A new graphic novel telling the story of Paris' environmental history and how it shaped the lives of the city's inhabitants, part of the Melting Metropolis project, is being launched in June.
A forthcoming graphic novel from the Melting Metropolis project offers an imaginative re‑telling of Paris’s environmental history. A collaboration between Professor Chris Pearson, Dr Chloé Duteil and artist Elly Bazigos the Summer in Paris: An Illustrated Journey Through History and Heat graphic novel translates complex archival and historical findings into an engaging visual form that speaks to a wide public audience. It forms part of the project’s broader commitment to creative climate storytelling and expanding how environmental knowledge can be shared and understood.
Drawing on the project’s extensive research into heat, housing, labour, and everyday urban life, the graphic novel explores the lived experiences of Parisians navigating environmental change across the twentieth century. Through richly illustrated narratives it highlights the complex relationships between social inequality, urban infrastructure, and environmental stress while reflecting the wider project’s methodological interest in interdisciplinary collaboration.
Summer in Paris’s publication marks a significant milestone for the Melting Metropolis team, offering a creative and accessible route into the project’s findings while inviting readers to reflect on the longer histories of climate vulnerability and resilience in cities. It is a work sure to be of interest to those working in environmental humanities, urban history, and climate communication, as well as to practitioners and community groups exploring new ways of narrating environmental change.
One of the illustrations from 'Summer in Paris'
Launch event details
The launch of the Summer in Paris will take place on:
- Tuesday 23 June 2026
- 5pm–7pm
- Hypha Gallery 2, 1 Poultry, London, EC2R 8EJ
The event is free to attend, but booking is required via Eventbrite. Hosted by London’s Climate Story Bank, the launch will bring together members of the research team, the creative collaborators behind the novel, and invited guests to discuss the process of transforming historical research into graphic narrative form.