Storm (Don Lawrence)

Storm is a soft science fiction/fantasy comic book series originally (and for most albums) drawn by Don Lawrence. The series is primarily available in Dutch, although all the books are translated in English and German, and some in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Indonesian. The books are published by Big Balloon, Uitgeverij Oberon (both Dutch), Egmont Ehapa Verlag, Norbert Hethke Verlag (both German), Star Comics and Esperos Comics (both Greek), Incal (Polish), and Glénat (French). English copies are published in the Don Lawrence collection. The Living Planet and The Slayer of Eriban were also published in Heavy Metal magazine in January 1997 and March 1999. The Navel of the Double God had an early publication in the Dutch magazine Myx.^[1]

Overview

The actual series can be split in two parts: The Chronicles of the Deep World, which takes place on post-apocalyptical Earth, and The Chronicles of Pandarve, taking place in the Pandarve multiverse.

Characters

The main characters are Storm himself, Roodhaar/Redhair/Carrots/Ember, Nomad and Marduk, the Theocrat of Pandarve, although the last two only make their appearance in The Chronicles of Pandarve. Storm is an astronaut who accidentally got lost in time. Ember is a beautiful red-haired girl and Nomad is a hairless red skinned muscle man.

Commander Grek

The Deep World was originally conceived as a framework for stories revolving around the character Commander Grek. An episode was written in 1976 by Vince Wernham and drawn by Don Lawrence, which was not picked up by Dutch publisher Oberon. The story was later reworked by Philip Dunn, now with the astronaut Storm as the main character. Storm did get published by Oberon. When Storm appeared to be a success, the previously unreleased Commander Grek album was published as part of the Storm series, as "Episode 0". The album includes background information regarding the inception of Commander Grek and Storm.

The Chronicles of the Deep World

Storm is an astronaut in the 21st century who makes a journey to the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. The Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic storm which has already been there for at least 300 years. Once arrived, his ship gets dragged into the storm. When Storm manages to escape, it seems he has traveled through time. The civilizations on Earth have collapsed and turned into a barbaric society. This is where the adventures of Storm begin.

Apart from albums 4, 5 and 6, each album is a separate adventure.

The Chronicles of Pandarve

Storm and Ember get beamed to the Pandarve multiverse, where they meet Nomad, and a new enemy: Marduk, the Theocrat of Pandarve. Marduk wants to catch Storm, because Storm is an anomaly (he imbalances the multiverse because he traveled through time) and is the key to give him power over the multiverse. The Pandarve multiverse is a bubble of breathable gas surrounding a white hole that contains Pandarve itself, and thousands of other planetary objects. The main body, Pandarve, is a giant telluric planet. At Pandarve, the normal physical laws are no longer valid; this gives Don and Martin room for incredible stories and magnificent scenery. Also, Pandarve is a living planet - which means it has intellect and can even interact with other beings. For this interaction she normally relies on her Theocrat, but she is also capable of creating a humanlike representation of herself [Alice]. Storm's time travel remains important, but Ember has also travelled through time. So she is (or should be) an anomaly as well (In the Legend of Yggdrasil, they both arrive in a certain time period together). This fact is never really used in the stories.

Other planets and planetoids in the Pandarve multiverse described in the chronicles are:

• Farseid - a synthetic ring world controlled by robots. (The Robots of Farseid)
• Eriban - a paradise-like planet containing the academy for slayers. (The Slayer of Eriban)
• Kyrte - the small home-planetoid of tariev-fisher Rann. (The Pirates of Pandarve)
• Marrow - a crystal-shaped planet, home of the Barsaman-games. (The Slayer of Eriban)
• Red Tear - a satellite of Pandarve, a few kilometers above the ocean near the city Aromater. (The Seven of Aromater)
• Vertiga Bas - a small pirate planet. (The Pirates of Pandarve)
• Waterplanetoid - a fisher-world completely covered with water. (Vandaahl the Destroyer)

The last three albums (The Von Neumann Machine, The Genesis Equation and The Armageddon Traveller) form a trilogy wherein Storm & co and Marduk need to work together to save Pandarve from perdition. A strange, gigantic "spaceship" (referred to as the Intruder) is headed for a collision with Pandarve, which will mean the end of both entities. The "spaceship" consists of various "cocoons". Some time around the 21st century, one "cocoon" was sent into space with the purpose of making replicas of itself. But because of a system error, the strangest "cocoons" started to emerge (including one resembling Heaven and one the Hell from La Divina Commedia) and cluttered together instead of floating off. There are some references to well-known stories (Alice in Wonderland, Hänsel und Gretel, Sherlock Holmes, ..), movies (My Little Chickadee and other Western influences), celebrity actors(Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe, ..) and some mathematical theorems (the Genesis Formula, Goldbach's Conjecture and Fermat's last theorem).

Chronicles of Meanwhile

About the time when The Genesis Equation was published, a spin-off series was started, called Chronicles of Meanwhile. The episodes take place between albums 6 and 7 of The Chronicles of the Deep World. Three episodes were released, drawn by Dick Matena, the first two under his pseudonym John Kelly.

Continuation

Cover of the Storm album De Navel van de Dubbele God - (The Navel of the Double God).

