The Living Weapons
Encyclopedia
The Living Weapons is volume fourteen in the French
comic book
(or bande dessinée
) science fiction
series Valérian and Laureline created by writer Pierre Christin
and artist Jean-Claude Mézières
.
But what brings a caravan of stray cosmic artists with astonishing physical powers to this place? And what is Valérian carrying in a sealed contained that annoys Laureline so prodigiously?
It is this album that a newcomer makes his first appearance: the wretched Schniarfeur
. Welcome to the comic bestiary of Valérian and Laureline!
(translated from the back cover blurb
to the French edition)
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
comic book
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...
(or bande dessinée
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
) 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...
series Valérian and Laureline created by writer Pierre Christin
Pierre Christin
- Biography :Christin was born at Saint-Mandé in 1938.After graduating from the Sorbonne, Christin pursued graduate studies in political science at SciencesPo and became a professor of French literature at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. His first comics story, Le Rhum du Punch, illustrated...
and artist Jean-Claude Mézières
Jean-Claude Mézières
Jean-Claude Mézières is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis...
.
Outline
Valérian and Laureline's astroship, seriously damaged, crash lands on Blopik. An anarchic, feudal planet which hosts wars as antiquated as inexplicable.But what brings a caravan of stray cosmic artists with astonishing physical powers to this place? And what is Valérian carrying in a sealed contained that annoys Laureline so prodigiously?
It is this album that a newcomer makes his first appearance: the wretched Schniarfeur
Schniarfeur
Schniarfeurs are a fictional, alien species created by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières in the French comic book series Valérian and Laureline.Schniarfeurs are small, purple, vaguely humanoid creatures less than half a metre tall...
. Welcome to the comic bestiary of Valérian and Laureline!
(translated from the back cover blurb
Blurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
to the French edition)
Principal characters
- Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent from Galaxity, future capital of Earth, in the 28th century.
- Laureline, originally from France in the 11th century, now a spatio-temporal agent of Galaxity in the 28th century.
- Albert, Valérian and Laureline's contact on 20th century Earth .
- Brittibrit, a transformist artist from the planet Chab.
- Doum A Goum, a virtually indestructible, rock-eating creature.
- Yfysania, a creature capable of teleportation.
- Schniarfeur, a living weapon from the planet Bromn. The Schniarfeur's weapons are its irritating voice and its destructive spit. The planet Bromn is so dangerous that all its inhabitants, including the Schniarfeur, are in a state of perpetual aggression. A Schniarfeur's aggression can be tempered by operating on its chabounal gland.
- Rompf, a Lord of War from Blopik.
- Wauk, a Lord of War from Blopik and Rompf's rival.
Settings
- Blopik, the third planet in the Constellation of OrpheusLyraLyra is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Its principal star, Vega — a corner of the Summer Triangle — is one of the brightest...
. Blopikians are a mixture of minotaurMinotaurIn Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
and centaurCentaurIn Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...
having the head of a bull and the body of a horse. Despite their fearsome appearance, they are ruminantRuminantA ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first compartment of the stomach, principally through bacterial actions, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again...
s. Their planet is mostly rocky, primarily red and brown in colour with many canyons and ravines. Primitive wooded bridges connect the ravines. The Blopikian natives regularly make war on their great plains. When the forests of the high ranges reach maturity and bear fruit, the Blopikians set them on fire to start the war between the rival tribes. - EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, the late 1980s after the events of On the FrontiersOn the FrontiersOn the Frontiers is volume thirteen in the French comic book science fiction series Valérian and Laureline created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières.-Outline:...
but before the collapse of the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Valérian and Laureline take Brittibrit, Doum-a-Goum and Yfysania to join the Moscow State CircusMoscow State CircusThe title “Moscow State Circus” is used for a variety of circuses. Most commonly, it refers to one of the two circus buildings in Moscow, the “” and the “Bolshoi Circus” , or to traveling shows which may or may not be directly related to Russia.The Russian Circus rose to world acclaim during the...
.