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Coal gas

Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers and municipalities.

The original coal gas was produced by the coal gasification reaction, and the burnable component consisted of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in roughly equal quantities by volume. Thus, coal gas is highly toxic. Other compositions contain additional calorific gases such as methane, produced by the Fischer–Tropsch process, and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

Prior to the development of natural gas supply and transmission—during the 1940s and 1950s in the United States and during the late 1960s and 1970s in the United Kingdom and Australia—almost all gas for fuel and lighting was manufactured from coal. Town gas was supplied to households via municipally owned piped distribution systems. Sometimes, this was called syn gas, in contrast to natural gas. At the time, a popular method of committing suicide was the inhalation of gas from an unlit oven. With the head and upper body placed inside the appliance, the concentrated carbon monoxide would kill quickly. Sylvia Plath famously ended her life with this method.

Originally created as a by-product of the coking process, its use developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries tracking the industrial revolution and urbanization. By-products from the production process included coal tars and ammonia, which were important raw materials (or "chemical feedstock") for the dye and chemical industry with a wide range of artificial dyes being made from coal gas and coal tar. Facilities where the gas was produced were often known as a manufactured gas plant (MGP) or a gasworks.

In the United Kingdom the discovery of large reserves of natural gas, or sea gas as it was known colloquially, in the Southern North Sea off the coasts of Norfolk and Yorkshire in 1965 led to the expensive conversion or replacement of most of Britain's gas cookers and gas heaters, from the late 1960s onwards, the process being completed by the late 1970s. Any residual gas lighting found in homes being converted was either capped off at the meter or, more usually, removed altogether. As of 2023, some gas street lighting still remains, mainly in central London and the Royal Parks.

The production process differs from other methods used to generate gaseous fuels known variously as manufactured gas, syngas, Dowson gas, and producer gas. These gases are made by partial combustion of a wide variety of feedstocks in some mixture of air, oxygen, or steam, to reduce the latter to hydrogen and carbon monoxide although some destructive distillation may also occur.

Manufacturing processes
Manufactured gas can be made by two processes: carbonization or gasification. Carbonization refers to the devolatilization of an organic feedstock to yield gas and char. Gasification is the process of subjecting a feedstock to chemical reactions that produce gas.

The first process used was the carbonization and partial pyrolysis of coal. The off gases liberated in the high-temperature carbonization (coking) of coal in coke ovens were collected, scrubbed and used as fuel. Depending on the goal of the plant, the desired product was either a high quality coke for metallurgical use, with the gas being a side product, or the production of a high quality gas, with coke being the side product. Coke plants are typically associated with metallurgical facilities such as smelters or blast furnaces, while gas works typically served urban areas.

A facility used to manufacture coal gas, carburetted water gas (CWG), and oil gas is today generally referred to as a manufactured gas plant (MGP).

In the early years of MGP operations, the goal of a utility gas works was to produce the greatest amount of illuminating gas. The illuminating power of a gas was related to amount of soot-forming hydrocarbons ("illuminants") dissolved in it. These hydrocarbons gave the gas flame its characteristic bright yellow color. Gas works would typically use oily bituminous coals as feedstock. These coals would give off large amounts of volatile hydrocarbons into the coal gas, but would leave behind a crumbly, low-quality coke not suitable for metallurgical processes.

Coal or coke oven gas typically had a calorific value between 10 and 20 MJ/m3; with values around 20 MJ/m3 being typical.

The advent of electric lighting forced utilities to search for other markets for manufactured gas. MGPs that once almost exclusively produced lighting gas shifted their efforts towards supplying gas for heating and cooking, and even refrigeration and cooling.

Gas for industrial use
Fuel gas for industrial use was made using producer gas technology. Producer gas is made by blowing air through an incandescent fuel bed (commonly coke or coal) in a gas producer. The reaction of fuel with insufficient air for total combustion produces carbon monoxide (CO); this reaction is exothermic and self-sustaining. It was discovered that adding steam to the input air of a gas producer would increase the calorific value of the fuel gas by enriching it with CO and hydrogen (H2) produced by water gas reactions. Producer gas has a very low calorific value of 3.7 to 5.6 MJ/m3; because the calorific gases CO/H2 are diluted with much inert nitrogen (from air) and carbon dioxide (CO2) (from combustion)

 * 2C (s) + O2 → 2 CO (exothermic producer gas reaction)
 * C (s) + H2O (g) → CO + H2 (endothermic water gas reaction)
 * C + 2 H2O → CO2 + 2 H2 (endothermic)
 * CO + H2O → CO2 + H2 (exothermic water gas shift reaction)

The problem of nitrogen dilution was overcome by the blue water gas (BWG) process, developed in the 1850s by Sir William Siemens. The incandescent fuel bed would be alternately blasted with air followed by steam. The air reactions during the blow cycle are exothermic, heating up the bed, while the steam reactions during the make cycle, are endothermic and cool down the bed. The products from the air cycle contain non-calorific nitrogen and are exhausted out the stack while the products of the steam cycle are kept as blue water gas. This gas is composed almost entirely of CO and H2, and burns with a pale blue flame similar to natural gas. BWG has a calorific value of 11 MJ/m3.

Blue water gas lacked illuminants; it would not burn with a luminous flame in a simple fishtail gas jet as existed prior to the invention of the gas mantle in the 1890s. Various attempts were made to enrich BWG with illuminants from gas oil in the 1860s. Gas oil (an early form of gasoline) was the flammable waste product from kerosene refining, made from the lightest and most volatile fractions (tops) of crude oil. In 1875 Thaddeus S. C. Lowe invented the carburetted water gas process. This process revolutionized the manufactured gas industry and was the standard technology until the end of manufactured gas era. A CWG generating set consisted of three elements; a producer (generator), carburettor and a super heater connected in series with gas pipes and valves.

During a make run, steam would be passed through the generator to make blue water gas. From the generator the hot water gas would pass into the top of the carburettor where light petroleum oils would be injected into the gas stream. The light oils would be thermocracked as they came in contact with the white hot checkerwork fire bricks inside the carburettor. The hot enriched gas would then flow into the superheater, where the gas would be further cracked by more hot fire bricks.

New manufacturing processes
Following the Second World War the slow recovery of the British coal mining industry led to shortages of coal and high prices. The decline of coal as a feedstock for town gas production using carbonisation is demonstrated in this graph.

Coal-based town gas production, millions of therms { "version": 2, "width": 800, "height": 250, "data": [ {			"name": "table", "values": [ {					"x": 1951, "y": 2472 },				{					"x": 1952, "y": 2559 },				{					"x": 1953, "y": 2598 },				{					"x": 1954, "y": 2594 },				{					"x": 1955, "y": 2730 },				{					"x": 1956, "y": 2730 },				{					"x": 1957, "y": 2726 },				{					"x": 1958, "y": 2694 },				{					"x": 1959, "y": 2555 },				{					"x": 1960, "y": 2444 },				{					"x": 1961, "y": 2448 },				{					"x": 1962, "y": 2465 },				{					"x": 1963, "y": 2442 },				{					"x": 1964, "y": 2361 },				{					"x": 1965, "y": 2168 },				{					"x": 1966, "y": 1930 },				{					"x": 1967, "y": 1735 },				{					"x": 1968, "y": 1516 },				{					"x": 1969, "y": 1129 },				{					"x": 1970, "y": 797 },				{					"x": 1971, "y": 553 },				{					"x": 1972, "y": 237 },				{					"x": 1973, "y": 134 },				{					"x": 1974, "y": 64 },				{					"x": 1975, "y": 28 },				{					"x": 1976, "y": 6 }			]		}	],	"scales": [ {			"name": "x", "type": "ordinal", "range": "width", "zero": false, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "x" }		},		{			"name": "y", "type": "linear", "range": "height", "nice": true, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "y" }		}	],	"axes": [ {			"type": "x", "scale": "x" },		{			"type": "y", "scale": "y" }	],	"marks": [ {			"type": "rect", "from": { "data": "table" },			"properties": { "enter": { "x": { "scale": "x", "field": "x" },					"y": { "scale": "y", "field": "y" },					"y2": { "scale": "y", "value": 0 },					"fill": { "value": "steelblue" },					"width": { "scale": "x", "band": "true", "offset": -1 }				}			}		}	] } New technologies for manufacturing coal gas using oil, refinery tail gases, and light distillates were developed. Processes included the Lurgi Process, catalytic reforming, the catalytic rich gas process, steam reforming of rich gas, and the gas recycle hydrogenator process. The catalytic rich gas process used natural gas as a feedstock to manufacture town gas. These facilities utilised the chemical reaction processes described above.

The rise of oil as a feedstock to manufacture town gas is shown on the graph below. The peak usage in 1968/9 and subsequent decline coincides with the availability of North Sea gas which, over the next few years, displaced town gas as a primary fuel and led to the decline of oil as a feedstock for gas making, as shown.

Oil-based town gas production, millions of therms { "version": 2, "width": 800, "height": 250, "data": [ {			"name": "table", "values": [ {					"x": 1951, "y": 188 },				{					"x": 1952, "y": 162 },				{					"x": 1953, "y": 149 },				{					"x": 1954, "y": 154 },				{					"x": 1955, "y": 197 },				{					"x": 1956, "y": 171 },				{					"x": 1957, "y": 123 },				{					"x": 1958, "y": 202 },				{					"x": 1959, "y": 276 },				{					"x": 1960, "y": 363 },				{					"x": 1961, "y": 428 },				{					"x": 1962, "y": 505 },				{					"x": 1963, "y": 743 },				{					"x": 1964, "y": 870 },				{					"x": 1965, "y": 1219 },				{					"x": 1966, "y": 1596 },				{					"x": 1967, "y": 2065 },				{					"x": 1968, "y": 2488 },				{					"x": 1969, "y": 2804 },				{					"x": 1970, "y": 2254 },				{					"x": 1971, "y": 1548 },				{					"x": 1972, "y": 880 },				{					"x": 1973, "y": 795 },				{					"x": 1974, "y": 741 },				{					"x": 1975, "y": 427 },				{					"x": 1976, "y": 98 }			]		}	],	"scales": [ {			"name": "x", "type": "ordinal", "range": "width", "zero": false, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "x" }		},		{			"name": "y", "type": "linear", "range": "height", "nice": true, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "y" }		}	],	"axes": [ {			"type": "x", "scale": "x" },		{			"type": "y", "scale": "y" }	],	"marks": [ {			"type": "rect", "from": { "data": "table" },			"properties": { "enter": { "x": { "scale": "x", "field": "x" },					"y": { "scale": "y", "field": "y" },					"y2": { "scale": "y", "value": 0 },					"fill": { "value": "steelblue" },					"width": { "scale": "x", "band": "true", "offset": -1 }				}			}		}	] }

Domestic heating
By the 1960s, manufactured gas, compared with its main rival in the energy market, electricity, was considered "nasty, smelly, dirty and dangerous" (to quote market research of the time) and seemed doomed to lose market share still further, except for cooking where its controllability gave it marked advantages over both electricity and solid fuel. The development of more efficient gas fires assisted gas to resist competition in the market for room heating. Concurrently a new market for whole house central heating by hot water was being developed by the oil industry and the gas industry followed suit. Gas warm air heating found a market niche in new local authority housing where low installation costs gave it an advantage. These developments, the realignment of managerial thinking away from commercial management (selling what the industry produced) to marketing management (meeting the needs and desires of customers) and the lifting of an early moratorium preventing nationalised industries from using television advertising, saved the gas industry for long enough to provide a viable market for what was to come.