Three years after Don Lawrence died, a new team continued his work. Martin Lodewijk maintained the writer role, while Romano Molenaar and Jorg De Vos were selected as artists.^[2] Their first album The Navel of the Double God (De Navel van de Dubbele God) has been available since September 6, 2007 in Dutch. Storm 23 has already been reprinted and has given Storm a renewed international interest. The next album, titled Marduk's Springs, was released in February 2009.^[3]

Since July 2008 there has been a second team working on Storm: Minck Oosterveer as artist and Willem Ritstier as writer. Their first album was called The Exile of Thoem.^[4]

Albums

Prologue

1. Commander Grek - Prisoners of time (Commandant Grek - Gevangenen van de tijd) (1976 - first print in 1984) (written by Vince Wernham)

The Chronicles of the Deep World

1. The Deep World - (De Diepe Wereld) (1978) (written by Philip 'Saul' Dunn)
2. The Last Fighter - (De Laatste Vechter) (1979) (written by Martin Lodewijk)
3. The People of the Desert - (Het Volk van de Woestijn) (1979) (written by Dick Matena)
4. The Green Hell - (De Groene Hel) (1980) (written by Dick Matena)
5. The Battle for Earth - (De Strijd om de Aarde) (1980) (written by Dick Matena)
6. The Secret of the Nitron Rays - (Het Geheim van de Nitronstralen) (1981) (written by Dick Matena)
7. The Legend of Yggdrasil - (De Legende van Yggdrasil) (1981) (written by Kelvin Gosnell)
8. City of the Damned - (Stad der Verdoemden) (1982) (written by Kelvin Gosnell)
9. The Creeping Death - (De Sluimerende Dood) (1982) (written by Don Lawrence)

The Chronicles of Pandarve

Written by Martin Lodewijk.

1. The Pirates of Pandarve - (De Piraten van Pandarve) (1983)
2. The Labyrinth of Death - (Het Doolhof van de Dood) (1983)
3. The Seven of Aromater - (De Zeven van Aromater) (1984)
4. The Slayer of Eriban - (De Doder van Eriban) (1985)
5. The Dogs of Marduk - (De Honden van Marduk) (1985)
6. The Living Planet - (De Levende Planeet) (1986)
7. Vandaahl the Destroyer - (Vandaahl de Verderver) (1987)
8. The Twisted World - (De Wentelwereld) (1988)
9. The Robots of Far Sied - (De Robots van Danderzei) (1990)
10. Return of the Red Prince - (De Terugkeer van de Rode Prins) (1991)
11. The Von Neumann Machine - (De Von Neumann-Machine) (1993)
12. The Genesis Equation - (De Genesis-Formule) (1995)
13. The Armageddon Traveller - (De Armageddon Reiziger) (2001)
14. The Navel of the Double God - (De Navel van de Dubbele God) (2007)
15. Marduk's Springs - (De Bronnen van Marduk) (2009)
16. The Red Trail - (Het Rode Spoor) (2010)
17. The Mutineers of Anchor - (De Muiters van Anker) (2011)

Chronicles of Meanwhile

Written by Martin Lodewijk, artwork by Dick Matena.

1. The Voyager Virus - (Het Voyager Virus) (1996)
2. The Dallas Paradox - (De Dallas Paradox) (1997)
3. The Stargorger - (De Sterrenvreter) (1998)
4. Klein Space - (De Ruimte van Klein) (unfinished and unpublished)

Chronicles of the Outer Rim

Written by Willem Ritstier, artwork by Minck Oosterveer

1. The Expatriate of Thoem - (De Banneling van Thoem) (2011)

The Collection

The Deluxe volumes are hardback with a leather cover, gold imprint and dust jacket. Each bundle contains two albums and a part of the Storm-dossier "The Search for Storm". The last part also contains "Storm - The Big Picture" which gives an overview of Storm in the press, Storm expositions, the status of Storm in the modern comic scene and a portfolio. Only available in Dutch and English.

1. The Collection - Part 1 (contains The Deep World, The Last Fighter and The search for Storm - part 1) (2000)
2. The Collection - Part 2 (contains The People of the Desert, Green Hell and The search for Storm - part 2) (2000)
3. The Collection - Part 3 (contains The Battle for Earth, The Secret of the Nitron Rays and The search for Storm - part 3) (2001)
4. The Collection - Part 4 (contains The Legend of Yggdrasil, City of the Damned and The search for Storm - part 4) (2001)
5. The Collection - Part 5 (contains The Creeping Death, The Pirates of Pandarve and The search for Storm - part 5) (2001)
6. The Collection - Part 6 (contains The Labyrinth of Death, The Seven of Aromater and The search for Storm - part 6) (2002)
7. The Collection - Part 7 (contains The Slayer of Eriban, The Hounds of Marduk and The search for Storm - part 7) (2002)
8. The Collection - Part 8 (contains The Living Planet, Vandaahl the Destroyer and The search for Storm - part 8) (2002)
9. The Collection - Part 9 (contains The Twisted World, The Robots of Farseid and The search for Storm - part 9) (2003)
10. The Collection - Part 10 (contains Return of the Red Prince, The Von Neumann Machine and The search for Storm - part 10) (2003)
11. The Collection - Part 11 (contains The Genesis Equation, The Armageddon Traveler and The search for Storm - part 11) (2003)
12. The Collection - Part 12 (contains Commander Grek, Storm - The Big Picture and The search for Storm - part 12) (2003)

See also

• Don Lawrence
• The Trigan Empire

References

External links

• Official website
• Don Lawrence official site
• German site on Don Lawrence's work