enemy that turns children into zombie-like pawns.
  • Achille, the First Families' best warrior, is a Noble Demon who opposes the children of Fortville because they are suspected to be aligned with the Last Families. However, he wants to give the children of Fortville a fair chance of joining the First Families and of proving they're not a threat. A conversation between two soldiers also reveals that he strongly dislikes torture.
  • The creepy Mad Master is in fact a mentor of sorts, trying to train Dodji. Each seemingly absurd and sadistic trials he inflicts is in fact a disguised lesson.
• Badass Pacifist: Dodji becomes this by the time of the Fourth Cycle. They will avoid violence as much as possible, but they will force you to listen, whether you want it or not.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: The true role of the Eighth Family, whose real name is the Tiger-Striped Souls, is to keep it intact. Melchior prepared to become its Champion, until his disappearance. The other Families would rather avoid it, keeping them as slaves under their control.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The First, and Second Families are opposed to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth, but both are equally dangerous Eldritch Abominations determined to engulf everything in apocalyptic wars... To the point of uniting against anyone even thinking about restoring balance.
  • The Third Cycle has Saul who is about to start a brutal military dictatorship in Neosalem, the Mad Master who abducts Dodji for his sadistic entertainment, and the Midnight Child who takes control of the Last Families and prepares them for a new War of Limbo. With the latter two being restored to normal at the end, only Saul remains a threat. And the aforementioned Eldritch Abominations have yet to enter the fray...
• Blade Enthusiast: The fittingly named Master of Knives. He wears dozens of them on his coat and is very good at fighting with them or at throwing them.
• Blood Knight: Toussaint, to horrifying, Ax-Crazy proportions...
• Bowdlerization: In the official English translation of the first volume, there was a panel of showing Terry fully naked, which was edited so that he was wearing underwear.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Terry often acts like a brat, at least during the First Cycle. He is forced to grow up by the trials he has to face, and all traces of it is gone by the Third Cycle.
• Breaking the Fellowship: By the start of the Third Cycle, the main 5 characters are separated from each other. Dodji is imprisoned by the Mad Master, Leila is recaptured by the First Families, Yvan finds himself in another town after drowning while trying to escape First Family soldiers and reviving, Terry is on the run with the Master of Knives, and Camille has become The Antichrist of the Last Families. Fortunately, they are all back together at the end of the cycle, ready to assume their true role as leaders of the Mediators.
• Character Development: Being stranded in a very hostile ghost town would force anyone to grow up fast to adapt and survive.
  • Dodji learns to trust people and to open up towards others, and lately to overcome his crippling self-loathing.
  • Leila learns to uses her ingenuity to save her skin and to seize opportunities depending on the situation to turn the tables, becoming The Strategist.
  • Yvan learns to overcome his fears and his loneliness, becoming proactive instead of a follower.
  • Camille has to adapt her idealism to the grimness of the situation, and to better understand people. Later, she accepts her part of darkness and resolves to discover what happened to her.
  • Terry learns to become mature and responsible, and to take care of himself and others, becoming a skilled Badass Adorable Gadgeteer Genius.
  • Cruelly played with in Saul's case. He first mellows out due to Camille's Positive Friend Influence, and starts to respect the Children of Fortville during their Enemy Mine to escape the Lower Lands. Alas, he is promoted leader of the First Families. Just as it seems that Camille's pleas strike a chord, he meets Toussaint and spirals From Bad to Worse.
• The Chosen One: The Last Families and the First Families each have their champion, a child with enormous supernatural powers. Saul is revealed in the seventh book to be the champion of the First Families. In the ninth album, we learn the identity of the Midnight Child of the Last Families. It's Camille.
  • Dodji is revealed to be the one for the neutral Eight Family, destined to end the conflict between both factions and to open the Gates of Heaven.
• Conflict Ball: Grabbed by Dodji and Leila at the beginning of tome 9 to justify Dodji separating himself from the rest of the group. You'd expect this kind of conflict to break out at the beginning when they didn't know each other well, not after months of surviving together.
  • Partially justified in the fact that he is afraid of being the local variation of The Antichrist, and understandably freaked out, terrified at the prospect of being a danger to his True Companions.
• The Corrupter: Anyone transformed by the Last Families becomes a twisted, demonic version of themselves. But this is really "them", with their flaws magnified tenfold, and not a Demonic Possession.
  • A brutal Knight Templar and War Hawk like Toussaint is the worst possible advisor to a Well-Intentioned Extremist slash Totalitarian Utilitarian like Saul. Not only because he brings the worst in him, but because he has the biggest chance of being listened to.
• The Corruptible: Saul is a deeply flawed Control Freak with bad It's All About Me tendencies, but he hides a vulnerable side and sincerely tries to protect the children in his care and improve their lives. Too bad, he finds inspiration from the Hitler Youth. Too bad, Toussaint is whispering in his ear...