Natural gas as feedstock
In 1959 the Gas Council in Great Britain demonstrated that liquid natural gas (LNG) could be transported safely, efficiently and economically over long distances by sea. The Methane Pioneer shipped a consignment of LNG from Lake Charles, Louisiana, US, to a new LNG terminal on Canvey Island, in the Thames estuary in Essex, England. A 212 mi long high-pressure trunk pipeline was built from Canvey Island to Bradford. The pipeline and its branches provided Area Gas Boards with natural gas for use in reforming processes to make town gas. A large-scale LNG reception plant was commissioned on Canvey in 1964, which received LNG from Algeria in two dedicated tankers, each of 12,000 tonnes.

Conversion to natural gas
The slow decline of the town gas industry in the UK was driven by the discovery of natural gas by the drilling rig Sea Gem, on 17 September 1965, some forty miles off Grimsby, over 8000 ft below the seabed. Subsequently, the North Sea was found to have many substantial gas fields on both sides of the median line defining which nations should have rights over the reserves.

In a pilot scheme customers on Canvey Island were converted from town gas to natural gas supplied from the LNG plant on Canvey.

The Fuel Policy White Paper of 1967 (Cmd. 3438) pointed the industry in the direction of building up the use of natural gas speedily to 'enable the country to benefit as soon as possible from the advantages of this new indigenous energy source'. As a result, there was a 'rush to gas' for use in peak load electricity generation and in low grade uses in industry.

The growth in availability of natural gas is shown in the graph below. Until 1968 this was from supplies of LNG from Algeria, until North Sea gas was available from 1968.

Natural gas available, millions of therms { "version": 2, "width": 700, "height": 250, "data": [ {			"name": "table", "values": [ {					"x": 1958, "y": 3 },				{					"x": 1959, "y": 8 },				{					"x": 1960, "y": 15 },				{					"x": 1961, "y": 13 },				{					"x": 1962, "y": 14 },				{					"x": 1963, "y": 21 },				{					"x": 1964, "y": 32 },				{					"x": 1965, "y": 133 },				{					"x": 1966, "y": 314 },				{					"x": 1967, "y": 315 },				{					"x": 1968, "y": 634 },				{					"x": 1969, "y": 1232 },				{					"x": 1970, "y": 2697 },				{					"x": 1971, "y": 4639 },				{					"x": 1972, "y": 7632 },				{					"x": 1973, "y": 10242 },				{					"x": 1974, "y": 11600 },				{					"x": 1975, "y": 13236 },				{					"x": 1976, "y": 14241 },				{					"x": 1977, "y": 14612 },				{					"x": 1978, "y": 15945 },				{					"x": 1979, "y": 16765 },				{					"x": 1980, "y": 17373 }			]		}	],	"scales": [ {			"name": "x", "type": "ordinal", "range": "width", "zero": false, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "x" }		},		{			"name": "y", "type": "linear", "range": "height", "nice": true, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "y" }		}	],	"axes": [ {			"type": "x", "scale": "x" },		{			"type": "y", "scale": "y" }	],	"marks": [ {			"type": "rect", "from": { "data": "table" },			"properties": { "enter": { "x": { "scale": "x", "field": "x" },					"y": { "scale": "y", "field": "y" },					"y2": { "scale": "y", "value": 0 },					"fill": { "value": "steelblue" },					"width": { "scale": "x", "band": "true", "offset": -1 }				}			}		}	] }

The exploitation of the North Sea gas reserves, entailing landing gas at Easington, Bacton and St Fergus made viable the building of a national distribution grid, of over 3000 mi, consisting of two parallel and interconnected pipelines running the length of the country. This became the National Transmission System. All gas equipment in Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland) was converted (by the fitting of different-sized burner jets to give the correct gas/air mixture) from town gas to natural gas (mainly methane) over the period from 1967 to 1977 at a cost of about £100 million, including writing off redundant town gas manufacturing plants. All the gas-using equipment of almost thirteen million domestic, four hundred thousand commercial, and sixty thousand industrial customers were converted. Many dangerous appliances were discovered in this exercise and were taken out of service.

The UK town gas industry ended in 1987 when operations ceased at the last town gas manufacturing plants in Northern Ireland (Belfast, Portadown and Carrickfergus; Carrickfergus gas works is now a restored gasworks museum). The Portadown site has been cleared and is now the subject of a long-term experiment into the use of bacteria for the purpose of cleaning up contaminated industrial land.

As well as requiring little processing before use, natural gas is non-toxic; the carbon monoxide (CO) in town gas made it extremely poisonous, accidental poisoning and suicide by gas being commonplace. Poisoning from natural gas appliances is only due to incomplete combustion, which creates CO, and flue leaks to living accommodation. As with town gas, a small amount of foul-smelling substance (mercaptan) is added to the gas to indicate to the user that there is a leak or an unlit burner, the gas having no odour of its own.

The organisation of the British gas industry adapted to these changes, first, by the Gas Act 1965 by empowering the Gas Council to acquire and supply gas to the twelve area gas boards. Then, the Gas Act 1972 formed the British Gas Corporation as a single commercial entity, embracing all the twelve area gas boards, allowing them to acquire, distribute and market gas and gas appliances to industrial commercial and domestic customers throughout the UK. In 1986, British Gas was privatised and the government no longer has any direct control over it.

During the era of North Sea gas, many of the original cast iron gas pipes installed in towns and cities for town gas were replaced by plastic.

As reported in the DTI Energy Review 'Our Energy Challenge' January 2006 North Sea gas resources have been depleted at a faster rate than had been anticipated and gas supplies for the UK are being sought from remote sources, a strategy made possible by developments in the technologies of pipelaying that enable the transmission of gas over land and under sea across and between continents. Natural gas is now a world commodity. Such sources of supply are exposed to all the risks of any import.

In popular culture
Monty Python parodied the conversion from coal to North Sea gas, and the jumping through hoops some encountered, in their "New Cooker Sketch," as part of the episode that began its second series in 1970.

Coal gas was used to power several historic balloon ascents in the 19th century (see The Aeronauts).

Gas production in Germany
In many ways, Germany took the lead in coal gas research and carbon chemistry. With the labours of August Wilhelm von Hofmann, the whole German chemical industry emerged. Using the coal gas waste as feedstock, researchers developed new processes and synthesized natural organic compounds such as Vitamin C and aspirin.

The German economy relied on coal gas during the Second World War as petroleum shortages forced Nazi Germany to develop the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis to produce synthetic fuel for aircraft and tanks.

Issues in gas processing

 * Tar aerosols (tar extractors, condensers/scrubbers, Electrostatic precipitators in 1912)
 * Light oil vapors (oil washing)
 * Naphthalene (oil/tar washing)
 * Ammonia gas (scrubbers)
 * Hydrogen sulfide gas (purifier boxes)
 * Hydrogen cyanide gas (purifier)

WWI-interwar era developments

 * Loss of high-quality gas oil (used as motor fuel) and feed coke (diverted for steelmaking) leads to massive tar problems. CWG (carburetted water gas) tar is less valuable than coal gasification tar as a feed stock. Tar-water emulsions are uneconomical to process due to unsellable water and lower quality by products.
 * CWG tar is full of lighter polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, good for making pitch, but poor in chemical precursors.

 * Various "back-run" procedures for CWG generation lower fuel consumption and help deal with issues from the use of bituminous coal in CWG sets.
 * Development of high-pressure pipeline welding encourages the creation of large municipal gas plants and the consolidation of the MG industry. Sets the stage for rise of natural gas.
 * Electric lighting replaces gaslight. MG industry peak is sometime in the mid-1920s.
 * 1936 or so. Development of Lurgi gasifier. Germans continue work on gasification/synfuels due to oil shortages.
 * The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, in the US, forces break up of integrated coke and gas companies in the United States.
 * Fischer–Tropsch process for synthesis of liquid fuels from / gas.
 * Haber-Bosch ammonia process creates a large demand for industrial hydrogen.

Post WWII: the decline of manufactured gas

 * Development of natural gas industry. Natural gas has an energy content of 37 MJ/m3, compared to the 10-20 MJ/m3 of town gas.
 * Petrochemicals kill much of the value of coal tar as a source of chemical feed stocks. (BTX, Phenols, Pitch)
 * Decline in creosote use for wood preserving.
 * Direct coal/natural gas injection reduces demand for metallurgical coke. 25 to 40% less coke is needed in blast furnaces.
 * BOF and EAF processes obsolete cupola furnaces. Reduce need for coke in recycling steel scrap. Less need for fresh steel/iron.
 * Cast iron & steel are replaced with aluminum and plastics.
 * Phthalic anhydride production shifts from catalytic oxidation of naphthalene to the o-xylol process.

Post WWII positive developments

 * Catalytic upgrading of gas by use of hydrogen to react with tarry vapours in the gas
 * The decline of coke making in the US leads to a coal tar crisis since coal tar pitch is vital for the production of carbon electrodes for EAF/aluminium. US now has to import coal tar from China
 * Development of process to make methanol via hydrogenation of CO/H2 mixtures.
 * Mobil M-gas process for making petrol from methanol
 * SASOL coal process plant in South Africa.
 * Direct hydrogenation of coal into liquid and gaseous fuels
 * Dankuni Coal Complex is the only plant in India that is producing coal gas (town gas) in Kolkata using the Continuous Vertical Retort Technology of Babcock-Woodall Duckham (UK), constructed on the recommendation of GoI's Fuel Policy Committee of 1974 after the crippling 1973 Oil Crisis. The plant uses a modified low temperature carbonisation to produce the town gas and soft coke. The plant in the 1990s produced various chemicals like xylenol, cresol and phenol.

By-products
The by-products of coal gas manufacture included coke, coal tar, sulfur and ammonia and these were all useful products. Dyes, medicines such as sulfa drugs, saccharine, and dozens of organic compounds are made from coal tar.

