Valérian et Laureline, or How to Build a Universe Out of Its Protagonists

Abstract This article studies how the main protagonists of the French comic book series Valérian et Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières have been developed over the forty years of the series, as characters but also as the foundation of a complex science fiction universe. It offers a striking example of a kind of co-evolution between the innovative drive of science fictional narratives, both on an ontological – Darko Suvin's novum – and on a narratological level, and the constant reinvention of the main characters, whose traits and relationship are at once echoed and remodelled with each new album.