Valerian & Laureline: On the Frontiers

[houbanaut]

I posted a Valerian & Laureline story a while ago. Here's another sample from one of the later adventures, On the Frontiers. This particular bit was one of the main inspirations for The Fifth Element. (Oh, and be warned that there's a non-explicit depiction of a sexual assault in here.)

So Valerian and Laureline are space-and-time-traveling agents of Galaxity, Earth's interplanetary civilization in the 28th century, born from the ashes of a nuclear Holocaust. However, due to events in the preceding books, the nuclear disaster never happened, and Galaxity has vanished from the universe and from history. Only (?) the two of them escape, and are left as freelancers for this story.

On the Frontiers (Sur les Frontières, 62 pp., 1988) was published in English by ibooks/Simon & Schuster in 2004, collected in a single volume with The Living Weapons and The Circles of Power as Valerian: The New Future Trilogy (178 pp). However, the TPB format makes it tricky to scan without breaking the spine, so instead I've used scans of the French version and "scanlated" it. With only a few exceptions I've followed the ibooks English translation by Timothy Ryan Smith.

As so many other Valerian & Laureline adventures, this story starts in space...


I love Mezieres' beautiful, atmospheric space scenes. He later used this spaceship as the basis for the design of the cruise ship in The Fifth Element, with a few changes:









Somehow, Jal's evident reluctance (why? does he disapprove of Kistna's arrogant sense of superiority? mysterious...) makes their courtship seem all the more poignant.

Again, the scenes here were the basis for many of the cruise ship interiors in The Fifth Element. If you look closely, the lamps are even sculpted busts of Kistna:



They go to gamble, but are barred because of their "abilities" to influence the game. Kistna goes to the observation deck, while Jal plays the one game he is allowed to participate in, under observation. Later they are having dinner with the ship's commander:


They dance. Jal says that the time has finally come...


With the powers he has taken from Kistna, Jal goes to the bridge, where he forces the commander to let him leave on a small space craft. He sets out for "Earth, at last!"

Some time later, on that very planet...







I still can't figure out the relationship between Valerian and Laureline... You will of course recognize "Uncle" Albert from Metro Châtelet - Direction Cassiopée.

A spate of sabotage is affecting nuclear installations all over the world. Of course, the culprit is Jal, who is trying to recreate the nuclear meltdown that led to the founding of Galaxity. Valerian and Laureline are faced with the question of what they are willing to pay to have their own world back...



If you liked this excerpt, you can find the book at a reasonable price second-hand on Amazon.

char: laureline,
char: valerian,
creator: jean-claude mezieres,
creator: pierre christin,
genre: space opera,
medium: bande dessinée,
publisher: dargaud,
title: valerian

Comments

[nezchan]

I did indeed enjoy it. Ah, if only I could afford more books right now, this (and any other Valerian I could find) would be on my list in a heartbeat. As it is, I just got the first volume of Pierre Alary's Sinbad and three of his sketchbooks, at well worth the price even if I did blow my budget.

[sethgray]

So...why does raping that girl take her powers?

[icon_uk]

Tantric power?

[twomasks]

Interesting. The first thing I thought of when reading this was Immortel (ad vitam)

[houbanaut]

Well, Immortel was based on the Nikopol trilogy by Enki Bilal. Bilal and Pierre Christin (the writer on this) did a bunch of books together back in the 70s, so it's not surprising that their respective work has similarities to each other.

So yeah, I can see that, sort of. Bilal's work is a bit more surreal, like Moebius or Schuiten, but they definitely share some of the same points of reference.

[arilou_skiff]

Ah, yes, I've read this one. Unfortuantely I got about as much context as you do here :p

It's a lovely series.

[rattsu]

I loved this series as a child, it was called 'Linda & Valentin' in Swedish. Don't think this one ever got translated though, thanks for sharing!

[houbanaut]

You might be in luck, rattsu. I happen to know that this album was translated into Swedish (as "Bortom okända gränser"), since I first read it in that language as a kid. :)

By the way, I've always thought that the art in this story is Mezieres at the height of his talent. Just beautiful! It's a little bit looser than the more classical action-realistic style of Metro Châtelet - Direction Cassiopée (a development which would in later years deteriorate to a kind of scribbly cartooniness): simple enough to read fluently, but rich enough to reward a longer look.