Storm (Don Lawrence)

Supercbbox| title = Storm
comic_color =background:#c0c0c0


caption = Painting by Don Lawrence of Storm and Ember.
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publisher = "Big Balloon" (Dutch) "Uitgeverij Oberon" (Dutch) "Egmont Ehapa Verlag" (German) "Norbert Hethke Verlag" (German) "British European Associated Publishers LTD." (English) "Glénat" (French) "Interpresse" (Danish) "Star Comics" (Greek) "Esperos Comics" (Greek) "Apu-Magazines" (Finnish) "P.T. Gramedia" (Indonesian) "Forum Marketprint" (Yugoslavian) "Amigos Do Livro Editores LDA." (Portuguese) "Norma" (Spanish) "Sarpe" (Spanish) "Tercuman Tesisler" (Turkish)
date = 1976 – ?
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main_char_team = Storm Roodhaar/Redhair/Carrots/Ember Nomad Marduk
past_current_color=background:#ff9275
writers = Martin Lodewijk Dick Matena Kelvin Gosnell Philip 'Saul' Dunn Don Lawrence Vince Wernham
artists = Don Lawrence Dick Matena Romano Molenaar
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"Storm" is a soft science fiction/fantasy comic book series 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) 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" [ [http://www.donlawrence.co.uk/news/index.php?nshow=64 Don Lawrence - In the Myxt] (last visited on: 04-09-2008)] .

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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. In the later albums, Storm looks a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. Ember is a beautiful red-haired girl and Nomad has the physique of a black man, yet he has a red skin. Storm and Ember clearly form a couple, although their love is never expressed in the books.

Prologue

Intended as a pilot, but proved unsuccessful.

"Commander Grek", finished in 1976, was kind of a false start. The album was rejected by Uitgeverij Oberon. As a second attempt Don Lawrence took Philip Dunn to work on "The Deep World", which strongly resembles the story of "Commander Grek". When Storm appeared to be a success, this album was published. The album also contains a Storm-dossier, which has some information about Don Lawrence and the various writers.

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 is already 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 are collapsed and turned into a barbaric society. This is where the adventures of Storm begin.

Apart from album 4, 5 and 6 each album is a separate adventure and the stories are inconsistent.

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 physic laws are no longer valid, this gives Don and Martin room for incredible stories and magnificent sceneries.

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 Van Neumann Machine", "The Genesis Equation" and "The Armageddon Traveller") from Don's hand stand out for both their stories and artwork. They 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 out of various "cocoons". Around the 21st century one "cocoon" was sent into space with the purpose to make replicas. 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 of. There are some references to well-known stories (Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, Sherlock Holmes, ..), movies (My Little Chickadee and other Western influences), persons (Marilyn Monroe, ..) and some theorems (the Genesis Formula, Goldbach's Conjecture and Fermat's last theorem).

The Chronicles of the Between-time

About the time when "The Genesis Equation" was published, a spin-off of the series was started. These "chronicles" are called "The Chronicles of the Between-time". They take place between albums 6 and 7 of "The Chronicles of the Deep World". The first two were drawn by John Kelly, the third by Dick Matena (John Kelly is a pseudonym of Dick Matena). Many fans do not like these albums, because of either their poor storylines, Dick Matena's drawing style (in a way reminiscent of socialist realism), or the fact they are milking the whole concept of the Storm comic series.

Continuation

Three years after Don Lawrence died, a new team continues his work. Martin Lodewijk still writes the scenario, Romano Molenaar and Jorg De Vos do the artwork [ [http://www.donlawrence.co.uk/news/index.php?nshow=55 Don Lawrence - New Storm Artist] (last visited on: 04-09-2008)] . Their first album "The Navel of the Double God" ("De Navel van de Dubbele God") is available since September 6th, 2007 in Dutch. Storm 23 is already reprinted and has given Storm a renewed international interest. The next album, with working title "Marduk’s Springs", is expected to be released in september 2008 [ [http://www.donlawrence.co.uk/news/index.php?nshow=79 Storm 24] (last visited on: 04-09-2008)] .

Since july 2008 there's a second team to work on Storm. Minck Oosterveer is doing the artwork and Willem Ritstier writes the stories. Their first album will be called "The Exile of Thoem" [ [http://www.donlawrence.co.uk/news/index.php?nshow=86 Storm Team 2] (last visited on: 04-09-2008)] .

The albums

Prologue

# "Commander Grek" - ("Commandant Grek - Gevangenen van de tijd") (1976 - first print in 1984) (written by Vince Wernham)

The Chronicles of the Deep World

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

The Chronicles of Pandarve

All written by Martin Lodewijk.

# "The Pirates of Pandarve" - ("De Piraten van Pandarve") (1983)
# "The Labyrinth of Death" - ("Het Doolhof van de Dood") (1983)
# "The Seven of Aromater" - ("De Zeven van Aromater") (1984)
# "The Slayer of Eriban" - ("De Doder van Eriban") (1985)
# "The Hounds of Marduk" - ("De Honden van Marduk") (1985)
# "The Living Planet" - ("De Levende Planeet") (1986)
# "Vandaahl the Destroyer" - ("Vandaahl de Verderver") (1987)
# "The Twisted World" - ("De Wentelwereld") (1988)
# "The Robots of Farseid" - ("De Robots van Danderzei") (1990)
# "Return of the Red Prince" - ("De Terugkeer van de Rode Prins") (1991)
# "The Von Neumann Machine" - ("De Von Neumann-Machine") (1993)
# "The Genesis Equation" - ("De Genesis-Formule") (1995)
# "The Armageddon Traveler" - ("De Armageddon Reiziger") (2001)
# "The Navel of the Double God" - ("De Navel van de Dubbele God") (2007)
# "Marduk's Springs" - ("De Bronnen van Marduk") (2008) [ [http://www.storm.nl/storm%20de%20bronnen%20van%20marduk.htm Storm De Bronnen van Marduk] (last visited on 04-09-2008)] (unfinished and unpublished)

The Chronicles of the Between-time

All written by Martin Lodewijk, artwork by Dick Matena.

# "The Voyager Virus" - ("Het Voyager Virus") (1996)
# "The Dallas Paradox" - ("De Dallas Paradox") (1997)
# "The Eater of Stars" - ("De Sterrenvreter") (1998)
# "Klein Space" - ("De Ruimte van Klein") (unfinished and unpublished)

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.

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

References

ee also

*Don Lawrence
*Trigan Empire

External links

* [http://www.storm.nl Storm official site]
* [http://www.donlawrence.co.uk/home/index.php?lang=eng&ws=www.donlawrence.nl Don Lawrence official site]
* [http://www.zilverendolfijn.nl/zd/zd.pl?a=fc&c=1&kt=NL&s=c&k=STORM&f=ss A list of all books (in Dutch)]
* [http://www.stefan-schaetz.de/index.html German site on Don Lawrence's work]
* [http://www.greekcomics.gr Esperos Comics]