The coal used, and the town gas and by-products produced, by the major three gas companies of London are summarised in the table.

Coke
Coke is used as a smokeless fuel and for the manufacture of water gas and producer gas.

Coal tar
Coal tar was subjected to fractional distillation to recover various products, including

 * tar, for roads
 * benzole, a motor fuel
 * creosote, a wood preservative
 * phenol, used in the manufacture of plastics
 * cresols, disinfectants

Sulfur
Used in the manufacture of sulfuric acid

Ammonia
Used in the manufacture of fertilisers

Structure of the UK coal gas industry
Coal gas was initially manufactured by independent companies but in the United Kingdom many of these later became municipal services. In 1948 there was a total of 1,062 gas undertakings. Both the private companies, about two-thirds of the total, and the municipal gas undertakings, about one-third, were nationalised under the Gas Act 1948. Further restructuring took place under the Gas Act 1972. For further details see British Gas plc.

Apart from in the steel industry's coke ovens' by-products plants, coal gas is no longer made in the UK. It was replaced first by gas made from oil and later by natural gas from the North Sea.

title: Coal gas


text:
Talk:Monica Zetterlund

Untitled
Zetterlund, Monica, f. Nilsson 1937, sångerska, revyartist och skådespelerska. Efter engagemang hos bl.a. Ib Glindeman (f. 1934) i Köpenhamn och Arne Domnérus på Nalen i Stockholm slog Z. igenom med LP-debuten Swedish Sensation (1958). Hon har sedan dess, i album som Waltz For Debby (1964) i samarbete med Bill Evans trio och Hej Man (1975) varit stilbildande jazzsångerska med unik frasering och röstklang samt ett drag av svensk folkviseton. Hon har en övertygande förmåga att levandegöra texter i låtar som "Sakta vi gå genom stan" (1961, text Beppe Wolgers), "I valet och kvalet" (1971, text Fröding), "Men tiden går" (1973, text Hasseåtage) och "Siv och Gunne" (1975, text Olle Adolphson). Sedan 1970-talet har Z. ofta framträtt med Lasse Bagges trio. Med "Gröna Hund" (1962) inledde hon en karriär som bejublad revyartist i flera av Hasseåtages uppsättningar samt i "På avigan" (1965) m.fl. av Povel Ramel. Z. har medverkat i ett tiotal filmer, från Hasseåtages "Att angöra en brygga" (1965) och "Äppelkriget" (1971) till dramatiska roller i t.ex. Jan Troells "Utvandrarna" (1971) och "Nybyggarna" (1972) samt Torgny Anderbergs "Rännstensungar" (1974). År 1992 utkom memoarboken Hågkomster ur ett dåligt minne och 1995 den omfattande CD-samlingen Ett lingonris som satts i cocktailglas. Gift med Sture Åkerberg 1974-83.

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text:
Jean Van Hamme

Jean Van Hamme (born 16 January 1939) is a Belgian novelist and comic book writer. He has written scripts for a number of Belgian/French comic series, including Histoire sans héros, Thorgal, XIII and Largo Winch.

Early years
After studying business administration at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, he worked as a journalist and in the marketing department of Philips. In the meantime, he started writing, and one of his first scripts was adapted by Paul Cuvelier in 1968. This erotic comic named Epoxy was published by the controversial publisher Éric Losfeld, who prior to that also had published similarly themed comics like Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella and Robert Gigi's Scarlett Dream. In 1976, Van Hamme became a full-time writer, and in the next few years he published seven novels and some movie scripts, e.g. for Diva.

Thorgal, XIII and Largo Winch
Van Hamme's main breakthrough came in 1977, when he created the Viking hero Thorgal for Grzegorz Rosiński, a relatively unknown Polish comic artist. The mix of medieval legends and heroic fantasy soon became a huge success in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin. The duo won major awards in the French and Belgian comic book industry.

In the next decade, Jean Van Hamme created two new bestselling series, XIII with William Vance and Largo Winch (based on his own novels) with Philippe Francq. Other series like Les maîtres de l'orge (lit. "The Masters of Barley") and Chninkel have received more critical acclaim but lower sales.

The fame of Van Hamme as one of the major comic authors of Europe is quite established. The artists he works with draw the characters in a realistic style, even if the stories themselves tend to verge towards fantasy.

Les maîtres de l'orge and Largo Winch have both been made into TV series, and XIII, Thorgal, and Largo Winch have been adapted into video games.

Blake and Mortimer
After the death of Edgar Pierre Jacobs, the last unfinished Blake and Mortimer story was finished by Bob de Moor, and Van Hamme was approached by the publisher to write new stories. The first one, The Francis Blake Affair, appeared in 1996 and was a huge success, and Van Hamme has since created two more Blake and Mortimer stories.

In 2002, Jean Van Hamme announced his intention to write fewer comics, and to concentrate more on theatre and film scripts, but seems to have changed his mind again and has since created two new stories. In 2006, he ended his run on Thorgal with album 29, Le Sacrifice. He has also announced his intention to create a spin-off series of Thorgal, focusing on his son Jolan. In fact, a new duo, Grzegorz Rosinski and Yves Sente continued the series with four more albums (#30 to #33) which constitute the "Jolan Cycle".

Van Hamme is one of the best selling European comics writers, with many of his series in the comics bestseller lists each year. In 2006, Van Hamme's final volume of Thorgal placed fifth in the French list with 280,000 copies published, while Lady S., with Philippe Aymond, had 90,000 copies. In 2005, XIII and Largo Winch shared the fourth place with 500,000 copies each. In 2010, he was the second-bestselling author of comics in France, after Christophe Arleston but before Albert Uderzo and Hergé, with 1.05 million copies sold.

Awards

 * 1978: Best Story at the Prix Saint-Michel, Belgium
 * 1980: Best Story at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * 1983: Best Comic at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * 1989: Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, France
 * – nominated for Best Long Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards, Spain

 * 1990: Best Script at the Haxtur Awards
 * – nominated for Best Long Comic Strip and Best Short Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards

 * 1991: nominated for Best Short Comic Strip and Best Script at the Haxtur Awards
 * 1992: nominated for Best Long Comic Strip and Best Script at the Haxtur Awards
 * 1993: France Info Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
 * – nominated for Best Long Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards

 * 1994: Best International Writer at the Max & Moritz Prizes, Germany
 * – nominated for Best Script at the Haxtur Awards

 * 1996: Best Long Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards
 * – nominated for Best Script at the Haxtur Awards

 * 1997: Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
 * 2003: nominated thrice for the Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
 * 2004: nominated for Best Long Comic Strip, Best Short Comic Strip and Best Script at the Haxtur Awards
 * 2005: nominated for Best Short Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards
 * – nominated for the Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival

 * 2006: nominated for the Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
 * – nominated for the Grand Prix Saint-Michel and for Best Comic (Dutch language) at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * – nominated for Favourite European Comic at the Eagle Awards, United Kingdom

 * 2007: nominated for the Grand Prix Saint-Michel and for Best Story at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * 2008: nominated for the Grand Prix Saint-Michel at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * 2009: Grand Prix Saint-Michel
 * 2010: nominated for Best Dutch Language Comic at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * 2011: Commandeur in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (the highest of the three ranks for that Order)

title: Jean Van Hamme


text:
Thorgal

Thorgal is a fantasy adventure series created in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD) tradition by Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński. Debuting in 1977, it has incorporated elements of Norse mythology, the legend of Atlantis as well as science fiction and horror.

In 2002, it was adapted as an adventure video game, Thorgal: Curse of Atlantis, by Cryo Interactive Entertainment.

Development
The comic first appeared in serial form in Tintin magazine in 1977, with the story La Magicienne Trahie. Originally a stand-alone 30-page project, its early success encouraged turning it into a longer series.

It has subsequently been published in hardcover volumes by Le Lombard from 1980 on. Translations have appeared in among others, English, Dutch, German, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Tamil and Greek.

Covers for all comic books, or rather comic albums c.q. BDs (in North-American understanding though, "graphic novel" is the more applicable terminology in this case, particularly where the physical properties of the book format are concerned, the distinction being otherwise a non-issue in native Francophone Europe) are drawn by Rosiński, even for the spin-off albums which sometimes are drawn by other artists.

Reception and significance
Thorgal is critically acclaimed and one of the most popular French language BDs, with more than 11 million Thorgal books in print. There are currently three ongoing successful spin-off series, in addition to the continuation of the main Thorgal series.

It has been called the most popular series published by Le Lombard.

D. Aviva Rothschild in his 1995 book Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-length Comics praised the series, stating that it is "better than an American swords-and-sorcery comic" when it comes to both art and stories. Commenting on The Archers volume, Rothschild described it as "one of the finest pieces of heroic fantasy I have ever set my eyes on".

The series has also been credited with popularizing the BD in Poland.

Main characters

 * Thorgal Aegirsson: Son of Varth and Haynee, grandson of Xargos – a captain of a spaceship on a way to Earth in search of energy. He is raised by Vikings after his ship crash-lands. He possesses character traits and morality that many Vikings consider a sign of weakness. Thorgal is still a courageous and skillful warrior and an archer of phenomenal skill. His life's goal is to find a place for his family to live in peace. For a time, he is stripped of his memory, and becomes the pirate lord Shaigan, though his compassion remained unaltered.
 * Aaricia: Thorgal's wife and the daughter of Gandalf the Mad, a Viking leader. She is bound to Thorgal from the moment of her birth by a magic object named Tjahzi's Tears. Aaricia is a spirited and strong-willed woman, who loves her family dearly despite all the mishaps Thorgal's fate brings to their lives.
 * Jolan: Thorgal's son. He possesses supernatural powers as the heritage of Thorgal's mysterious ancestry. For most of the series his power is limited to molecular agitation (usually the ability to disintegrate objects). He gradually learns to hone his ability.
 * Louve: Thorgal and Aaricia's daughter, who has the ability to communicate with animals.
 * Kriss of Valnor: A young, beautiful, unscrupulous and deadly warrior, and also a skilled archer. She first appears in Les Archers, and then intermittently in the following stories. She is in some ways Thorgal's greatest nemesis, and repeatedly tries to hurt him and his family, but occasionally shows hints of admiration and even secret love for Thorgal. When Thorgal loses his memory, she tricks him into believing that they are married, and convinces Thorgal that he is the ruthless pirate lord Shaigan.  She becomes pregnant with his son Aniel, whom her father Kahaniel of Valnor wished to reincarnate himself, but Thorgal eventually regains his memory and leaves to find his true family. Later, she ends up as a slave in Byzantium and apparently sacrifices her life to help Thorgal's family escape from the same slave pits, but is later revealed to be alive and queen in the northern lands.
 * Aniel: the young son of Thorgal and Kriss of Valnor, conceived while Thorgal lived as the pirate lord Shaigan. He and his mother fall prey to Byzantian slavers, and his vocal cords are cut to forestall crying, leaving him mute. Later, Kriss and Aniel escape the slave pits with Aaricia, Jolan and Louve, who had also been brought there. When Kriss is wounded by her pursuers and prepared to make her last stand, she asks Aaricia to take care of Aniel. Aaricia agrees and takes Aniel in as one of her own children. Aniel is later kidnapped to serve as a host body for Kahlim, grand master of the Red Mages of the oriental city of Bag Dadh (Le Feu écarlate). With the help of Armenos the Mage, both Kahaniel and Kahlim are exorcised from him, but having become hateful of Thorgal, he leaves with his mother.