• Cosmic Horror Story: The story starts as a suspense/thriller mixing Lord of the Flies and Gone. Then the Fifteen Families slowly show their ugly mug, resulting in a setting that would make H. P. Lovecraft feel at home.
• Cowardly Lion: Yvan is not as brave as Dodji or Leila. But, when push comes to shove, he's capable of being just as heroic. By the end of the Third Cycle, he is able to face The Dragon to the Midnight Child then the Midnight Child themselves.
• Dead All Along: Everyone. The other people didn't disappear. The characters are actually dead and stuck in an afterlife called the World of Limbo.
• Deadpan Snarker: Yvan has some moments.
  Leila: "It's a pity we don't go see that thing from closer..."
  Yvan: "Another time. We should keep some for the rest of the week. Or else we'll get bored."
• Defector from Decadence: Octave and Joachim join the rebels of the Eighth Family, out of disgust for what Neosalem is becoming under Saul and Toussaint. By the start of the Fourth Cycle, Isaure, Siegfried and Diane, the most Reasonable Authority Figure of the Ruling Council, have deserted in turn.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Toussaint is this to Saul, the Imperator. He feigns obedience to bring out the worst in him, advocating for a military dictatorship and pushing him from a Totalitarian Utilitarian right into The Caligula zone. And by awakening the Midnight Child instead of sealing them, he kickstarts the War of Limbo that could still be avoided/delayed.
• Driven to Suicide: Book 14 ends on The Reveal that Camille actually threw herself off a building the night she originally died. The Fifteen Families' influence is implied.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Dark Building appearing at the center of the Zone is horribly creepy and ominous, covered with (if not made of) billions of insects, and having God knows what inside of it. It is sentient and in control of the Red Zone. It is in fact a Nadir of the Fifteenth Family, far and away the most powerful of the Last Families, spawned from the Midnight Child's subconscious. It takes this form because she died by jumping off a building.
  • It's counterpart the Aeon has yet to appear, but it is stated to be equally Lovecraftian and dangerous. It is spawned from the Imperator's subconscious.
• Eldritch Location: The Lower Lands (les Terres Basses in French), stronghold of the Last Families. They are implied to be sentient and keep expanding over and over, even without the Midnight Child to control them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Edwige doesn't like much Leila, as she feels that Leila never truly accepted her as part of her group of friends and she considers her a rival for Dodji's affections, but after seeing how Saul is treating her in tome 12, she agrees that she deserves to be helped.
• Evil Counterpart: The Last Families are dark reflections of the First Ones, with similar natures and powers, but completely different purpose. But while incredibly dangerous, they are hints of a grayer morality.
• Evil Me Scares Me: After finally returning to normal self, Camille compares the time she spent as the Midnight-Child as a waking nightmare. Though what made the experience most terrifying was that she could feel that it was still herself, just a more twisted version.
  Leila: I don't think it was your fault, Camille. It was that darned monolith that probably-
  Camille: Don't try to find excuses for me Leila. I can see how everyone's looking at me here... and they're probably right to be afraid of me. I'm just not a good person, that's all. But I promise to learn what happened to me.
• Fantastic Caste System: The First Families use a rigid social structure where the numbers of 6 (aristocrats), 7 (commoners), and 8 (slaves) are given to the incoming/newly dead children based on their success in their grueling game of trials.
• Fauxshadowing: As the story goes on, Dodji is led to believe that he is the Midnight-Child, the Chosen One of the Last Families. But it ultimately turns out to be a Red Herring hiding the reveal that it was Camille.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The five children of Fortville quickly become True Companions after having to survive and face threats together.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Saul kisses Dodji during their Enemy Mine moment, both as a "thank you" and to mess with his mind.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Even though at first glance, we are led to believe that Dodji is the Midnight-Child of the Last Families, some clues actually point towards Camille as soon as album four.
    • In the fourth album, Camille is the more sensible to the events happening in the "Zone", aka the (at the time still not known) stronghold of the Last Families. Alexandre and Selene even suspect her first. Later albums don't bring up that element again, but they never exculpate Camille either.
    • In the eighth album, Camille is questioned by the leaders of the First Families, who use an artifact known as Alderic's Hand to try to see if she has a connection with the Last Families. One of the leaders' Evil-Detecting Dog starts barking and the Hand is reacting. However, at the time, the leaders (and by extension the reader) assume that it's because of Lucy, the baby that was with Camille at the moment.
  • The revelations that the children were Dead All Along and the entire nature of the Fifteen Families were hinted at the second volume of the series, where Yvan remembered him being with his parents getting into the car the night to run away from "Fifteen Families" before everyone disappeared without realizing that he and his parents died in a car crash.
• Friend to All Living Things: Camille loves animals and is implied to not eat meat (or at least not eat the meat of the animals she raises).
