Archibald Higgins

Archibald Higgins is the main character of the scientific comics series of "The Adventures of Archibald Higgins", created by the French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit as a translation of his French series "Les Aventures d'Anselme Lanturlu" first created in 1980.[1]

For the Louisiana Supreme Court justice, see Archibald T. Higgins.
« Savoir Sans Frontières » (Knowledge without Borders) Logo depicting Archibald Higgins.

The series was initially published by Editions Belin. Curious and candid, Archibald's adventures are a pretext for the popularization of science in fields ranging from physics to computer science, helped in this by the charming Sophie who guides him in his efforts while letting him search, as well as by three very learned animals: Leon the pelican, Max the bird and Tiresias the snail. The albums are filled with encounters with characters from well-known scientists from different periods (Einstein or Jean-Marie Souriau for example).

This series is the first example in the history of real science education through comics. It is not a comic strip that would take place in the scientific community: the objective is to acquire scientific knowledge. It was born from many drawings that the author had to create in order to teach physical sciences and geometry to philosophy students at the Faculty of Aix-en-Provence.

The scientific level of the target readership is very diverse: some albums can be understood by high school students, most by science graduates, some require a first university level in mathematics.

This science comics series explains mainly highly advanced scientific concepts : cosmology, general relativity, topology, anatomy, MHD, fluid mechanics, astrophysics, geometry, economy, aeronautics...[2]

Since 2005, the association Savoir sans Frontieres[3] organises the professional translation (in 40 languages as of Nov. 2018) and the free download of all the albums as webcomics in PDF format.[4][5]

Dissemination of the series

Editions Belin has published fourteen hard cover albums. Four others rejected by Belin were published by Editions Présence.

From 1980 onwards, the series was marketed in several languages:

  •    in French: Les aventures d'Anselme Lanturlu
  •    in English: The Adventures of Archibald Higgins (2 different English and American editions),
  •    in German: Die Abenteuer des Anselm Wüßtegern,
  •    in Finnish: Anselmi Veikkonen seikkailee,
  •    in Italian: Le avventure di Anselmo,[6][7]
  •    in Portuguese: As aventuras de Anselmo Curioso,
  •    in Russian: приключения Ансельмa Ансельмa Лантюрлю,[8]
  •    in Polish: Przygody Anzelma Roztropka,
  •    in esperanto: La aventuroj de Anselmo Lanturlup published by Monda Asembleo Socia (ISBN 978-2369600350),
  •    but also in Japanese (2 albums), and Persian (the album Tout est relatif with Sophie's costume redesigned as in the American edition).

Since 2005 Jean-Pierre Petit drawn others Archibald webcomics. Archibald appears now in up to 28 albums. The full series of Archibald albums is distributed free of charge since 2005 on the website of the association Savoir Sans Frontières, which has set itself the goal, among other things, of professionally translating these albums into as many languages as possible. Archibald series thus joins the webcomics movement, and by the way of translations financed by crowdsourcing, it added another innovation in this field.

As of November 2018, a total of 536 albums, books, videos other original productions were available in 39 languages,[9] with the website regularly adding new translations.

The languages that know the most albums downloaded from the association's website are: French (1.98 million), Spanish (1.8 million), German (73000), English (49000), Italian (48000). By way of comparison, the Lucky Luke and Corto Maltese series are translated into some twenty languages, and the most widely distributed Asterix and Tintin series are translated into more than a hundred.

In 2011, Editions Astropress (Biel-Bienne, Switzerland) published a new edition compiling most of the albums in several languages. Each language is the subject of 3 volumes, each volume comprising more than 600 pages:

  • The Scientific Comics of Jean-Pierre Petit (ISBN 9781446775141 et 978-1446777138)
  • Die Wissenschaftlichen Comics von Jean-Pierre Petit (ISBN 9781447535751)
  • Les Bandes Dessinées Scientifiques de Jean-Pierre Petit (ISBN 9781446799062)
  • Le Bande Designate Scientifici Di Jean-Pierre Petit (ISBN 978-1447542131)

A few albums are an opportunity for Jean-Pierre Petit to present in some pages his own scientific results that have previously been the subject of scientific peer-reviewed publications or other books. This is the case with:

  • The silence barrier (magnetohydrodynamics)
  • Faster than light (Janus cosmological model)
  • The Twin Universe (Janus cosmological model)
  • The Topologicon
  • The Chronologicon
  • The Logotron

