Graphic alert on climate Terrifying French hit makes debut in English

When France's best-known climate expert sat down to work with its most feted graphic novelist in 2019, the result was a terrifying comic bestseller. Part history, part analysis, part vision for the future, World Without End weaves the story of humanity's rapacious appetite for fossil fuel energy, how it has made possible the society we take for granted, and its disastrous effects on the climate. It was an immediate smash hit with French readers, selling more than 1m copies so far and becoming France's top-selling book in all categories in 2022.

- Damien Gayle

Hailed as "one of the most brilliant summaries of climate issues ever written", its controversial solutions provoked a backlash in some quarters - criticisms that now seem set to follow the book when it is published in English next week.

When Christophe Blain began work on World Without End, he was already France's most celebrated comic book artist and a recipient of international awards. He chose to call Jean-Marc Jancovici, one of France's foremost climate science communicators. “I was frightened," says Blain in an interview with the Guardian. “I realised that the climate change was a reality.

"When I'm frightened I have to move - I can't stay still, I have to jump in the action. And the action was to call Jean-Marc and tell him let's make a book together.”

Jancovici - already the author of eight books on climate breakdown and energy transition, whose online lectures on the topics had been viewed millions of times - had been waiting for just such a chance.

He says: "I felt very excited because it was a way that I knew would work for sure to get to an audience that doesn't read books and who is not in my ecosystem.”

Together, Blain and Jancovici devised a revealing deconstruction of the human-made processes that have pushed the planet to the brink of climate collapse. There are also painful truths, including the fact that 35% of the world's electricity is still produced from coal - the dirtiest of all fossil fuels.