Valérian (comics)
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Created by writer Pierre Christin (born 1938) and artist Jean-Claude Mezieres (born 1938), Valérian and his redheaded companion Laureline are science-fiction adventurers. Their travels take them throughout the universe, sometimes involving temporal paradoxes.
The French cartoon series debuted in 1967, in issue #420 of Pilote Magazine, and continues today, with the latest installment published in 2004. The series has been translated into several languages, including English, Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese (it was once a weekly feature of the influential newspaper "O Globo").
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Setting
Originally Valérian and Laureline were law enforcement agents patrolling space-time on behalf of Galaxity, Earth's 28th century galactic empire. Since the album The Lightnings of Hypsis however, the pair have become freelance troubleshooters, travelling the future and the present.
While the stories take place at a very wide range of worlds or epochs, there are some important central locations. One is the vast space station Central Point, an ancient meeting place for many different species from all over the galaxy. Central Point functions an intergalactic equivalent of the UNO, chaired by rotating ambassadors.
The Valérian and Laureline's spaceship, the xb982, allows the agents to travel everywhere, sometimes using a space-time jump, a sort of hyperspace drive enabling near-instant transportation.
Characters
Valérian & Laureline
In the first adventure, Valérian was a lone agent. Travelling in time on a mission to capture the Galaxity renegade Xiombul in the French Middle Ages, Valérian is saved by Laureline, a young peasant. Because time-travel must remain secret to the people living of the past, Valérian takes her to the future where she becomes his partner.
Valérian is the calmer one of the two; trained to believe that the actions and policies of Galaxity are always right, he wants to do things properly and by the book. In contrast Laureline is skeptical of authority in general and is more impulsive.
Other Characters
The series features several reccurring characters, including:
- The head of the Space-Time Service.
- Mr. Albert - Galaxity's contact in the 20th century.
- Shingouz - Corrupt aliens who trade in information.
List of volumes
- La cité des eaux mouvantes (1970)
- L'Empire des Mille Planètes (1971)
- Le Pays sans Etoiles (1972)
- Bienvenue sur Alflolol (1972)
- Les oiseaux du maître (1973)
- L'ambassadeurs des ombres (1975)
- Sur les terres truquées (1977)
- Les Héros de l'Equinoxe (1978)
- Métro Châtelet Direction Cassiopée (1980)
- Brooklyn Station Terminus Cosmos (1981)
- Les spectres d'Inverloch (1984)
- Les foudres d'Hypsis (1985)
- Sur les frontières (1988)
- Les armes vivantes (1990)
- Les cercles du pouvoir (1994)
- Les otages de l'Ultralum (1996)
- L'orphelin des astres (1998)
- Les mauvais réves (1968, republished 2000)
- Par des temps incertains (2001)
- Au bord du grand rien (2004)
TV series
As of 2005, an animated TV series adaption has been announced to be in production.
External links
- Valérian @ Cool French Comics (http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/valerian.htm)
- Valérian et Laureline at the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429462/)
- Valérian in different languages (http://www.saunalahti.fi/~alatera/Valerian/eri_kielet.html)fr:Valérian
