USS Nebraska

Sanctuaire #1

by Xavier Dorison, Christophe Bec, Justin Kelly

Book by Xavier Dorison, Christophe Bec, Justin Kelly

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Horror, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

56 pages, Hardcover

First published July 16, 2014

About the author

Xavier Dorison est né en 1972 à Paris et passe trois années en école de commerce, où il organise le festival BD des Grandes Écoles, puis travaille chez Barclays Corp. Dès 1997, il écrit le premier tome du Troisième Testament, série co-scénarisé et dessiné par Alex Alice qui remporte un succès immédiat. Il publie ensuite deux séries aux Humanoïdes Associés : Prophet avec Matthieu Lauffray et Sanctuaire avec Christophe Bec. Il co-scénarise, avec Fabien Nury, le film Brigades du Tigre, qui sera également adapté en bande dessinée aux éditions Glénat avec Jean-Yves Delitte au dessin. Il co-scénarise, toujours avec Fabien Nury, le western fantastique W.E.S.T. mis en image par Christian Rossi. Et lance début 2007 une fresque pirate : Long John Silver. En 2008, il crée la série Les Sentinelles et participe au projet XIII Mystery, en scénarisant l'album sur La Mangouste. En 2008 également, il écrit Le Syndrome d'Abel pour son comparse Marazano, de retour au dessin. En septembre 2010, il s’associe à nouveau avec Alex Alice et commence la publication de l’antésuite du Troisième Testament, intitulée Julius, toujours chez Glénat. En mars 2012, paraît chez Dargaud le premier tome d’Asgard, série dans l’univers des vikings, dessinée par Ralph Meyer. En 2013 paraîtra chez Glénat une série coécrite avec son frère Guillaume Dorison.

Reviews

[Mirnes Alispahić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though Bec's drawing varies, Dorison writes a tense story with a atmosphere so claustrophobic you can feel it crushing on you. Remains of Russian submarine off coast Syria, ancient tablets, underwater city and mysterious illness. All makings of a great horror. Lets see what lies ahead.

[Nicolas Ronvel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un démarrage en douceur sur cette série, qui met en place les personnages, les lieux, mais qui pèche un peu par son dessin. Il m'a été difficile de bien identifier tous les protagonistes, leur hiérarchie sur le sous-marin. A voir ce que la suite nous propose.

[Clin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Après lecture de ce tome 1, on a envie de connaître la suite de l'histoire. Néanmoins, les dessins laisse à désirer. On a du mal à bien différencier les personnages. Je reste sur ma fin, on verra à la lecture du 2 et 3 ce que ce donne !

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not entirely satisfying beginning.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sanctum Vol. 1 USS Nebraska (Originally published as Sanctuaire #1) is written by Xavier Dorison with art by Cristophe Lee.

An American submarine detects a distress call from another vessel 4000 feet deep in undersea caverns off the Syrian Coast. When the Nebraska investigates the area they are surprised to find the beacon is from a cold war era Soviet sub that the government had no knowledge about. Further research shows the sub had been retrofitted to find the cavern which is the location to a mysterious temple.

This book is really good but for some reason it took me about half the book to get invested in the story. I did have some trouble following the cast of characters. The art is very good and the whole story has a very haunting and mysterious feel to it. I get Alien, The Abyss, and Sphere vibes while reading and would recommend this to fans of any of those movies.

[Vít Kotačka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solidní příběh, výborně budování napětí. Grafika tuctová, úplně se nevyznám v ústředních postavách. Ty jsou ploché, jen figurky v příběhu. Ale ten příběh! Velmi originální nápad zasadit lovecraftyánský příběh 4.000 stop pod moře (cca 1.200 m). Právě tam zavede americkou atomovou ponorku pátrání po signálu v nouzi. A pak se začnou dít věci! 😱 A zvolna sílí předtucha, že není cesty zpět.

[Bast8tor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Histoire intéressante, on souhaite savoir la suite, manque un peu de visibilité sur le dessin

[ESRAA MOHAMED · Rating 3 out of 5]

حتى في الكوميكس مش سايبين بلادنا في حالها.