Other characters

 * Ogotai (also known as Varth): the war-loving, merciless "god" brought by the sea into the land of Qâ (a presumably South American pre-Columbian civilization). He leads his people into countless conquests of the neighboring tribes and orders endless human sacrifices to himself. He has superior intelligence, knowledge of highly advanced technology, and supernatural powers, which he uses to trick people into believing he is a true god.  In reality, he is a grief-stricken, crazed man, driven by the vengeance against the planet he believes responsible for the death of his beloved wife and son.
 * Tanatloc (also known as Xargos): another "god" living in the land of Qâ. He is the nemesis of Ogotai, with whom he shares a secret past. He is kept hidden from his people.
 * Darek and Lehla: brother and sister children of banished Vikings who met Aaricia and her family after they had been banished from their village following Shaigan's raids against their people. They joined Thorgal and his family on their journey, but after a few adventures they decided to stay behind on an island Thorgal and Louve had just liberated from a tyrant (Arachneà). However, Lehla later turns up a slave in the northern lands, where she is liberated by Thorgal and taken along for his search for Aniel (Le bateau-sabre). They later recover Darek from slavery in the jungle kingdom of Zhari (Aniel), and they subsequently join Thorgal's extended family.
 * The Key Guardian: a powerful magician, who is (or maybe just assumes the form of) a beautiful woman. The gods have entrusted her with the task of guarding the passages between worlds. She walks between the worlds, wearing nothing but a golden girdle that grants her powers and immortality. She has (like many other female characters appearing in the series) a crush on Thorgal, but she respects his loyalty to his family. Because of her love, she is eventually dismissed as a Guardian, cast out into the mortal world, and adopts the name Cleo (Louve #6: "La Reine des Alfes noirs").
 * Tjall (called by some people Tjall-The-Fiery): the young, hot-headed nephew of Treefoot and friend of Thorgal. An excellent archer with a good heart and a silly mind, who has a crush on Kriss. He later dies while accompanying Thorgal to the City of the Lost God (La Cité du Dieu Perdu), saving him from a raging mob.
 * Argun Treefoot: He's uncle of Tjall. He's a warrior past his prime and with a pegleg, but still an exceptional archer and bowmaker. One of Thorgal's few friends.
 * Solveig: she is a Viking who is the best friend of Aaricia. Devoted friend she will help the family Aegirsson.
 * Shaniah: a teenage girl from a village enamored in the adult and married Thorgal. Out of jealousy she causes a great tragedy in Thorgal's life, but later redeems herself by giving her own life to save Aaricia.
 * Gandalf the Mad: Aaricia's father and king of the Vikings of the North. He became the leader of his tribe after Thorgal's adoptive father's death. Greedy, cruel and mad, he makes repeated attempts at Thorgal's life, whom he perceives a threat to the legitimacy of his own rule.
 * Tiago and Ileniya: brother and sister descendants of a group of space-farers who had landed on Midgard and formed the fabled kingdom of Atlantis. They foiled their elders' plan to enslave the world and travelled together with Thorgal and his family. Soon afterwards, however, they were all taken as slaves to a Byzantinian governor and his sadistic son Heraclius, who made Ilyena his personal 'pet". When Tiago tried to stop Heraclius from abusing his sister, the nobleman murdered him; in revenge, Ileniya killed Heraclius later on and, facing imminent death, joined her brother by throwing herself off a cliff.
 * Snake Nidhogg: a powerful, mythological monster creature, which Thorgal dared to go against in his youth with the help of the goddess Frigg. Based on Níðhöggr from Norse mythology.
 * Volsung of Nichor: A cunning, treacherous schemer. He first appears as Thorgal's competitor in Three Elders of Aran, but apparently dies in the tests they have to face. Actually, Nidhogg saves him to be her servant; his mission is to gain the Girdle of Immortality from the Guardian of the Keys. For betraying her, she transforms Volsung into a toad and keeps him with her trapped in the neverness.
 * Muff: A dog that belongs to Jolan & Louve. He appears for the last time in "The Blue Sickness", when he stayed on the island of Our Ground, together with Darek de Svear and his sister Lehla, because he was too old to travel any further.
 * Alinoë: Appeared in the volume of the same name as a violent, primitive boy with green hair, later revealed to be part of Jolan's imagination. He vanished when Jolan's mysterious bracelet was removed by Thorgal.
 * Manthor: a Viking Half-God who cures Thorgal in "Sacrifice". He is the son of Kahaniel of Valnor and the half-brother of Kriss of Valnor.
 * Vigrid: One of the lesser Gods of Asgard who is indebted towards Aaricia for having helped him after having gone blind. He repays this debt by helping her husband reach Manthor and bringing her back to her ancestral home. However, his love for Aaricia eventually made him abandon a task set by the gods, compelling Frigg to banish him from Asgard to Svartalfheim (Louve #5: "Skald"). However, he finally earns his eventual pardon by taking the recalcitrant Niddhog's destined place as the guardian of Yggdrasil (Louve #7: "Niddhog").
 * The Kingdom of Zhar (first featured in Le Mal Bleu)
 * Zarkaj and Zajkar: The twin princes of Zhar. To avoid dynastic disputes, Zajkar was chosen to be killed right after birth, but survived and was taken in by the Myrms. After growing to manhood, and with Thorgal's help, he reclaims his rightful place and reconciles with his brother, with whom he rules the realm as a diarchy.
 * Armenos: A reclusive mage and inventor. He first saves Thorgal and his family from the Blue Death disease, and later Aniel from his dual possession (Aniel).
 * Zim: A member of the Myrms, Zharians afflicted with dwarfism and made outcast swamp-dwellers. Zim falls in love with Thorgal upon his first visit, but respects his faithfulness to his family. When Thorgal returns to Zhar after completing his search for Aniel, Zim loses her life in the last decisive battle against a horde of Amazons.
 * Gilli and Ava: The children of Grimur from the village of Mikladalur, a henchman of the sysselmann of Kalsoy. While Gilli is a normal human boy, Ava is half selkie, the result of Grimur having captured himself one of the seal-folk as his wife. When Grimur kidnapped Louve to rear her as a new wife, Thorgar and Jolan went to her rescue, which set off a chain of events which lifted a curse bestowed on the islanders by the selkies; Grimur is killed in an uprising against the tyrannical sysselmann, while Ava's mother recovers her pelt and returns into the sea. With their parents gone, the two children are taken in as part of Thorgal's family (La selkie).

Fictional character biography
After of being lost at sea, the ship of Viking leader Leif Haraldson suddenly finds its way home, guided by a mysterious light in the fog. To the superstitious Vikings, the light is seen as a sign from the gods. Once on shore, they find a sort of capsule, which appears to be the source of the mysterious light. Leif opens the capsule and finds a newborn baby boy. He names the child Thor-gal Aegirs-son, after Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, and Aegir, the ruler of the sea, because he considers Thorgal to be a gift from the Gods. Leif takes Thorgal under his care as his adoptive son.

As Thorgal grows up, he is curious about his origins and often ostracized by his peers for not being a "real" Viking. On his sixth birthday, Leif gives him two strange artifacts taken from the capsule he was found in. One is a jewel made from "the metal that doesn't exist". The jewel brings Thorgal on his first adventure, and binds his fate forever with that of Aaricia (his future wife). When Thorgal is twelve, the other gift prompts him to visit an old wiseman, who reveals to Thorgal his origins and true identity. He tells him that he's one of the last survivors of a group of technologically advanced space-farers who came to the planet in search of new energy sources. His people have great supernatural powers like changing the molecular composition of matter with their mind; powers that Thorgal himself seems not to have. Thorgal learns about his real parents and grandfather, and the events that preceded his birth. The old man decides to erase Thorgal's memory of their encounter and the knowledge he just learned, believing that it will be better for Thorgal to grow up as a "normal" Viking boy with no supernatural powers. Thorgal, however, continues to grow up as curious and conflicted about his true identity as ever.

Soon after this event Leif Haraldson dies and Gandalf the Mad is chosen as his successor. Gandalf repeatedly tries to get rid of Thorgal, because -– as he constantly reminds everyone – Thorgal is an outsider and not of Viking blood. In reality, Gandalf feels threatened because Thorgal is Leif's heir. In the meantime, Thorgal's relationship with Aaricia, Gandalf's daughter, develops and strengthens. While her wishes do not have much influence on her father, she is able to save Thorgal from certain death (by her father's hand) through her determination and ingenuity.

The first album of the series starts some years later, when Thorgal is already an adult, and Gandalf devises a plan to kill him after realizing how deep the love his daughter has for Thorgal really is.

Collected French language editions
The albums consist of several story arcs and many stand-alone stories.

