11/23/2023
I know many of the Alaxis Press followers live outside the United States. Today in America we celebrate Thanksgiving, a day to reflect on blessings in our lives.
The reason I am posting this is because I want to express my gratitude for the supporters of the Kickstarter campaign, but also for my friends, Benoît Peeters and François Schuiten, two of the most talented creators I have ever had the honor to work with. When Benoît informed me that the subject for the duo's next Obscure Cities book was to be Captain Nemo, I knew I had to be the one to translate the book, and I needed to publish it myself. I read and imagine and dream because of Jules Verne. This was never about how much money I could make. This was about properly celebrating a great writer.
With just three and a half days remaining in the Kickstarter campaign for the English edition of The Return of Captain Nemo, I wanted to post something I wrote a few years ago, on the 194th anniversary of Jules Verne's birth.
To everyone out there, problems in the world are unnerving. But I sincerely hope you have things to be thankful for. I know I do.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Steve
Dear Mr. Verne,
I never got to meet you. You died 56 years before I was born. Regardless of this, you have had a profound and continuing impact on my life. Long before I could read one of your books, I accessed your stories through films. I was five years old when I first saw the 1959 film Journey to the Center of the Earth at a summer matinee. Not long after, I sat in awe watching the Ray Harryhausen version of Mysterious Island on WGN’s Family Classics Sunday afternoon show in Chicago. But in 1971, at ten years-old, I got to see the 1954 Disney film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, on the big screen, and like many other kids, this film was the only spark needed to ignite my sense of wonder. I know these films did not accurately represent your books, but they opened your books for me.
You were a wordy author. Too complex for a child with a short attention span and a difficulty reading, but through comics like Classic Illustrated and children’s abridged novels, I was introduced to your literary works in accessible formats. As I became more confident as a reader, I tackled several of your novels, but 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875) have remained closest to my heart. They continue to fire my imagination. I’ve often imagined the undersea adventures of Captain Nemo before the events of those two books. It is because of you I sought out other authors of the fantastic like Luis Senarens, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, and even L. Frank Baum. It is because of you I can imagine and feel justified spending my life daydreaming and living part-time in fantasy worlds.
I am grateful for your vision of traveling to the moon in From the Earth to the Moon (1865) a full 104 years before man finally made it to the moon. You had predicted the trip would take four days and five minutes. It actually took eight days and three hours, but you were pretty close. Thank you for believing it was possible and writing about it. I was eight years old when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins took Apollo 11 to the moon. Just as you inspired me, you inspired the pioneering astronauts and the scientists of the space program like Werner von Braun and W***y Ley.
Thank you for celebrating young adventurers like Nellie Bly, who, inspired by your book, Around the World in 80 days (1873), completed her own trip around the world in just 72 days, including a stop in Amiens to meet you and your wife, just 17 years after the publication of your book.
I am constantly reminded of you. Just a few days ago, as I walked through the lava tubes of the active Kilauea volcano, I felt like Professor Otto Lidenbrock, Axel, Gräuben, and Hans on their journey. When I dive, I cannot help but imagine the crew of the Nautilus exploring the ruins of sunken Atlantis.
It’s true. You are the most translated French author ever and clearly the grandfather of modern science fiction. But to me, you are what Georges Mèliés was to young filmmakers. You were and are the wizard, the magician, who introduced me to the wonders of imagination. And for that I will be eternally grateful. – Your fan, Steve
