On February 25 a graphic album we want to highlight is released in bookstores: Les Enfants du bois, published by Drakoo, credited to Andrea Casaran for script, art and color.
Andrea Casaran will be present at Trolls & Légendes 2026.
This visit is special: it will be her first festival, her first visit to Belgium, and the first event where she will sign her albums.
It's the kind of encounter we like to offer at Trolls & Légendes: the discovery of a distinctive universe and an author to follow.
Andrea Casaran, an author with a distinctive and dark universe
Born in 1996, Andrea Casaran is an Italian author who is gradually making her mark in comics thanks to a personal style blending poetry, fantasy and strangeness. Graduated in foreign languages and literatures, she turned to drawing in 2019, first freelancing on the web, then in the Italian publishing world. In 2021, she drew attention with E pluribus unum - Sable et Givre (Shockdom), a well-received post-apocalyptic story.
Fascinated by the grotesque, creatures with unusual shapes and unsettling atmospheres, Andrea develops an atmospheric style that brings to life worlds at once dreamlike, dark and sensitive.
Her arrival in French publishing comes to fruition in February 2026 with Les Enfants du bois, at Drakoo.
Les Enfants du bois: a dark and captivating fantasy tale
Les Enfants du bois tells a contemporary, rather dark fantastic tale centered on Aliénor, a sick young girl who discovers a shattering truth about her condition. At her side, Blaise, an automaton said to have a soul.
They flee together into the forest, far from Aliénor's inventor father... but in the heart of the woods, monsters, ghosts and family secrets prove even more dangerous.
The author explores here recurring themes of her work: sibling bonds, human-machine hybridization, family secrets, and an aesthetic of the monstrous that moves as much as it intrigues.
Album summary
A dark tale in which a strange sibling group faces various monsters, starting with their own father.
For her birthday, Aliénor receives from her inventor father an extraordinary gift: a little brother with a metal body. It is not at all what she had hoped for. The toy is called Blaise, like a brother she never knew, and the inventor claims he has a soul.
With that little boy at her side, Aliénor goes on with her life until the day she discovers the horrifying truth about her illness. The two children flee into the depths of the forest, far from their father, but ghosts, ghouls and above all secrets await them there.
Visit Trolls & Légendes 2026 if you enjoy fantastical worlds, sensitive narratives and albums with a strong visual identity to discover Les Enfants du bois and meet its author.
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