Rahan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rahan is the name of a French comic book series about a very intelligent prehistoric man, moving from land to land and tribe to tribe while spreading goodwill among those-who-walk-on-two-feet and a powerful ethic of cooperation. With his open altruism often at odds with his powerful will to survive, Rahan's ethic is encompassed by the qualities represented by the bear-claw necklace he received from his dying adoptive father: courage, loyalty, generosity, tenacity, wisdom. Also, after he gets married, he receives a sixth claw, the claw of curiosity. That is well deserved, since in every one of the more than 100 stories spread over 30 years and 3300 pages of illustration (as of June 2005), Rahan uses the scientific method to pick up some bit of knowledge from nature and spin it to some useful purpose - for himself, for some human tribe or even to help some animals in distress.

Most of the scripting has been done by Roger Lecureux, and after his death in 1999, by his son, Jean Francois Lecureux. Most of the art has been drawn by Andre Cheret, as well as some other artists (Romero, Zam, DeHuescar).

The series appeared first as part of Pif Gadget, then went on in albums which collected 2 to 4 complete stories.

The main character of this series is sometimes compared with Tarzan or Conan the Barbarian, though beyond the setting there are almost no similarities.

In 2006 a movie version will be released, directed by Christophe Gans and starring Mark Dacascos in the title role.

Rahan is also the name of a village located on the banks of the Grand Canal about 5 miles from Tullamore, in County Offaly, Ireland.