Mainline series
Jean Van Hamme (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (art)

Le Lombard editions:

 * 1. La Magicienne Trahie (1980) - (ISBN 2-8036-0358-6)
 * 2. L'Ile des Mers gelées (1980) - (ISBN 2-8036-0359-4)
 * 3. Les Trois Vieillards du pays d'Aran (1981) - (ISBN 2-8036-0001-3)
 * 4. La Galère Noire (1982) (start of the Brek Zarith story arc) - (ISBN 2-8036-0026-9)
 * 5. Au-delà des Ombres (1983) - (ISBN 2-8036-0407-8)
 * 6. La chute de Brek Zarith (1984) (end of the Brek Zarith story arc) - (ISBN 2-8036-0451-5)
 * 7. L'enfant des étoiles (1984) (3 short stories from Thorgal's youth) - (ISBN 2-8036-0448-5)
 * 8. Alinoë (1985) - (ISBN 2-8036-0482-5)
 * 9. Les Archers (1986) - (ISBN 2-8036-0515-5)
 * 10. Le Pays Qâ (1986) (start of the Qâ story arc) - (ISBN 2-8036-0549-X)
 * 11. Les Yeux de Tanatloc (1986) - (ISBN 2-8036-0576-7)
 * 12. La Cité du Dieu Perdu (1987) - (ISBN 2-8036-0639-9)
 * 13. Entre Terre et Lumière (1988) (end of the Qâ story arc) - (ISBN 2-8036-0713-1)
 * 14. Aaricia (1989) (4 short stories from Aaricia's youth) - (ISBN 978-2-8036-0745-7)
 * 15. Le Maître des Montagnes (1989) - (ISBN 2-8036-0754-9)
 * 16. Louve (1990) - (ISBN 2-8036-0845-6)
 * 17. La Gardienne des Clés (1991) - (ISBN 2-8036-0932-0)
 * 18. L'épée-soleil (1992) - (ISBN 2-8036-0988-6)
 * 19. La Forteresse Invisible (1993) (start of the Shaigan story arc) - (ISBN 2-8036-1052-3)
 * 20. La Marque des Bannis (1994) - (ISBN 2-8036-1101-5)
 * 21. La Couronne d'Ogotaï (1995) - (ISBN 2-8036-1161-9)
 * 22. Géants (1996) - (ISBN 2-8036-1220-8)
 * 23. La Cage (1997) (end of the Shaigan story arc) - (ISBN 2-8036-1275-5)
 * 24. Arachnéa (1999) - (ISBN 2-8036-1362-X)
 * 25. Le Mal Bleu - (1999) - (ISBN 2-8036-1414-6)
 * 26. Le Royaume sous le Sable (2001) - (ISBN 2-8036-1665-3)
 * 27. Le Barbare (2002) - (ISBN 2-80361-775-7)
 * 28. Kriss de Valnor (2004) - (ISBN 2-8036-2003-0)
 * 29. Le Sacrifice (2006) - (ISBN 2-8036-2198-3)

Notes

The 29th volume, The Sacrifice, was the final volume scripted by Jean Van Hamme. Here, Thorgal escapes the curse of Odin. He finds peace in the only home he knows: the Viking village of his adopted father, but then must make a choice.

Danish translation of the series appeared in a different order, beginning with the chronicles of Thorgal's youth. The first album in the series La Magicienne Trahie is number 22 in the Danish series.

In Denmark numbers 22-23 (#1-2) were first published by the publisher Interpresse under the name "Cormak", probably to capitalize upon the popular series Conan. The name was soon changed back to "Thorgal" when Carlsen Comics took over the series.

Yves Sente (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (art) Notes
 * 30. Moi, Jolan (2007)
 * 31. Le bouclier de Thor (2008)
 * 32. La bataille d'Asgard (2010)
 * 33. Le bateau-sabre (2011)
 * 34. Kah-Aniel (2013)

Following the 29th volume, the series was written by Yves Sente. These albums initially focussed on Jolan rather than Thorgal.

Xavier Dorison (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (art) Yann (story) and Grzegorz Rosinski (art) Yann (story) and Fred Vignaux (art)
 * 35. Le Feu écarlate (2016)
 * 36. Aniel (2018)
 * 37. L'Ermite de Skellingar (2019)
 * 38. La Selkie (2020)
 * 39. Neokóra (2021)
 * 40. Tupilaks (2022)

Les Mondes de Thorgal - Kriss de Valnor ("The Worlds of Thorgal – Kriss of Valnor")
Yves Sente (story) and Giulio De Vita (art) Xavier Dorison and Mathieu Mariolle (story) and Roman Surzhenko (art) Xavier Dorison and Mathieu Mariolle (story) and Fred Vignaux (art)
 * 1. Je n'oublie rien! (I Forget Nothing!, 2010)
 * 2. La sentence des Walkyries (The Valkyries' Judgement, 2012)
 * 3. Digne d'une reine (Worthy of a Queen, 2012)
 * 4. Alliances (Alliances, 2013)
 * 5. Rouge comme le Raheborg (Red as the Raheborg, 2014)
 * 6. L'Île des enfants perdus (The Island of Lost Children, 2015)
 * 7. La Montagne du temps (The Mountain of Time, 2017)
 * 8. Le Maître de justice (The Master of Justice, 2018)

Spin-off Les Mondes de Thorgal - Louve (Thorgal - Wolf)
Yann Le Pennetier (story) and Roman Surzhenko (art)
 * 1. Raïssa (Raissa, 2011)
 * 2. La Main coupée du dieu Tyr (The Severed Hand of the God Tyr, 2012)
 * 3. Le Royaume du chaos (The Realm of Chaos, 2013)
 * 4. Crow (Crow, 2014)
 * 5. Skald (Skald, 2015)
 * 6. La Reine des Alfes noirs (The Queen of the Dark Elves, 2016)
 * 7. Nidhogg (Nidhogg, 2017)

Spin-off Les Mondes de Thorgal - La Jeunesse de Thorgal (Thorgal - The Youth of Thorgal)
Yann Le Pennetier (story) and Roman Surzhenko (art)
 * 1. Les Trois Sœurs Minkelsönn (The Three Minkelsönn Sisters, 2013)
 * 2. L'Œil d'Odin (Odin's Eye, 2014)
 * 3. Runa (Runa, 2015)
 * 4. Berserkers (Berserkers, 2016)
 * 5. Slive (Slivia, 2017)
 * 6. Le Drakkar des glaces (The Frozen Drakkar, 2018)
 * 7. La dent bleue (2019)
 * 8. Les deux bâtards (2020)
 * 9. Les larmes de Hel (2021)
 * 10. Sydönia (2022)

Thorgal Saga homage series
In this series, started in 2023, other writers and artists create a separate story set in the Thorgal universe but outside the canonical series, and without the 48-page constraint the regular albums had, occasionally even exceeding the 100-page count.

 * 1. Adieu Aaricia (Robin Recht, 2023, ISBN 9782803679065)
 * 2. Wendigo (Fred Duval & Corentin Rouge, 2024, ISBN 9782808213172)
 * 3. Shaïgan (Yann & Surzhenko, 2024, ISBN 9782808202923)

Supplementary print publications
Source:
 * Multimedia releases by publisher Seven Sept; concerns background information books elaborating on historical settings and characters of the Thorgal series, enhanced with artwork by Rosinski, interviews, and an included DVD showing the artist at work on the covers of the releases
 * Entre les faux dieux ("Amidst false gods", ISBN 295207528X, 2005) - dealing with The Land of Qa story-cycle
 * Dans les griffes de Kriss ("In the talons of Kriss", ISBN 2916394079, 2006) - dealing with the Kriss of Valnor story-cycle
 * Aux Origines des mondes ("Thorgal: Origins of worlds", ISBN 9782803631933, 2012) - a collection of interviews about the creation of spin-off Thorgal series, interviews by Patrick Gaumer with Grzegorz Rosiński, Giuliano de Vita, Yves Sente, Roman Surzhenko and Yann Le Pennetier.
 * Rosinski artbook - Thorgal 40 ans ("Rosinski artbook - 40 years of Thorgal", ISBN 9782803670901, 2017) - a 224-page art book that also features other Rosinski's BD artwork besides Thorgal alone.

English releases
All English-language Thorgal album releases have to date adhered to the approximately standard European BD A4-format, a book format US and UK readerships have historically not been accustomed to, they instead being born and bred with the much smaller, standard US comic book format. The closest format resembling the European one, US and UK readership are traditionally familiar with, is that of the US graphic novel format, though it too is somewhat smaller.

Donning Company Publishers (US) had the earliest three English-language titles published in the 1980s
 * 1) Thorgal, Child of the Stars hardcover was published in 1986 with ISBN 0-89865-501-3
 * 2) The Archers hardcover was published in 1987 with ISBN 0-96178-850-X (a softcover version was a year later published under the company's "Schiffer Pub" imprint with ISBN 0-96178-852-6
 * 3) The Sorceress Betrayed a 96 page softcover omnibus collecting the series' first two volumes La Magicienne Trahie and L'Ile des Mers gelées, was published in 1988 with ISBN 0-96178-851-8 under the company's "Ink Publishing Company" imprint

Cinebook Ltd (UK) released the English-language (main) series up until volume 24 in the softcover print format starting with Child of the Stars and Aaricia in 2007. Europe Comics, partnered with Cinebook along with other publishers, took over the English language publications following their formation in 2015 and released the main series (including rereleases of older titles) plus the spin-off series in digital format only. They started in 2019 with the digital release of the main series, starting with volume 21 which was as the only one released under the same ISBN for both formats. With volume 22 digital releases had from 2020 onward overtaken Cinebook's print releases, which from then on was lagging far behind with their print releases, aside from the circumstance that Cinebook did none of the spin-off series.

Mainline series

 * Note: Where two ISBNs are mentioned, the first one concerns the digital release whereas the second one concerns the print release by Cinebook.
 * 0. The Betrayed Sorceress (ISBN 9781849184434) - Collects La Magicienne Trahie and L'Ile des Mers gelées [1 and 2])

 * 1) Child of the Stars (ISBN 9781905460236) - (collects Child of the Stars and Aaricia [7 and 14])
 * 2) The Three Elders of Aran (ISBN 9781905460311) - (collects The Three Elders of Aran and The Black Galley [3 and 4])
 * 3) Beyond the Shadows (ISBN 9781905460458) - (collects Beyond the Shadows and The Fall of Brek Zarith [5 and 6])
 * 4) The Archers (ISBN 9781905460670) - (collects Alinoë and Les Archers [8 and 9])
 * 5) The Land of Qa (ISBN 9781905460809) - (collects Le Pays Qâ and Les Yeux de Tanatloc [10 and 11])
 * 6) City of the Lost God (ISBN 9781849180016) - (collects La Cité du Dieu Perdu and Entre Terre et Lumière [12 and 13])
 * 7) The Master of the Mountains (ISBN 9781849180238) - (contains Le Maître des Montagnes [15])
 * 8) Wolf Cub (ISBN 9781849180351) - (contains Louve [16])
 * 9) The Guardian of the Keys (ISBN 9781849180504) - (contains La Gardienne des Clés [17])
 * 10) The Sun Sword (ISBN 9781849180573) - (contains L'épée-soleil [18])
 * 11) The Invisible Fortress (ISBN 9781849181037) - (contains La Forteresse Invisible [19])
 * 12) The Brand of the Exiles (ISBN 9781849181365) - (contains La Marque des Bannis [20])
 * 13) Ogotai's Crown (ISBN 9781849181426) - (contains La Couronne d'Ogotaï [21])
 * 14) Giants (ISBN 9781849181563) - (Contains Géants [22])
 * 15) The Cage (ISBN 9781849181860) - (Contains La Cage [23])
 * 16) Arachnea (ISBN 9781849182478) - (Contains Arachnéa [24])
 * 17) The Blue Plague (ISBN 9781849182904) - (Contains The Blue Plague [25])
 * 18) The Kingdom Beneath the Sand (ISBN 9781849183451) - (Contains The Kingdom Beneath the Sand [26])
 * 19) The Barbarian (ISBN 9781849183994) - (Contains The Barbarian [27])
 * 20) Kriss of Valnor (ISBN 9781849184229) - (Contains Kriss de Valnor [28])
 * 21) The Sacrifice (ISBN 9781849184267) - (Contains Le Sacrifice [29])
 * 22) I, Jolan (ISBN 9791032807309) - (Contains Moi, Jolan [30])
 * 23) Thor's Shield (ISBN 9791032807835) - (Contains Le Bouclier de Thor [31])
 * 24) The Battle of Asgard (ISBN 9791032809181 - (Contains La Bataille D'Asgard [32])
 * 25) The Blade Ship - (Contains Le Bateau Sabre [33])
 * 26) Kah-Aniel - (Contains Kah-Aniel [34])
 * 27) The Scarlet Fire - (Contains Le Feu écarlate [35])
 * 28) Aniel - (Contains Aniel [36])
 * 29) The Hermit of Skellingar - (Contains L'Ermite de Skellingar [37])
 * 30) The Selkie - (Contains La Selkie [38])
 * 31) Neokora - (Contains Neokóra [39])
 * 32) Tupilaqs - (Contains Tupilaks [40])

