Storm (Don Lawrence)

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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 (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 series can be split in two parts: The Chronicles of the Deep World (De Kronieken van de Diepe Wereld), which takes place on post-apocalyptical Earth, and The Chronicles of Pandarve (De Kronieken van Pandarve), taking place in the Pandarve multiverse. The 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.

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 and wakes up thousand years later on another planet. 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 mentioned or shown in the books.

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 (De Kronieken van de Tussentijd). 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.

The albums:

Prologue (intended as a pilot, but proved unsuccessful):

1. Commander Grek - (Commandant Grek - Gevangenen van de tijd) (1976) (written by Vince Wernham)

The Chronicles of the Deep World:

1. The deep world - (De diepe wereld) (1977) (written by Philip 'Saul' Dunn)
2. The last fighter - (De laatste vechter) (1977-1978) (written by Martin Lodewijk)
3. The people of the desert - (Het volk van de woestijn) (1978) (written by Dick Matena)
4. The green hell - (De groene hel) (1978-1979) (written by Dick Matena)
5. The battle for Earth - (De strijd om de aarde) (1979) (written by Dick Matena)
6. The secret of the nitron rays - (Het geheim van de nitronstralen) (1979-1980) (written by Dick Matena)
7. The legend of Yggdrasil - (De legende van Yggdrasil) (1980) (written by Kelvin Gosnell)
8. City of the damned - (Stad der verdoemden) (1980-1981) (written by Kelvin Gosnell)
9. The creeping death - (De sluimerende dood) (1981) (written by Don Lawrence)

The Chronicles of Pandarve: all written by Martin Lodewijk

1. The pirates of Pandarve - (De piraten van Pandarve) (1982)
2. The labyrinth of death - (Het doolhof van de dood) (1983)
3. The seven of Aromater - (De zeven van Aromater) (1983)
4. The slayer of Eriban - (De doder van Eriban) (1984)
5. The dogs of Marduk - (De honden van Marduk) (1984-1985)
6. The living planet - (De levende planeet) (1985-1986)
7. Vandaahl the destroyer - (Vandaahl de verderver) (1986-1987)
8. The twisted world - (De wentelwereld) (1988)
9. The robots of Farseid - (De robots van Danderzei) (1989)
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) (1999-2001)

The Chronicles of the Between-time: all written by Martin Lodewijk

1. The Voyager virus - (Het Voyager virus) (1996)
2. The Dallas paradox - (De Dallas paradox) (1997)
3. The eater of stars - (De sterrenvreter) (1998)
4. Klein space - (De ruimte van klein) (unfinished and unpublished)

[edit] External links

• Storm official site
• Don Lawrence official site
• A list of all books (in Dutch)
• German site on Don Lawrence's work