International influences
International influences |
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Page 9 of 17  The Woman Trap Other creators who made their name in science fiction included: Enki Bilal, a Yugoslavian living in Paris, whose Gods in Chaos and The Woman Trap are set in a decadent future and populated by Egyptian gods (the latter vividly pictures a decaying London beset by tribal wars); Philippe Druillet, a Frenchman, whose Lone Sloane stories, about an adventurer's travels through time and space and across the fantastical world 'Delirius', had been a centrepiece of Metal Hurlant; Matthias Schultheiss, a German, whose Bell's Theorem was a dark technological thriller; and Don Lawrence, an Englishman (who had previously worked for children's comics such as Look and Learn), whose Storm volumes, about a muscular sword-wielding hero and his battles with sundry fantastic monsters, appeared first in Europe, and were then re-translated back into English. If science fiction blazed a trail, other genres were soon to follow. Historical drama was a major draw in Europe, and had its share of English translations: the best comics demonstrated an historian's eye for detail in the artwork, combined with believable plotting; the worst tended to feature lashings of sex and violence in a phoney period setting. Every kind of historical era was covered, though different creators tended to specialize. For example, the Belgian Hermann was noted for his Medieval stories, The Towers of Bois Maury, which combined dark, photo-referenced art with mystery narrative themes, and included some stunning whole-page set-pieces. The Italian Hugo Pratt was more at home at the turn of the century and his series of Corto Maltese albums featured a seafaring adventurer and his travels to, among other locations, Africa, Barbados and Ireland: again, the depth of research was impressive (in one story, Corto meets Jack London in Manchuria in 1904, where the American writer actually was a war correspondent). Finally, Frenchman Jacques Tardi contributed a remarkable account of the grim life of a recruit during the First World War in The War of the Trenches. More realistic than most film or novelistic portrayals, it was partly based on the diaries of his grandfather.  The Woman Trap |