Kriss of Valnor

 * 1) I Forget Nothing! - (Contains Je n'oublie rien!)
 * 2) The Valkyries' Judgement - (Contains La sentence des Walkyries)
 * 3) Worthy of a Queen - (Contains Digne d'une reine)
 * 4) Alliances - (Contains Alliances)
 * 5) Red as a Raheborg - (Contains Rouge comme le Raheborg)
 * 6) The Island of Lost Children - (Contains L'Île des enfants perdus)
 * 7) The Mountain of Time - (Contains La Montagne du temps)
 * 8) The Master of Justice - (Contains Le Maître de justice)

Wolfcub

 * 1) Raissa - (Contains Raïssa)
 * 2) The Severed Hand of the God - (Contains Tyr La Main coupée du dieu Tyr)
 * 3) The Realm of Chaos - (Contains Le Royaume du chaos)
 * 4) Crow - (Contains Crow)
 * 5) Skald - (Contains Skald)
 * 6) The Queen of the Dark Elves - (Contains La Reine des Alfes noirs)
 * 7) Nidhogg - (Contains Nidhogg)

The early years

 * 1) The Three Minkelson Sisters - (Contains Les Trois Sœurs Minkelsönn)
 * 2) Odin's Eye - (Contains L'Œil d'Odin)
 * 3) Runa - (Contains Runa)
 * 4) Berserkers - (Contains Berserkers)
 * 5) Slivia - (Contains Slive)
 * 6) The Frozen Drakkar - (Contains Le Drakkar des glaces)

In other media
Source:
 * In 2002, Le Lombard published a video game for Microsoft Windows entitled Thorgal: Curse of Atlantis (La Malédiction d'Odin) and developed by Cryo Interactive Entertainment.
 * In 2016, it was announced that the BD is going to be a series directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. In 2018 von Donnersmarck said that the project is "at the top of his list".
 * An elaborate and multi-national (physical) board-game was in 2023 under development by Portal Games. A crowd funding drive was organized to finance the development of the game. The popularity of Thorgal was once again amply demonstrated when the crowd funding netted the company nearly nine times the funding goal, which was reached within one-and-a-half hour after the start of the drive. The game is set for an April 2024 release.
 * In 2024, Polish game developer Mighty Koi announced that they were developing an action-adventure video game titled Thorgal for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

title: Thorgal


text:
Diageo

Diageo plc is a British multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits. Distilleries owned by Diageo produce 40% of all Scotch whisky with over 24 brands, such as Johnnie Walker, J&B and Old Parr.

Its leading brands include Guinness, Smirnoff, Baileys liqueur, Captain Morgan rum and Tanqueray and Gordon's gin.

Diageo has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Name
Diageo is an invented name that was created by the branding consultancy Wolff Olins in 1997. The name is composed of the Latin word diēs, meaning "day", and the Greek root geo-, meaning "earth"; and is meant to reference the company slogan "Celebrating Life, Every Day, Everywhere".

Formation
Diageo was formed in 1997 from the merger of Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan. Its creation was driven by the executives Anthony Greener and Philip Yea at Guinness, along with George Bull and John McGrath of Grand Metropolitan. Anthony Greener was the first executive chairman. Shares in Diageo began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 17 December 1997.

Exit from non-core assets
As a legacy of the merger, Diageo owned a number of brands, businesses, and assets which were not in the core alcoholic drinks category. The company has gradually disposed of these assets to focus on beverages as its core business. This included the sale of the Pillsbury Company to General Mills in 2000, and the 2002 sale of the Burger King fast food restaurant chain to a consortium led by US firm Texas Pacific for US$1.5 billion

The predecessor company Grand Metropolitan had been a major owner of hotels, owning what is now Intercontinental Hotels prior to divestment before merging into Diageo, but the company still owned the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, which had hosted events including the Ryder Cup and G8 summit. In 2015 Diageo reached an agreement to sell the hotel to the Ennismore Group, already owners of The Hoxton hotels.

In November 2016, Diageo announced its intention of selling at auction Sir Edwin Landseer's iconic 1851 painting The Monarch of the Glen – which the company owned, but which has been on loan to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh since 1999 – as it has "no direct link to our business or brands", being used on the label of rival brand Glenfiddich, owned by William Grant & Sons. Following a fundraising campaign, the painting was sold to the National Galleries of Scotland for around half its assayed value of £8 million.

Divestment of beer and wine
In 2015, the company made major sales in both the beer and wine categories, selling the Red Stripe beer brand, along with interests in other breweries, and the rights to Guinness in some territories to Heineken, as well as the sale of most of its wine business to Treasury Wine Estates. The separate 2019 sale of the remaining wine brands including Navarro Correas and Chalone Vineyard saw Diageo exit the category.

Whilst Diageo did acquire South African beer producer United National Breweries (UNB) in April 2015 shortly before the Red Stripe sale was made, they divested it again in the second half of 2019.

In December 2023 it was speculated in the media that Diageo would exit from the beer market entirely, potentially including the Guinness brand, but this was denied by the company.

International expansion
The business has grown with purchases of alcohol businesses around the world, including the 2011 part-ownership and 2013 full acquisition of the Chinese baijiu manufacturer Sichuan Shuijingfang Company in China.

The company further acquired Turkish liquor company Mey Icki for US$2.1 billion in 2011, and in 2012 followed this with Brazilian cachaça manufacturer Ypióca for £300 million, and the Indian United Spirits which they acquired a majority stake for £1.28 billion.

Spirit brand acquisition and disposal
The company sold the Bombay Sapphire gin and the John Dewar & Sons, Ltd. company including Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, and Royal Brackla distilleries to Bacardi in 1997 and 1998.

In 2001, Diageo acquired the collapsed Seagram's spirits and wine businesses which included Captain Morgan and Seagram's blended whiskey. The company later disposed of the Seagram's whiskey brand, along with Myers's Rum, Popov vodka, Booth's Gin, Goldschläger, Yukon Jack, Sambuca, and 11 other brands to the Sazerac Company in November 2018 for US$550 million, but kept the Seagram's Seven Crown brand.

Diageo acquired a 50% stake in Don Julio tequila through a joint venture with owner Jose Cuervo, for which they paid US$100 million in 2003. They later obtained full ownership of the brand after agreeing to sell Bushmills Irish whiskey to Proximo Spirits, who had since acquired Jose Cuervo, in exchange for US$408 million and full ownership of the tequila brand.

Diageo formed a relationship with rapper Sean Combs in an "equal-share venture" in 2007 to promote the Cîroc vodka brand, and this led to the joint purchase of the DeLeón Tequila brand in 2013. The partnership was terminated in 2024 after a legal dispute, leaving Diageo the sole owner of both brands.

In March 2016, the company sold Grand Marnier, a cognac and bitter orange-based liqueur, to the Italian beverage company Campari Group.

In June 2017, the Casamigos tequila brand – a US-based tequila, launched in 2013 was acquired by Diageo.

In September 2022, Diageo sold Archers brand to De Kuyper Royal Distillers.

In November 2022, it was announced that Diageo would acquire Balcones Distilling, a whiskey distiller based in Texas.

In October 2023, Diageo sold Windsor Global, which owns blended Scotch brand Windsor, to private equity firm PT W Co of South Korea, sponsored by the Pine Tree Investment & Management Co.

In February 2024, a report claimed Diageo was looking to sell the brands Pimm's, Safari and Pampero Rum. Both Safari and Pampero rum were sold in July 2024.

Expansions and investments
In June 2012, Diageo announced a £1 billion investment in Scotch whisky production over the following five years, with at least one new distillery to be constructed, several existing facilities to be expanded, and overall production capacity to be increased by 30 to 40 per cent.

In December 2015, Diageo announced a US$10 million investment in Danish whisky brand Stauning, to facilitate expansion of production.

In February 2017, Diageo announced plans to open a Guinness brewery and tourist attraction in Baltimore County, Maryland. The brewery could potentially host as many as 300,000 visitors per year.

In October 2021, Diageo announced plans to invest $500m to expand its manufacturing in Mexico for the tequila category. Construction of the new facilities in Jalisco, Mexico is expected to begin in 2021.

Diageo announced plans to build a €200 million brewery in Newbridge in July 2022. In February 2024, High Court proceedings were lodged against An Bord Pleanála by an Athy resident opposing the decision to approve the project. After mediation talks with Diageo, the challenge was withdrawn in April.

Non-alcoholic expansion
In August 2019, Diageo bought the majority stake in Seedlip, a non-alcoholic spirits brand.

In October 2022, it was announced Diageo had acquired the Australian cold brew coffee liqueur brand, Mr Black.

Corporate changes
In March 2023, it was announced that Debra Crew would succeed Sir Ivan Menezes as CEO of the company. Crew started her role a month ahead of plan after Menezes died on 7 June 2023.

In May 2023, it was announced that Diageo has provided funding to establish the British Aluminium Consortium for Advance Alloys (BACALL), a collective of industry experts who will create a circular economy in the UK.

Criticism
In December 2003, Diageo provoked controversy over its decision to change its Cardhu brand Scotch whisky from a single malt to a blended malt whilst retaining the original name and bottle style. Diageo took this action because it did not have sufficient reserves to meet demand in the Spanish market, where Cardhu had been successful. After a meeting of producers, Diageo agreed to make changes. In 2006, the Cardhu brand changed back to being a single malt.

