XIII

A long-running Belgian thriller series from Dargaud, XIII follows an amnesiac man who wakes up with no memory of his past, a mysterious Roman numeral tattooed on his shoulder, and a mounting conspiracy that ties him to a presidential assassination. Launched in 1984, the series is most famously written by Jean Van Hamme and drawn by William Vance, whose clean ligne claire style grounds the twisting, paranoid plot in a world of shadowy government agencies and international intrigue. With over thirty installments, it remains a cornerstone of European espionage comics, blending action and mystery with the slow-burn unraveling of its protagonist’s lost identity.