Le Grand Pouvoir du Chninkel

Chninkel or The Great Power of Chninkel is a Franco-Belgian comic with the story written by the Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and the art drawn by the Polish artist Grzegorz Rosiński. First published from 1986 to 1987 in black and white, and later republished in color and translated to several languages, it mixes the genres of fantasy, science fiction and Biblical parables. It follows the adventures of a diminutive humanoid J'on, who suddenly finds himself tasked with saving the world. It has been called one of the first graphic novels in the history of Franco-Belgian comics. Background Jean Van Hamme and Grzegorz Rosiński previously collaborated on Thorgal, a fantasy comic that debuted in 1977. They would continue working on that series for many years, with occasional ventures into other projects. Chninkel was a novel, one-shot project that they saw as departing from the types of works common at that time in the Franco-belgian comic scene. The project was initiated by Rosiński, who wanted to produce a work in black and white, instead of the usual color. Van Hamme agreed and initially wrote it as a fantasy story, which later gained a more unique character when he decided to mix in references to Christianity. Publication history The series debuted in October 1986 in the À Suivre magazine published by Casterman. It was first published in French in black and white in an episodic form, then collected and published in an album form in 1988, with a color edition in 2001. The complete edition consists of ten chapters and 134 plates. The comic was initially intended to be black and white, and for that purpose Rosiński utilized a number of techniques specific to that style. It was later colored by Polish colorist . The graphic novel has been translated to several languages, including Polish (as Szninkiel, with several editions since 1988), German (as Die große Macht des kleinen Schninkel), Spanish (as El gran poder del Chninkel), Italian (as Il grande potere del Chninkel), Dutch (as De Chninkel) and Finnish (as Chninkel ja suuri voima). An English translation was published from 1991 to 1993 in the anthology series Cheval Noir (as The Great Power of the Chninkel).