Comic strip tour de force

A group of artists in the central French city of Lyon broke the record for the world's longest comic strip on Saturday with a 1.6km-long artwork, organisers said.

The feat brings the figurative medal for the longest comic strip back to Lyon from New York, where a group in 2014 stole its 2011 record with a 1.2km sequence of drawings.

"We have recorded a 1,600m-long comic strip, or 1,625m to be precise," said Mr Mathieu Diez, director of Lyon's comic festival, about the black-and-white cartoon that lines the wall of a tunnel in the city.

Drawn by art students from Lyon and Barcelona, the comic tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Lea who travels in time with the help of a magic pen from the Ice Age to the year 10,000.

Festival organisers hope to have their feat approved by a Guinness World Records committee within the next few months, they said. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 23, 2016, with the headline Comic strip tour de force. Subscribe