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) 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.
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.
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 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 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]. Storms 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 Ygdrassil 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 Van Neumann Machine, The Genesis Equation and The Armageddon Traveller) from Don's hand stand out for both their stories and artwork.[citation needed] 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 of various "cocoons". Around the 21st century one "cocoon" was sent into space with the purpose of making 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 off. 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).
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 still writes the scenario, Romano Molenaar and Jorg De Vos do the artwork. Their first album The Navel of the Double God (De Navel van de Dubbele God) is available since September 6, 2007 in Dutch. Storm 23 is already reprinted and has given Storm a renewed international interest. The next album, titled Marduk's Springs, was released in February 2009.
Since July 2008 there has been a second team working on Storm. Minck Oosterveer is doing the artwork and Willem Ritstier writes the stories. Their first album will be called The Exile of Thoem.
HOTFILE
Download Storm 01 Dunia Bawah Tanah
Download Storm 02 Pendekar Terakhir
Download Storm 03 Bangsa Padang Garam
Download Storm 04 Neraka Bumi
Download Storm 05 Pertempuran Demi Bumi
Download Storm 06 Misteri Sinar Nitron
Download Storm 07 Legenda Yggorasil
Download Storm 08 Kota Terkutuk
Download Storm 09 Makar Asmara
Download Storm 10 Bajak Pandarve
Download Storm 11 Lorong Kematian
FILESERVE
Download Storm 01 Dunia Bawah Tanah
Download Storm 02 Pendekar Terakhir
Download Storm 03 Bangsa Padang Garam
Download Storm 04 Neraka Bumi
Download Storm 05 Pertempuran Demi Bumi
Download Storm 06 Misteri Sinar Nitron
Download Storm 07 Legenda Yggorasil
Download Storm 08 Kota Terkutuk
Download Storm 09 Makar Asmara
Download Storm 10 Bajak Pandarve
Download Storm 11 Lorong Kematian