• Good Counterpart: The First Families are light reflections of the Last Ones, with similar natures and powers, but completely different purpose. But while devoted to order, they are Good Is Not Soft at best and Light Is Not Good at worst.
• Good is Not Nice: After his Heel–Face Turn, the Master of Knives becomes an ally of the children of Fortville. However, he's far more prone than them to use violent (and even lethal) ways to deal with their enemies.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Toussaint is a cruel and implacable Knight Templar, as violent as the Last Families without the Affably Evil package. By revealing Camille as the Midnight Child, he enables her to take her throne and ignite the war. Lucious points this out, but Toussaint does not care as he wants the war to happen.
• Heel–Face Turn: Several instances.
  • The Master of Knives, the antagonist of the second album, turns out to be a child with an unspecified mental illness, who attacked the heroes, mistaking them for a threat to the baby girl he was protecting. At the end, they let him go and he becomes an ally in his subsequent appearances.
  • Alexandre, and later Diane, Isaure and Siegfried if they counted as villains join the heroes.
  • The biggest one is that of The Midnight Child themselves, though they remain linked to the Lower Lands and it is noted that they might relapse.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Saul alternates between an enemy of the children of Fortville and a reluctant ally. The reveal that his crush Camille was the Midnight-Child all along and his subsequent Jumping Off the Slippery Slope cements his status as a villain. Having Toussaint as his most trusted advisor does little wonder to his worsening mental state.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Ultimately Played With and Subverted. It turns out that the children were all Dead All Along. Which means that in the World of Limbo, those who die always come back. It's later revealed, however, that it's still possible to die for real.
• Justified Extra Lives: Being dead, the children who die will reappear after a while. The question being, how many times?
• Killed Off for Real: Anton suffers his Last Death at the hand of Saul.
• Knight Templar: The leaders of the First Families, to varying extents. The worst in that regard in Toussaint, their military leader, as he is the one who advocates for the most violent methods. Subverted with Diane, who's open to hear Anton's theories even though they are iconoclast. She does warn him to not talk about them to Toussaint, or else he might burn his works. And him with them.
• Light Is Not Good: The First Families, what with their use of slavery and Fantastic Caste System.
• Living Statue: The Protectors of the Fourth Family are giant stone statues animated in a ritual by the Imperator, who can track down a target everywhere in Limbo and make them Deader than Dead. They can only move in sunlight and cannot see what is basked in shadows, even straight in front of them.
• The Load: Because of his young age, Terry is often useless in battle and sometimes even puts himself in danger by being too reckless. He grows out of it after a solid serving of Character Development.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Yvan came from a wealthy family, which his father happened to be a banker. Though he has schoolmates, his parents are often absent as they were too busy. At least he was with his parents in a car accident during the Night of Angels during which the Children of Fortville died and went to the World of Limbo.
• Manchild: The Master of Knives is actually a teenager whose disability made him more in level with the children in terms of mental maturity. Despite the World of Limbo accepting young children who died in tragic ways, his status as a teenager in such realm make it one of the mysteries on how it operates.
• The Man in Front of the Man: Toussaint, yes him again, invokes it openly (though out of earshot), describing Saul as a brat he shapes and use as he sees fit, by "teaching him how the war must be fought". However, his control over him is more tenuous than he thinks.
• Mind over Matter: Saul develops extremely powerful telekinesis as The Chosen One of the First Families. It depends on how much he believes in himself and how many others do. It is hinted that he would become a full-fledged Reality Warper at full capacity.
• Morality Pet: Camille, for Saul, doubling as Puppy Love. Even discussed in-universe at one point, when Camille points out that Saul seems less harsh when she's with him. Sadly, its' gone by the time of the Fourth Cycle.
• Mr. Exposition: Several people explain what is going on to our heroes.
  • The Council of Sages, especially Diane, explains Anton the nature of Limbo and the opposite nature of the First and Last Families.
  • Melchior, once freed becomes the poster child for the trope, explaining everything that was left to know about the Fifteen Families, the Balance Between Good and Evil, and most importantly the Tiger-Striped Souls and their Personality Powers.
• Nice Girl: Camille is the nicest of the Five-Man Band. Also Zoe, who is met in the third album and later joins the group.
• Noble Demon: Achille, one of the leaders of the First Families and their best warrior. He wants to give the children of Fortville a fair chance of joining the First Families and of proving they're not a threat. A conversation between two soldiers reveals that he strongly dislikes torture.
  Gaspard: "We can win some time... I'll make them say where their friends are."
  Soldier: "Forget it Gaspard. You know Achille wouldn't like that."
• Personality Powers: Each Tiger-Striped Soul wields a powerful ability, fitting their character.
  • The headstrong and determinate Dodji becomes able to make things happen by force of will.
  • Leila who plans ahead and worries about the future becomes able to see it in advance.