In May 2012, Scottish craft brewery BrewDog revealed that Diageo had threatened to withdraw funding from the British Institute of Innkeeping Scotland's annual awards if BrewDog was to be named winner of the Best Bar Operator award. Diageo was forced to issue an apology.

In March 2015, Diageo released an advertising campaign showing a young woman crying after a night out, as an older woman, likely her mother, looks at her from the doorway, and the caption, "Who's following in your footsteps? Out of control drinking has consequences". The ad probably implied that the girl had been assaulted on the way home, as a result of her drinking that night. The director of Rape Crisis Network Ireland said Diageo "blames victims of sexual violence for the crimes that have been committed against them. This is a harmful, regressive and hurtful message which targets the vulnerable."

Factory closures and moves
In July 2009, Diageo announced that, after nearly 200 years of association with the town of Kilmarnock, Scotland, they would be closing the Johnnie Walker blending and bottling plant as part of a restructuring to the business. This would make 700 workers unemployed and caused outrage from the press, local people, and politicians. A campaign against this decision was launched by the local SNP MSP Willie Coffey and Labour MP Des Browne. A petition was drawn up against the plans, which also involved the closure of the historic Port Dundas grain distillery in Glasgow. The Johnnie Walker plant in Kilmarnock closed its doors in March 2012 and the buildings were subsequently demolished a year later.

In April 2011, the National Puerto Rican Coalition planned to run a series of ads in New York City and Puerto Rico urging a boycott of Diageo-owned alcoholic drinks to protest the corporation's production move of its Captain Morgan rum from Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin Islands, which will provide it with US$2.7 billion in tax benefits over 30 years.

Regulatory issues
In August 2011, Diageo agreed to pay more than US$16 million to settle U.S. civil regulatory charges that it made improper payments to foreign officials. Regulators accused the British company of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act through its subsidiaries to obtain lucrative sales and tax benefits for its Johnnie Walker and Windsor Scotch whiskies and other brands.

In January 2020, Diageo agreed to pay US$5 million to settle charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that alleged the company had pressured distributors to buy products in excess of demand in order to hit performance goals.

Brands
Diageo's beverage brands include:

 * Scotch whisky:
 * Single malt Scotch whisky: Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Blair Athol, Brora, Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Cragganmore, Dailuaine, Dalwhinnie, Dufftown, Glendullan, Glen Elgin, Glenkinchie, Glen Ord, Glen Spey, Inchgower, Knockando, Lagavulin, Linkwood, Mannochmore, Mortlach, Oban, Port Ellen, Roseisle, Royal Lochnagar, Singleton, Strathmill, Talisker, Teaninich, Classic Malts of Scotland.
 * Blended Scotch whisky: Bell's, Black & White, Buchanan's, Haig, Johnnie Walker, J&B, Logan, Old Parr, Vat 69, White Horse.
 * Irish whiskey: Roe & Co
 * American whiskey: Bulleit, George Dickel, Seagram's Seven Crown, Balcones
 * Canadian whisky: Crown Royal
 * Baijiu: Shui Jing Fang
 * Beer: Guinness, Guinness Black Lager, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Harp Lager, Hop House 13, Kilkenny, Smithwick's, Tusker
 * Brandy: Cîroc VS
 * Cachaça: Ypióca
 * Cider: Rockshore Apple Cider
 * Gin: Aviation Gin, Gilbey's, Gordon's, Tanqueray
 * Hard seltzer: Rockshore Hard seltzer
 * Liqueur: Baileys, Pimm's, Sheridan's
 * Mixed drinks: Smirnoff Cocktails
 * Rakı: Altınbaş, Civan Rakı, İzmir Rakısı, Kulüp Rakı, Tayfa Rakı, Tekirdağ Rakısı, Yeni Rakı
 * Rum: Bundaberg, Cacique, Captain Morgan, Pampero, Zacapa
 * Tequila: 21 Seeds, Astral, Casamigos, DeLeón, Don Julio
 * Vodka: Cîroc, Ketel One, Smirnoff
 * Wine: Justerini & Brooks (produced by Diageo); Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot (all produced by Moët Hennessy, a joint venture between Diageo (34%) and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A. (66%)

Worldwide
Diageo operates in 180 countries across five regions: Europe, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia Pacific and Africa.

Awards and rankings
In 2016, Diageo was ranked 11th out of 4,255 companies worldwide for diversity and inclusiveness in the Thomson Reuters Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Index.

In June 2023, the company's subsidiary, Mortlach distillery in Moray, Scotland, was awarded the “Whisky of the Year” prize in the annual International Whisky Competition for its Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice 1989 Mortlach single malt Scotch.

Operations
Diageo also owns a 34% stake in the Moet Hennessy drinks division of French luxury goods company LVMH.

In 2017, the company was awarded top place in the Institute of Directors' and Chartered Quality Institute's Good Governance Index.

Head office
Diageo's head office is in Great Marlborough Street, London after moving from its previous location in Park Royal, London Borough of Brent, on the site of a former Guinness brewery which had closed in 2004 after producing beer since 1936. Diageo's previous head office facility had been located in Henrietta Place, in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London, since 1996. In 2009, Diageo announced that it was closing the Henrietta Place facility as part of a cost reduction programme and moved its employees to the Park Royal site.

title: Diageo


text:
Icterus

Icterus may refer to:
 * Jaundice
 * Icterus (bird), a genus of New World orioles

title: Icterus


text:
XIII

XIII may refer to:
 * 13 (number) or XIII in Roman numerals
 * 13th century in Roman numerals
 * XIII (comics), a Belgian comic book series by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance
 * XIII (2003 video game), a 2003 video game based on the comic book series
 * XIII (2020 video game), a remake of the 2003 video game
 * XIII: The Conspiracy, a TV miniseries based on the comic book series and game of the same title
 * XIII: The Series, a 2011 TV series based on the comic book series and miniseries
 * XIII (Rage album), 1998
 * XIII (Mushroomhead album), 2003
 * XIII (TNT album), 2018
 * Factor XIII, a clotting factor inside the coagulation cascade
 * Rugby league, still often known as just XIII in France due to the name Rugby once being forbidden for the league code

title: XIII


text:
Largo Winch

Largo Winch is a Belgian comic book series by Philippe Francq and Jean Van Hamme, published by Dupuis. It started as a series of novels by Van Hamme in the late 1970s, but stopped due to a lack of success and the huge amount of work Van Hamme had in the meantime with his comic books (e.g. Thorgal). When artist Philippe Francq wanted to start a series with Van Hamme, he revived his old hero, and reworked the novels into the first albums of the comic book series. Later, more stories followed.

Synopsis
The main character is Largo Winch; birth name Largo Winczlav, who was born in Yugoslavia. Other important characters include Nerio Winch (his adoptive father, though they share a great-grandparent), senior Group W executives John D. Sullivan and Dwight E. Cochrane, and his friend Simon Ovronnaz. In the first two volumes of the series, L'héritier and Le Groupe W, Largo, a young and handsome orphan, is propelled to the head of a business empire, Group W (of no relation to the real-life broadcasting division of American conglomerate Westinghouse Electric Corporation), after his adoptive father Nerio is murdered, and goes through a lot of troubles to preserve his inheritance and avenge Nerio. The following albums are more or less based on the same basic plot: someone is trying to harm Largo's company or to take control of it from him, and he has to fight that someone to ensure the survival of his holdings. Almost every story arc involves corrupt authority figures of a type which Nerio easily manipulated, but Largo confronts from the viewpoint of an "everyman".

All the stories of the series are published in two volumes, the first one being the one putting Largo in an impossible situation, and the second one letting him get out of it. In addition, both volumes share the same background color on the cover. The stories appear originally in French, and have been translated into various languages, including Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Italian and Tamil. The series is among the most popular comics series in French, with annual sales of nearly 500,000 copies.

History
The birth of the character came in 1973, while Van Hamme was having lunch in New York City with Greg, chief editor of Tintin. The magazine sought to expand to the American market and Van Hamme was tasked with creating the comic character and genre interesting for an American audience. He thus opted for a business-thriller idea about a young mysterious billionaire, which would allow him to demonstrate his knowledge of economics. John Prentice, noted for his work on Rip Kirby, was chosen as the artist, and he drew a couple of boards before withdrawing from the project that was soon abandoned. Van Hamme first revived the character in form of an airport novel in 1978, encouraged by the huge popularity of Gérard de Villiers' SAS novels. The series lasted through 1985 when it came to a halt again. Finally, in 1990, being approached by Francq, Van Hamme used the character yet again in comic form, and it had instant success.

Albums

 * 1) L'Héritier, 1990
 * 2) Le Groupe W, 1991
 * 3) O.P.A., 1992
 * 4) Business Blues, 1993
 * H, 1994
 * 1) Dutch Connection, 1995
 * 2) La Forteresse De Makiling, 1996
 * 3) L'Heure du Tigre, 1997
 * 4) Voir Venise..., 1998
 * 5) ...Et mourir, 1999
 * 6) Golden Gate, 2000
 * 7) Shadow, 2002
 * 8) Le Prix de l'Argent, 2004
 * 9) La Loi du Dollar, 2005
 * 10) Les Trois Yeux des Gardiens du Tao, 2007
 * 11) La Voie et la Vertu, 2008
 * 12) Mer Noire, 2010
 * 13) Colère Rouge, 2012
 * 14) Chassé-Croisé, 2014
 * 15) 20 Secondes, 2015
 * 16) L'Étoile du Matin, 2017
 * 17) Les Voiles Écarlates, 2019
 * 18) La Frontière de la Nuit, 2021
 * 19) Le Centile d’Or, 2023

In English
The volumes have been translated into English and published by Cinebook in a censored form. The following volumes have been released to date:

 * 1) The Heir (includes The W Group)
 * 2) Takeover Bid (includes Business Blues)
 * 3) Dutch Connection (includes H)
 * 4) The Hour of the Tiger (includes Fort Makiling)
 * 5) See Venice...
 * 6) ...And Die
 * 7) Golden Gate
 * 8) Shadow
 * 9) The Price of Money
 * 10) The Law of the Dollar
 * 11) The Three Eyes Of The Tao Guardians
 * 12) The Way and the Virtue
 * 13) Cold Black Sea
 * 14) Red Hot Wrath
 * 15) Crossing Paths
 * 16) 20 Seconds
 * 17) Morning Starr
 * 18) Scarlet Sail
 * 19) The Edge of Night
 * 20) The Golden Percentile

Spinoff: La Fortune des Winczlav

 * 1) Vanko 1848, 2021
 * 2) Tom and Liza 1910, 2022
 * 3) Danitza 1965, 2023

TV
An English-language TV series loosely based on the comics was launched in 2001 and lasted two seasons, starring Paolo Seganti as Largo Winch and Diego Walraff as Simon Ovronnaz. It aired in France on M6 and in Canada on Showcase Television as Largo. The complete series is available on DVD in France, with the episodes however only in dubbed French.