الغواصة الأمريكية نبراسكا ترصد نداء استغاثة من غواصة ثانية في كهوف تحت البحر عند الساحل السوري.
بعد ما توصل نبراسكا للمنطقة اللي صدر منها النداء اكتشفوا وجود غواصة سوفيتية من حقبة الحرب الباردة وكل طاقمها موتى في ظروف غامضة ومحدش يعرف عنها حاجة.
بتحصل حوادث غريبة أثناء استكشاف طاقم نبراسكا للغواصة السوفيتية.
ظهور مرض غريب يحمل أعراض الوباء بعد اكتشافهم معبد ضخم لإله الموت تحت البحر.

استمتعوا…
دمتم قراء... ❤❤❤

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die USS Nebraska stößt in den Tiefen des Mittelmeers auf das Signal eines alten sowjetischen U-Boots. An Bord des Wracks befinden sich jede Menge Leichen sowie archäologische Forschung zu eben jenem Artefakt, das einige Mitglieder der Nebraska nun erforschen wollen ...

Das titelgebende Artefakt, das von allen – ohne Erklärung warum – als Heiligtum bezeichnet wird, strahlt von Beginn an eine düstere Atmosphäre aus, die sich auf die stimmungsvollen Zeichnungen überträgt. Allerdings fiel es mir schwer, die Mitglieder der Mannschaft auseinander zu halten. Das tat der Story jedoch (noch) keinen Abbruch, da sie sich den einschlägigen Sci-Fi-Horrorfilmen anpasst, denen man kleine Inhaltsschwächen auch der Atmosphäre zuliebe verzeiht.

[M. P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 2029, the crew of the enormous submarine USS Nebraska gets off course during their routine mission near Syrian coast, and picks up a mysterious distress signal (mysterious, because there should not be other subs capable of going to such depths). The distress signal leads them to an old sunken submarine, and strange ruins, the unnerving secrets of which the crew begins to unravel...

The art is beautiful, dark, and atmospheric. There's always something frightening about submarines and underwater anything, let alone ancient ruins submerged in the sea. The story itself seems like pretty standard stuff for the genre, with quite a few predictable turns of events, but I look forward to reading volume 2 nonetheless for the claustrophobic underwater setting.

[Matty Dub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a suffocating read, the claustrophobic atmosphere of this thriller set in a submarine is palpable and a huge credit to the creative team’s excellent storytelling. A routine run takes a turn when the Nebraska detects a SOS beacon from an old USSR sub, they reach it to find its remains parked in front of a ancient submerged city. Military thriller meets cosmic horror with a dash of Indiana Jones, this one is a hit for me.

[Myriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Les dessins sont vraiment trop réalistes pour que je les apprécie pleinement. Il y a trop de personnages que le dessin ne parvient pas toujours à clairement distinguer des uns des autres.
A noter une excellente colorisation qui participe à l’atmosphère angoissante de cette aventure.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read, just a bit hard to get into. I don't know if it has to do with translation, or just that this is a really short read that doesn't quite go as far as I would have liked. I'll probably read the second one to see if it changes my mind. I'm guardedly optimistic.

[Aildiin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is interesting but I have trouble distinguishing the protagonists from each others due to the art...

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Currently available on Kindle Unlimited, this is an intriguing tale set in the near future with some introductory flashbacks to the fall of the Nazi Reich and Cold War soviet shenanigans involving artefacts of great antiquity. A cutting edge US nuclear sub explores an abyss in the Mediterranean after following a distress signal, and discovers a sunken city that seems to be the lair of pure evil. Nice starting chapter of an underwater haunted house horror.

The premise is intriguing for sure, and I’ll read on as long as the series is on Kindle Unlimited. However, the execution is a bit iffy.

The art goes for highly realistic and succeeds with the backgrounds, but fails with the characters who are all square-jawed identikits, making it very difficult for the reader to distinguish one from the other.

The plot is beset with the usual B-movie tropes, caricatures, and backstories (retiring burnt-out commander, nerdy techie, religious doctor, bully jock …) making it all a bit ho-hum, but nevertheless this is a solid entry in this type of tech versus supernatural thriller.

