The Rainbow Orchid
Encyclopedia
The Rainbow Orchid is a comic written and drawn by Garen Ewing
, the first of a series of planned Julius Chancer books. It is set in the 1920s and follows Chancer's expedition to discover the mythical 'Rainbow Orchid'. Starting in England, the adventure takes the characters first to France
, then Karachi
in India
and into the Indus Valley. It is drawn in the ligne claire
style and published in the UK by Egmont
.
after some frantic last-minute bidding for £79). Since then, work-in-progress (including a French translation) of the rest of the book has been available to view online. The Rainbow Orchid is published in three parts by Egmont
, the UK publisher of Tintin
. In 2010 it was released in a Dutch language edition in the Netherlands by Silvester Strips.
The adventure leads them up the Indus Valley and into Chitral
, where they encounter the Kalash
people, before heading further into the Hindu Kush
. Eventually, they find themselves within a lost world
, which may hide the secret of a forgotten super-weapon.
style: Hergé
's The Adventures of Tintin
, Edgar P. Jacobs's Blake and Mortimer
and Yves Chaland
's Freddy Lombard
. The story has its roots in the lost world adventure fiction of writers such as Rider Haggard, Jules Verne
and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Girdle of Polly Hipple is four pages long and looks at one of the first reporting jobs of William Pickle. It first appeared in Twelve, a comic strip anthology from Accent UK. This comic had 12 different stories from 12 different creators, each story being based around one of the 12 tasks of Hercules
.
The Sword of Truth is six pages long and looks at an event in the early career of Lily Lawrence. It first appeared in The Girly Comic issue 5 in May 2004. It tells the story of two actors struggling for Lily's affections on her first stage appearance.
.
:
of the Year 2006 (for the online preview) and Fool Britannia Small Press
Comic of the Year 2003 by Comics Bulletin
.
Garen Ewing
Garen Ewing is an illustrator, designer and most notably a comic creator, being the writer and illustrator of The Adventures of Julius Chancer - The Rainbow Orchid....
, the first of a series of planned Julius Chancer books. It is set in the 1920s and follows Chancer's expedition to discover the mythical 'Rainbow Orchid'. Starting in England, the adventure takes the characters first to France
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...
, then Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and into the Indus Valley. It is drawn in the ligne claire
Ligne claire
Ligne claire is a style of drawing pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It uses clear strong lines of uniform importance. Artists working in it do not use hatching, while contrast is downplayed as well...
style and published in the UK by Egmont
Egmont Publishing
The Egmont Group is a media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing but has over the years evolved to comprise media generally....
.
Publication history
In 1997 a three page preview of The Rainbow Orchid appeared in Cherokee Comics' magazine Imagineers. Regular serialisation began in 2002 in BAM! magazine. When the first part was complete it was published as a black and white collection which sold out within months (the last copy was sold on eBayEBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
after some frantic last-minute bidding for £79). Since then, work-in-progress (including a French translation) of the rest of the book has been available to view online. The Rainbow Orchid is published in three parts by Egmont
Egmont Publishing
The Egmont Group is a media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing but has over the years evolved to comprise media generally....
, the UK publisher of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
. In 2010 it was released in a Dutch language edition in the Netherlands by Silvester Strips.
Plot
Julius Chancer, young assistant to the historical researcher Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey, becomes embroiled in an adventure to discover the lost Rainbow Orchid, largely due to the machinations of scheming Daily News reporter William Pickle. He is accompanied by silent film actress Lily Lawrence, her American agent Nathaniel Crumpole, and Tayaut, a French stunt-pilot. The search for the orchid is opposed by the devious Evelyn Crow, right hand associate to scheming businessman Urkaz Grope.The adventure leads them up the Indus Valley and into Chitral
Chitral
Chitral or Chetrar , translated as field in the native language Khowar, is the capital of the Chitral District, situated on the western bank of the Kunar River , in Pakistan. The town is at the foot of Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush, high...
, where they encounter the Kalash
Kalash
Kalasha or Kalash may refer to:*Kalash people of Chitral, northern Pakistan**Kalasha **Kalash language, also known as Kalasha-mondr**Kalasha Desh, their valleys*Nuristani people of Nuristan, Afghanistan...
people, before heading further into the Hindu Kush
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a...
. Eventually, they find themselves within a lost world
Lost World (genre)
The Lost World literary genre is a fantasy or science fiction genre that involves the discovery of a new world out of time, place, or both. It began as a subgenre of the late-Victorian imperial romance and remains popular to this day....
, which may hide the secret of a forgotten super-weapon.
Main characters
The book's main characters:- Julius Chancer ~ The young, slightly camp adventurer in the employ of Sir Alfred.
- Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey ~ An historical researcher, antiquarian to the King, and ex-director of the secretive Empire Survey Branch.