Film
A film, written and directed by Jérôme Salle and starring Tomer Sisley as Largo Winch, was released in France on December 17, 2008, loosely adapting the first two issues with elements of the next two.

A sequel, also by Salle, was released in 2011. Not adapting a particular storyline, it drew inspiration from the events of the fifth and six issues to create a new story. A third film is in the works, based on issues 13 and 14, without the involvement of Salle and Sisley but with a screenplay by series creator Jean Van Hamme himself, who'd been critical of the past films, and of Salle in particular.

A documentary, "Largo", directed by Yves Legrain-Crist with Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Francq, was released in France in Autumn 2007. This film shows two authors are searching for the answer to the question: "How is a comic book created?" It is available, with English subtitles, directly from the producers through VOD

Video game
Largo Winch: Empire Under Threat is an action-adventure game released in 2002 by Dupuis only in Europe. It is a puzzle-based third-person game with Largo himself as the playable character. The plot of the game follows the usual scenario of Largo Winch stories, with his business empire under threat as he fights to save it, in locations such as New York - Veracruz, Mexico - Russia, Siberia - Sardinia - and Nerio's Island Sarjevane in the Adriatic Sea. It received mixed reviews from critics

Largo Winch .// Commando SAR is an action-adventure game released in 2002 by Rebellion Developments for PlayStation 1. It's a third-person stealth game. The plot follows Largo Winch as he dismantles a cabal of commandos conspiring against Winch's financial empire.

title: Largo Winch


text:
Talk:Shing Mun River

Untitled
I will add photos later...sorry

This isn't written as an encylopedia article - it is too chatty - and seems as though it is written for a newspaper or a magazine. Secretlondon 11:24, Dec 4, 2003 (UTC)

Question
"When the Sha Tin Hoi was reclaimed "

Who reclaimed it?

Thanks, Fred-Chess 19:35, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Aha, I understand now. Don't need to answer. / Fred-Chess 19:36, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Another question: The history section mentions no years. When did all this happen?

Thanks / Fred-Chess 19:41, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Shing Mun River


text:
Neuropsychological test

Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. Tests are used for research into brain function and in a clinical setting for the diagnosis of deficits. They usually involve the systematic administration of clearly defined procedures in a formal environment. Neuropsychological tests are typically administered to a single person working with an examiner in a quiet office environment, free from distractions. As such, it can be argued that neuropsychological tests at times offer an estimate of a person's peak level of cognitive performance. Neuropsychological tests are a core component of the process of conducting neuropsychological assessment, along with personal, interpersonal and contextual factors.

Most neuropsychological tests in current use are based on traditional psychometric theory. In this model, a person's raw score on a test is compared to a large general population normative sample, that should ideally be drawn from a comparable population to the person being examined. Normative studies frequently provide data stratified by age, level of education, and/or ethnicity, where such factors have been shown by research to affect performance on a particular test. This allows for a person's performance to be compared to a suitable control group, and thus provide a fair assessment of their current cognitive function.

According to Larry J. Seidman, the analysis of the wide range of neuropsychological tests can be broken down into four categories. First is an analysis of overall performance, or how well people do from test to test along with how they perform in comparison to the average score. Second is left-right comparisons: how well a person performs on specific tasks that deal with the left and right side of the body. Third is pathognomic signs, or specific test results that directly relate to a distinct disorder. Finally, the last category is differential patterns, which are typically used to diagnose specific diseases or types of damage.

Categories
Most forms of cognition actually involve multiple cognitive functions working in unison, however tests can be organised into broad categories based on the cognitive function which they predominantly assess.

Intelligence
Intelligence testing in a clinical setting intelligence can involve premorbid estimates, determined through a number of methods, for comparison with obtained results. For example, test results can be compared to expected achievement levels based on prior education and occupation.

Memory
Memory is a very broad function which includes several distinct abilities, all of which can be selectively impaired and require individual testing. There is disagreement as to the number of memory systems, depending on the psychological perspective taken. From a clinical perspective, a view of five distinct types of memory, is in most cases sufficient. Semantic memory and episodic memory (collectively called declarative memory or explicit memory); procedural memory and priming or perceptual learning (collectively called non-declarative memory or implicit memory) all four of which are long term memory systems; and working memory or short term memory. Semantic memory is memory for facts, episodic memory is autobiographical memory, procedural memory is memory for the performance of skills, priming is memory facilitated by prior exposure to a stimulus and working memory is a form of short term memory for information manipulation. }

 * Benton Visual Retention Test
 * California Verbal Learning Test
 * Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT)
 * Gollin figure test
 * Memory Assessment Scales (MAS)
 * Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test
 * Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test
 * Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL)
 * Mental Attributes Profiling System
 * Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS)

Language
Language functions include speech, reading and writing, all of which can be selectively impaired.}

 * Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination
 * Boston Naming Test
 * Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT)
 * Multilingual Aphasia Examination

Executive function
Executive functions is an umbrella term for a various cognitive processes and sub-processes. The executive functions include: problem solving, planning, organizational skills, selective attention, inhibitory control and some aspects of short term memory. }

 * Behavioural Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS)
 * CNS Vital Signs (Brief Core Battery)
 * Continuous performance task (CPT)
 * Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT)
 * d2 Test of Attention
 * Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS)
 * Digit Vigilance Test
 * Figural Fluency Test
 * Halstead Category Test
 * Hayling and Brixton tests
 * Kaplan Baycrest Neurocognitive Assessment (KBNA)
 * Kaufman Short Neuropsychological Assessment
 * Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT)
 * Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure
 * Ruff Figural Fluency Test
 * Stroop task
 * Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.)
 * Tower of London Test
 * Trail-Making Test (TMT) or Trails A & B
 * Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)
 * Symbol Digit Modalities Test
 * Test of Everyday Attention (TEA)

Visuospatial
Neuropsychological tests of visuospatial function should cover the areas of visual perception, visual construction and visual integration. Though not their only functions, these tasks are to a large degree carried out by areas of the parietal lobe.

 * Clock Test
 * Hooper Visual Organisation Task (VOT)
 * Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure

Dementia specific
Dementia testing is often done by way of testing the cognitive functions that are most often impaired by the disease e.g. memory, orientation, language and problem solving. Gender inequality can also be called gender discrimination or sexism.

 * The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog)
 * Clinical Dementia Rating
 * Dementia Rating Scale

Batteries assessing multiple neuropsychological functions
There are some test batteries which combine a range of tests to provide an overview of cognitive skills. These are usually good early tests to rule out problems in certain functions and provide an indication of functions which may need to be tested more specifically.}

 * Barcelona Neuropsychological Test (BNT)
 * Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB)
 * Cognistat (The Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination)
 * Cognitive Assessment Screening Instrument (CASI)
 * Cognitive Function Scanner (CFS)
 * Dean–Woodcock Neuropsychological Assessment System (DWNAS)
 * General Practitioner Assessment Of Cognition (GPCOG)
 * Hooper Visual Organization Test
 * Luria–Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery
 * MicroCog
 * Mini mental state examination (MMSE)
 * NEPSY
 * Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status
 * Short Parallel Assessments of Neuropsychological Status (SPANS)
 * CDR Computerized Assessment System

Benefits of Neuropsychological Testing
The most beneficial factor of neuropsychological assessment is that it provides an accurate diagnosis of the disorder for the patient when it is unclear to the psychologist what exactly the patient has. This allows for accurate treatment later on in the process because treatment is driven by the exact symptoms of the disorder and how a specific patient may react to different treatments. The assessment allows the psychologist and patient to understand the severity of the deficit and to allow better decision-making by both parties.

title: Neuropsychological test


text:
User talk:212.85.1.1

Newtrogic High Zone listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Newtrogic High Zone. Since you had some involvement with the Newtrogic High Zone redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Steel1943 (talk) 16:29, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

title: User talk:212.85.1.1


text:
Talk:Eugénie de Montijo

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American dentist
If it is of any interest, her dentist was called Dr. Evans. He drove her to the coast in his private conveyance. He had enriched himself by exploiting private foreknowledge of Haussmann's plans for Paris. This is all OR, I am afraid, first-hand from somebody who knew Evans well. Seadowns (talk) 15:46, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

the Scots-born William Kirkpatrick of Closbourn
It is my understanding that William Kirkpatrick came from a cadet branch that diverged from the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn centuries earlier. Can a source be provided to clarify his origin?

JF42 (talk) 22:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Burke's Peerage (1949 edition here) gives William as the son of an unnamed sixth son (1728–1799) of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, 2nd Baronet. Which contradicts the ancestry table currently given in the article. Opera hat (talk) 02:45, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
 * I thought this sounded rather improbable, so did a bit more looking. There is an 1858 history of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn on the National Library of Scotland website here. Pages 68-71 give details of the Empress's descent from Thomas Kirkpatrick of Knock, a contemporary of the first baronet. Opera hat (talk) 15:02, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Further discussion of the relationship between the Spanish Kirkpatricks and the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn is in Notes and Queries, 1873, pages 89–91, page 200, pages 426–427 and page 453. Opera hat (talk) 15:24, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
 * That's quite a trove of material. Thank you. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:57, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

I suggest the passage be amended to reflect the tendentious claim. Whatever his connection, William Kirkpatrick was certainly not "of Closeburn" (and definitely not "of Closbourn"). JF42 (talk) 13:02, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

 * In the book "William Kirkpatrick of Málaga: Consul, négociant and entrepreneur, and grandfather of the Empress Eugénie" by Colin Carlin (2011), William Kirkpatrick is described as from the Kirkpatricks of Conheath. The Conheath branch was descended from the Kirkpatricks of Kirkmichael branch. Alexander Kirkpatrick was the knight who is credited with capturing the 9th (and last) Earl of Douglas and who was rewarded with the barony of Kirkmichael (near Garvald in Dumfriesshire). Conheath was a property either sold to or gifted to a member of the Kirkmichael branch by a member of the Closeburn branch. Hweha (talk) 23:32, 12 March 2022 (UTC)

"his half-Scottish, quarter-Belgian, quarter-Spanish wife"
Given that this article is about Eugénie de Montijo and not her mother, does this cumbersome reference really tell us anything  about Maria de Grevigné' that can't be deduced from the subsequent details of her  parentage?

It seems to me to reflect a certain Estadouinense preoccupation with multiplicity of origin that does not exist in Spain. JF42 (talk) 14:13, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Eugénie de Montijo