Le Rayon U
Encyclopedia
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
written and drawn by the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
comics creator
Comic book creator
A comic book creator is someone who creates a comic book or graphic novel.The production of a comic book by one of the major comic book companies in the U.S...
Edgar P. Jacobs in 1943.
Publication history
In 1941, the outbreak of warWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
between Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and the USA meant that American comic strips could no longer be imported into Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
-occupied Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Alex Raymond
Alex Raymond
Alexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating Flash Gordon for King Features in 1934...
's strip, Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
, was then being published in the Belgian comics magazine
Franco-Belgian comics magazines
Belgium and France have a long tradition in comics. They have a common history for comics and magazines.In the early years of its history, magazines had a large place on the comics market and were often the only place where comics were published. Most of them were kids-targeted.In the 1970s,...
Bravo. Artist and former opera singer, Edgar Pierre Jacobs
Edgar Pierre Jacobs
Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs, , better known under his pen name Edgar P. Jacobs, was a Belgian comic book creator , born in Brussels, Belgium...
was therefore asked to bring the current story to a satisfactory conclusion, which he did. He was then commissioned to produce a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comic strip of his own. Le Rayon U ("The U-Ray") began serial publication in Bravo in 1943. This version had text boxes which described the action and the dialogues in the style of many Belgian comics of the time, similar in a way to Hal Foster's version of Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
and Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...
.
In 1974 Jacobs reformatted Le Rayon U in order to include speech bubbles. This version was published in the comics magazine Tintin
Tintin (magazine)
Le journal de Tintin or Kuifje , was a weekly Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century...
, and in book form by Dargaud
Dargaud
Les Éditions Dargaud is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1943 by Georges Dargaud.Initially, Dargaud published novels for women...
-Le Lombard
Le Lombard
Le Lombard or Lombard Editions is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when the Tintin magazine was launched. In 1986 the company was acquired by Média-Participations.-Titles:Lombard's more famous series include:*Clifton...
.
Synopsis
Le Rayon U is set on an Earth-like planet which combines elements of the distant past, present and far future. Two of its nations, Norlandia and Austradia, are in conflict. A Norlandian scientist, Marduk, has devised a weapon called the "U Ray", but requires a mineral called uradium in order to put it to actual use.Marduk therefore organises an expedition
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
into an unknown part of the planet in order to find the uradium. Those accompanying him include: his assistant Sylvia Hollis; the explorer Lord Calder; Adji, Calder's Indian manservant; and Major Walton and Sergeant Mac Duff of the Norlandian secret service.
The explorers
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
encounter all manners of threats, including prehistoric monsters, giant snakes and tigers, a tribe of hostile ape
Ape
Apes are Old World anthropoid mammals, more specifically a clade of tailless catarrhine primates, belonging to the biological superfamily Hominoidea. The apes are native to Africa and South-east Asia, although in relatively recent times humans have spread all over the world...
-men, and the meddling of Austradian spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
Captain Dagon. More welcoming, but no less intriguing, is a civilisation of Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
-like people.
Characters
In itself Le Rayon U is a classic of Belgian science fiction, but the influence of Flash Gordon cannot be denied:- The Austradian Emperor Babylos III resembles Ming the MercilessMing the MercilessMing the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, TV shows and film adaptation.- First appearance :...
; - In appearance, Marduk, Lord Calder and Major Walton are similar to Hans ZarkovHans ZarkovDr. Hans Zarkov is a fictional character appearing in the Flash Gordon comic strip. Zarkov is a brilliant scientist who creates a rocket and forces Flash and Dale Arden to come with him to the planet Mongo, and fight against Ming the Merciless...
, Prince BarinPrince BarinPrince Barin is a character in the Flash Gordon stories. He is king of a region of Mongo called Arboria. Barin becomes one of Flash's best friends, and is deeply in love with Princess Aura....
and Flash GordonFlash GordonFlash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
respectively; - Like the dark-haired Dale ArdenDale ArdenDale Arden is a fictional character, the fellow-adventurer and love interest of Flash Gordon and a prototypic heroine for later female characters, including Princess Leia Organa and Padme Amidala in Star Wars. Flash, Dale and Dr...
, the dark-haired Sylvia Hollis is coveted by almost every male character she meets, be it man or beast!
Dagon, the main villain, was modelled on Jacobs himself.
Marduk, Calder and Dagon were to be the models for Mortimer, Blake and Olrik, in Jacobs's classic series Blake and Mortimer
Blake and Mortimer
Blake and Mortimer is a Belgian comics series created by the Belgian writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Belgian comics magazine Tintin in 1946, and was subsequently published in book form by Les Editions du Lombard.The main protagonists of the...
.
External links
- Le Rayon U article on Cool French Comics