  • Yvan, the voice of reason who tried to advocate for peace, becomes able to restore victims of the Last Families to normal.
  • Terry, with his vivacious imagination, can bring things to existence with his mind.
• Puppy Love: Romance isn't the focus of the story, but there are some instances of this trope, even though they're very discrete.
  • Edwige and Leila both show an interest in Dodji. In the seventh album, they both kiss him. Dodji clumsily acknowledges it but the start of the Fourth Cycle, but admits that he is not sure how to deal with it.
  • Between Camille and Saul. Both being the leader of their respective side, it eventually becomes much more important than it first appeared.
  • Between Yvan and Zoe. Clear on Yvan's part, but she seems more oblivious. However, in the seventh album, she sleeps on his lap.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The highest in the First Families and lowest in the Last Families are the most powerful children in their side. Justified in that every children appearing in Limbo has a dormant power, with only the mightiest developing, for better or worst, while the other are assimilated by the Limbo World.
• Really 700 Years Old: The children never physically age in the World of Limbo (with the exception of their hair which become lighter and their eyes which become pale blue), but some of them are there since a long time. For instance, it's implied that the leaders of the First Families, like Lucius, are from Antiquity. And Achille and Toussaint may be even older.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Diane is the most willing to welcome the Children of Fortville and to explore new theories about their predicament, warning against ruling through fear and worrying about the War Hawk Magisters. Isaure and Siegfried from the Fifth Family back are equally open-minded and wary of extremism. Lucius is this as well, to a lesser extent. By the Fourth Cycle, the former three have deserted in disgust, with Isaure lodging an arrow in Toussaint's chest for good measure.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Some animals have become feral and attack humans on sight. They're recognizable thanks to their red eyes. We later learn that this happens to those who've been corrupted by the Last Families.
• The Reveal: Each Cycle ends with one.
  • At the end of the fifth album, we learn that everyone has been Dead All Along and that the world they are in now (called the World of Limbo) is some kind of afterlife.
  • At the end of the ninth album, we finally learn that the Messiah of the Last Families is not Dodji, as we were led to assume, but Camille.
  • The thirteenth album explains the Balance Between Good and Evil.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Melchior's head is imprisoned inside a chest, only accessible by the Mad Master.
• The Smart Guy:
  • Yvan is the smartest of the five children of Fortville.
  • Anton, who's met in the third album and later joins the group, is even smarter.
• Superpowered Evil Side: It would be easier to think of the Midnight Child as a separate entity, but a restored Camille is adamant that it was this, and is understandably shaken.
• Thinking Up Portals: The villainous Mad Master owns a key that can open doors out of thin air, leading to wherever he wants. Dodji turns the tables on him by stealing it from him.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Leila (Tomboy) and Camille (Girly Girl).
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: Saul regards himself as a benevolent dictator, convinced that the greatest kindness is to strike fast and true. While he genuinely believes in his view and thinks there is no other way, his newfound power and position of authority causes him to be Slowly Slipping Into Evil.
• Totally Radical: Discussed and invoked by Yvan and Jonathan, who muse that they no longer understand the slang of children who died years after them, calling themselves "old children". They resolve to learn them and Yvan latter uses them as a jest.
• True Companions: The Five Children of Fortville, later joined by defectors of Saul's clan and the First Families.
• Video-Game Lives: Saul pushes his followers to treat how the Limbo respawns anyone who dies as Resurrective Immortality. The heroes however, are well aware that sooner or later they will get Out of Continues.
• War Hawk: Toussaint is the only one thrilled more than worried by the prospect of the upcoming War of Limbo, convinced that modern weaponry will win it.
• Wham Episode: Each Cycle ends with one, coupled with The Reveal for further shock.
  • The 5th Album was an entire surprise to the cast of the storyline, which it was revealed that the protagonists were actually dead and ended up in the World of Limbo.
  • The 9th Album reveals who is the Midnight Child.
  • The 13th Album explains the real nature of the Eighth Family and the titular Tiger-Striped Souls, neither "good" nor "evil" and with the potential to bring peace between the First and Last Families.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: Time flows much slower in the World of Limbo than in the normal world. To be precise: one hour in Limbo is worth 12 normal hours, one month is worth 1 normal year. By the start of the Fourth Cycle, fifteen normal years have passed since the Children of Fortville died, which justifies the series' Comic-Book Time.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Anton theorizes that Limbo is formed by the collective consciousness of all the children who entered it after death.
  • Saul's Mind over Matter powers are implied to be in fact this.
  • Dodji can mimick actions with real results (firing real bullets by making a "finger gun") or make attacks miss and weapons fall by wanting to talk things out. Like Saul, it depends on how much he - and how many others - trusts in himself, with huge Reality Warper potential.
  • Terry builds "machines to make miracles" and his power makes them work.

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