- Sir Reginald Pritchard Lawrence ~ The 15th Earl of Baggall, who "owns half of StaffordshireStaffordshireStaffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
", he is the holder of the Trembling Sword of Tybalt Stone. Unfortunately he has a weakness for the bottle... - Lily Lawrence ~ A young silent filmSilent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
star who is intent on saving her family estate and her father's reputation. - Nathaniel Crumpole ~ Lily Lawrence's movie publicity agent, and wannabe film director.
- William Pickle ~ The nosy reporter, willing to stop at nothing to get his next scoop.
- Urkaz Grope ~ The evil tycoon intent on getting his hands on the Trembling Sword of Tybalt Stone. In choosing this name, Ewing was inspired by Dickens' Uriah HeepUriah HeepUriah Heep is a fictional character created by Charles Dickens in his novel David Copperfield.The character is notable for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own "'umbleness". His name has become synonymous with being a yes man...
. - Evelyn Crow ~ Grope's right hand associate. Clever, devious, subtle and she doesn't give up.
- Box ~ The largest and most brutish of Grope's henchmen.
- Tayaut ~ Former Hollywood stunt-pilot, now with his own acrobatic flying circus. Tayaut is French for Tally-ho!
Sample pages
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Inspirations
Ewing has cited several comics as inspirations, most of them drawn in the ligne claireLigne claire
Ligne claire is a style of drawing pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It uses clear strong lines of uniform importance. Artists working in it do not use hatching, while contrast is downplayed as well...
style: Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
's The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
, Edgar P. Jacobs's 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...
and Yves Chaland
Yves Chaland
Yves Chaland was a French cartoonist.During the 1980s, together with Ted Benoît, Serge Clerc and Floc'h, he relaunched the Ligne claire style in French comics.-Biography:Chaland published his first strips in the fanzine Biblipop when he...
's Freddy Lombard
The Adventures of Freddy Lombard
The Adventures of Freddy Lombard is a comic book series created by Yves Chaland. Five albums were released, all during the 1980s, before Chaland's untimely death. They were originally written in French, though have since received publication into English...
. The story has its roots in the lost world adventure fiction of writers such as Rider Haggard, Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Prequels
Two short stories set before the events in The Rainbow Orchid have appeared in print, each looking at the earlier lives of certain characters.The Girdle of Polly Hipple is four pages long and looks at one of the first reporting jobs of William Pickle. It first appeared in Twelve, a comic strip anthology from Accent UK. This comic had 12 different stories from 12 different creators, each story being based around one of the 12 tasks of Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
.
The Sword of Truth is six pages long and looks at an event in the early career of Lily Lawrence. It first appeared in The Girly Comic issue 5 in May 2004. It tells the story of two actors struggling for Lily's affections on her first stage appearance.
Sequels
Ewing has said that he hopes that this will be the first in a series of Julius Chancer books. He plans to set the next one entirely in BritainUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Collected editions
The series has been collected into trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
:
- Volume 1 (48 pages, Egmont, August 2009, ISBN 140524853X)
- Volume 2 (48 pages, Egmont, July 2010, ISBN 140525047X)
Reception
The Rainbow Orchid has received considerable critical acclaim. It was shortlisted for a UK National Comic Awards 2004 in two categories, Best Indepdendent Comic and Best New Talent. It was also named Fool Britannia WebcomicWebcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
of the Year 2006 (for the online preview) and Fool Britannia Small Press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
Comic of the Year 2003 by Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...
.
- "This is a spectacular work... the art is wonderfully attractive but what impressed me the most was the slow-burning, exquisitely constructed plot." - Comics InternationalComics InternationalComics International was a British news and reviews magazine about comic books. Founded in 1990, it was published monthly by Quality Communications until 2006...
- "The characters are real, the setting is authentic, and this opening chapter hints at many plot strands. It's got depth, charm and real polish." - TRS2
- "It is not just ambitious but it works and with élan. The different levels of the story and their attendant styles lend a tremendous feeling of depth to the whole book.." - Zum
- "The between-the-wars setting is meticulously rendered, the storyline intricate and engrossing... Ewing has crafted something at once reverential and joyous that has a life of its own." - James LovegroveJames LovegroveJames Lovegrove is a British writer of speculative fiction. His first novel was The Hope, published by Macmillan in 1990. He was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1998 for his novel Days and for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2004 for his novel Untied Kingdom...
, (Financial TimesFinancial TimesThe Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
) - "Tightly-plotted, well-researched and beautifully drawn, this book is a real delight. Garen Ewing's mix of engaging characters, exciting old-school adventure, attractive ligne claire artwork and fluid storytelling makes The Rainbow Orchid easily one of the best graphic novels of the year." - Bryan TalbotBryan TalbotBryan Talbot is a British comic book artist and writer, born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1952. He is best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire.-Career:...
- "...beneath the obvious beauty of the artwork is an equally great, old fashioned adventure tale. It works for children and it works for us adults. An absolutely cracking adventure story." - Forbidden Planet InternationalForbidden Planet (bookstore)Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States of America, after the feature film of the same name....
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