[Tina]

The synopsis for this looked promising, which was why I picked it up. I thought the plot seemed cool and I was looking forward to where it was going and watching everything unfold. But I just never got on board, so to speak, with this. For one thing, there were many characters, and it was hard to follow all of them and remember who was who. Another thing was the overuse of jargon, particularly scientific and ship-related. In my opinion, less is more and the story would have been easier to read if the author had followed this statement. I struggled to get into the story because of these things. And also, the story dragged on and was slow. At one point, I considered just putting the comic aside. But I kept going.

The story picked up about halfway through, but by that point I had already checked out. Like I said, the story was promising, but it fell short.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know that I have ever experienced a comic book which made me feel claustrophobic, but Sanctum #1, USS Nebraska managed to pull this off. The titular Nebraska is a massive US submarine which stumbles upon a derelict and unrecorded Soviet sub. The crew is long dead, but that is the least of the mysteries involved. The cargo consists of ancient poetry, perhaps some of the oldest writing known, stolen from a Nazi research program.

And just outside the Soviet submarine's final resting place, deep below modern day Syria, is an ancient temple to the Ugarit god of death. A team from the Nebraska goes in to investigate and promptly disappears. Meanwhile, the crew of the Nebraska are showing weird symptoms ranging from unprovoked aggression to signs of the plague.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

Question mark overdose- doesn't the writer understand that mystery can't build properly without pillars of understanding to reference as the story gets more complicated? There is plenty that's discernible throughout but it's all auxiliary stuff.

I like what they're "going for" and the art is beautiful but from the first scene until the last I was totally lost and at the end of this section of the story I have NO desire to continue!

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Sanctum” by Xavier Dorison, etc
Intense Lovecraft-ian US naval submarine on a supposed rescue mission finds themselves exploring an ancient submerged archaeological site. Sci-Fi (ish) horror with all the elements of a mysterious infectious ‘plague’. Lengthy and detailed and unique. ****

#1 – “We’re approaching the source of the signal, Commander.” – [and later] “You’re now inside .. it’s inner sanctum.”

[Charles-Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

L’intrigue est pas méchante ; on nage dans les eaux mystico-nazi à-la Indiana Jones, mais avec le ton de Tom Clancy. J’aurais aimé que ça se passe un peu moins dans le menu détail du quotidien des sous-mariniers et que le dessin soit plus alléchant, mais ma curiosité est quand même piqué. Les personnages sont tous vaguement identiques et je n’ai aucun problème à ce qu’ils meurent tous dans le prochain tome, je sais pas si c’est bon signe…

[Damian Herde · Rating 3 out of 5]

An underwater mystery with a sunken city, investigated by a US military submarine, and it’s still not riveting reading.

While the blurb says “Lovecraftian”, there is nothing within to substantiate the claim. By the end we have experienced a lot of build up, an inexplicable illness, some atmospheric ancient ruins, and a guy going crazy. Everything is still very explainable, and the story even gives it a good shot.

The art is good to great. The writing is average. The pacing is not great.

I’ll push on to volume 2 and hope it picks up.

[Dan R Dick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Wonderful Surprise

Took a chance on this because it was offered on Kindle Unlimited. One of the best graphic novels I have read this year. Beautiful artwork, compelling story, good characters. Highly recommended.

[Maria Dellaporta · Rating 3 out of 5]

#Readathon2021 - Graphic Novels // Maria Reads Youtube Channel

[Kenneth May]

Excellent story and super graphics.

The narrative flows along and the dialogue is snappy. There's enough suspense and mystery to keep you gripped and to make you want to read the next part of the series.

[tivasyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

непогана зав'язка.

[John W. Dilley Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intetesting!

A very Lovecraftian story about a US submarine crew stumbling across the unexpected deep beneath the sea. Great atmosphere and an intriguing mystery.

[Fernando Bedoya · Rating 5 out of 5]

The temple In comic version

Very enjoyable reading intense story and good illustrations. Wasn’t expecting much and was happily surprised. Definitely recommend for any hpl fan

[Rev Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read English verison

[Melzoud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je n'ai pas accroché au style des illustrations

[Iris Schechter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bonne histoire mais parfois un peu difficile à suivre