The Adventures of Archibald Higgins (hard cover edition)
  1. Euclid rules OK?, John Murray, Londres, 1982 ISBN 0-7195-3983-8 (translation from Le géométricon by Ian Stewart)
    Here's looking at Euclid (and not looking at Euclid), W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1985 ISBN 0-86576-092-6 (idem)[10]
  2. Flight of fancy, John Murray, Londres, 1982 ISBN 0-7195-3982-X (translation from Si on volait ? by Ian Stewart)
    Flight of fancy, W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1985 ISBN 0-86576-084-5 (idem)
  3. Informagic, John Murray, Londres, 1982 ISBN 0-7195-3981-1 (translation from L'informagique by Ian Stewart)
    Computer magic, W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1985 ISBN 0-86576-067-5 (translation from L'informagique by Ian Stewart)
  4. The black hole, W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1985 ISBN 0-86576-069-1 (translation from trou noir by Ian Stewart)
  5. Everything is relative, W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1985 ISBN 0-86576-068-3 (translation from Tout est relatif by Ian Stewart)
  6. Big bang, W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1986 ISBN 0-86576-070-5 (translation from Big bang by Ian Stewart)
  7. Run, robot, run, W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1985 ISBN 0-86576-083-7 (translation from À quoi rêvent les robots ? by Ian Stewart)
  8. The silence barrier, W. Kaufmann, Los Altos, 1986 ISBN 0-86576-096-9 (translation from mur du silence by Ian Stewart)

Receipt of the series by the public

Archibald and the academic scientific community
  • (fr) Download Archibald albums on the University of Lyon website
  • (pt) Download the first albums in Portuguese on the website of the University of Coimbra.
  • (it) Presentation (PDF) of the albums of Archibald and the association Savoir sans Frontières by the Mathematics Department of the University of Rome
  • (pl) Positive appreciation of the album The Black Hole in the Polish scientific journal Foton 84
  • (fr) Vincent Borrelli, lecturer, led a conference on 21 October 2013, organised by the mathematics pole of INSA Lyon, entitled:"What is the shape of the universe?" The album Le Géométricon is cited as a reference.
  • (fr) Three Archibald albums are referenced by Michèle Porte in her book Mémoire de la science, vol. II, hors collection des Cahiers de Fontenay, ENS editions, seminars 1986-87-December 88, Fontenay/Saint-Cloud
  • (fr) The Geometricon is referenced by Thomas Hausberger, Manuel Bächtold, in: Enjeux des Géométries non euclidiennes, Publication of the IREM de Montpellier - production of the Mathematics and Philosophy group, 2015. <hal-0144292915>
  • (fr) The page Mathematics and comics, of the mathematics department of the University of Toulouse, cites the Archibald series; these albums are also quickly commented on this blog dedicated to mathematics education.

Archibald and the media

References
  1. "Bandes dessinees de vulgarisation scientifique. Qu'est-ce que Lanturluland?". lanturlu.free.fr. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  2. Presentation (fr) of the association Savoir sans Frontières : interview by France Inter radio http://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com/JPP/franceinter_ssf.mp3
  3. "Download translated science comics". www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  4. The association Savoir sans Frontieres is mentioned in this interview by La Voix de la Russie, 2014/02, (fr), https://web.archive.org/web/20140306140216/http://french.ruvr.ru/2014_02_17/Jean-Pierre-Petit-les-dechets-nucleaires-bombe-a-retardement-planetaire-Partie-1-1359
  5. The association Savoir sans Frontieres is mentioned in this interview by Les Inrockuptibles, 2012/09, (fr) https://www.lesinrocks.com/2012/09/17/actualite/jirai-dormir-chez-les-complotistes-11302064/
  6. "La scienza a fumetti". Edizioni Dedalo (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  7. (it) 4 shorts videos Le fiabe scientifiche on Archibald's albums in Italian
  8. This séries is cited in the article by Кислов А.Г. Культураинтеллектуальногодосуга: поэтиказадачириторикарешений , РАЦИО.ru, 2011, No 5, p. 106-129.
  9. According to the reference site : http://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com/GILLES/test.php
  10. Jean-Pierre Petit. "Here's Looking at Euclid". savoir-sans-frontieres. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  11. https://www.youtube.com/Z1k4jFlABPE
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