Inspired by the works of Erich von Däniken, freely interpreted by Alfred Górny, Arnold Mostowicz & Rosińskiego Bogusław Polch and translated from the German edition by Michael Heron (Methuen)
ISBNs: 0-416 87-160-7
Here in the West, Poland isn’t known for generating graphic novels or albums, although there has always been a thriving comics culture and many Polish creators have found fame in far-off lands. This pithy, quirky science fiction speculation is the second of four volumes to make a break across the borders and only then because of the notorious celebrity name attached to the project…
Once upon a time the ludicrous theories of Swiss author, convicted conman and fraudster Erich Anton Paul von Däniken captured the public imagination with his postulate that aliens had visited Earth in human prehistory and reshaped the destiny of our ancient ancestors.
Although mostly discredited these days, that tantalising kernel of an idea still persists in many places; and how different life might be if the imaginative and inventive writer had simply done what he should have with such a great notion and just made a cracking science fiction epic out of his “researchesâ€â€¦
Happily others have done just that and the result is a quirky yet enticing intergalactic generational saga that resulted in a mini-phenomenon in Poland which spread, despite all the restrictions of an embattled Cold War satellite-economy, through Germany and on to a number of other nations in at least a dozen different languages.
In 1977, publisher Alfred Górny, who generally specialised in sports and tourism, contacted his counterparts at West German non-fiction outfit Econ Verlag with a proposition for creating a new and mutually profitable cartoon album series.
Górny wanted to produce the series in Polandand had lined up the superb Grzegorz RosiÅ„ski to draw it. Unfortunately the artist quit before the job began, instead accepting the job of illustrating sci-fi barbarian series Thorgal for Jean Van Hamme in the prestigious French comic Tintin, after which the nation’s most prolific and popular comics artist, Jerzy Wróblewski, also stepped in before dropping out.
Górny and scripter Arnold Mostowicz settled for newcomer RosiÅ„skiego BogusÅ‚aw Polch – who would eventually win a measure of international renown for sci-fi/political/private eye thriller Funky Koval – to delineate the epic, meandering, saga of alien civil war, primeval strife and the birth and destruction of a primordial lost civilisation as well as the propagation of most of our world’s myths, legends and religions.
When finances and resources in the Warsaw Pact nation began to evaporate, Econ Verlag took on the international syndication responsibilities and the series took on a life of its own.
The result was eight original albums – ‘LÄ…dowanie w Andach’ (Landing in the Andes), ‘Ludzie i potwory’ (Men and Monsters), ‘Walka o planetÄ™’ (The Struggle for the Planet), ‘Bunt Olbrzymów’ (Giants’ Mutiny); ‘ZagÅ‚ada Wielkiej Wyspy’ (Great Island’s Doom), ‘Planeta pod kontrolÄ…’ (The Planet under Control), ‘Tajemnica Piramidy’ (The Mystery of the Pyramid) and ‘Ostatni Rozkaz’ (the Last Command). The series was even rebound in two huge compilation volumes for Polish consumption: true collector’s items these days…
In 1978 British publisher Methuen Children’s Books (then also publishing Hergé’s Tintin) picked up the English language rights for the first four books and released them – complete with spurious fringe-science trimmings and photo-extras – to a largely unimpressed British public.
Now, with time having stripped away the ludicrous faux facts and messianic furore underpinning the tales, I’m reviewing what is actually a rather impressive, entertaining slice of speculative fiction dressed in a workmanlike yet enthralling no-nonsense art style that will delight fans of illustrated storytelling…
The adventure began millennia ago with Descent in the Andes, as a colossal flying saucer carrying hundreds of scientists from Delos in the Sagittarius Nebula establishes orbit above Earth. Mission leader Ais – the only woman in the vast complement of scientists and technicians – and her lieutenants Chat and Roub oversee the mission dictated by the Great Brain of Delos to find a new world for the race, since their home planet was on the verge of annihilation. The men are resolved to re-order the wild blue planet beneath them, using their incredible science to create a Delosian sub-species able to thrive on the alien world and propagate their perfect culture and civilisation. The plan is to seed this world and then great ship will depart, finding more suitable worlds and repeating the procedure…
As Earth and its life-forms are probed by the Delosians, tensions mount among the crew: Chat and Roub are increasingly at odds and soon after a ground-base is established, the latter foments mutiny and forcibly attempts to make Ais his bed-mate…
The colonists’ attempts to create a labour force by domesticating the smart apes soon falter as loneliness and native intoxicants begin to unravel the discipline of the superior beings and the lonely, over-worked crewmen descend into brawling and inter-species fraternisation…
When Ais steps down hard on the malcontents, Roub, who violently advocates abandoning the mission and taking over the welcoming world below, sees his chance to further undermine her. The crisis breaks when the fuel for the aerosondes – planetary transport shuttles – suddenly runs out. Chat kills a saboteur and denounces Roub, but before outright war erupts a startling message announces the arrival of a second vessel fromDelos…
Meanwhile supreme scientist Zan‘s experiments on the native females have concluded and his findings indicate that for the mission to succeed, he must directly reconfigure the ape-beings’ genetic make-up, a step Ais is reluctant to consider…
Whilst Ais and Chat supervised construction of a vast landing-field base in what we know as the Andes, Roub fomented open rebellion. The militant rocketed into space, intent on destroying the orbiting ship and forcing the Delosians to settle on Earth, with Ais in hot pursuit.
After a vicious battle she drove Roub off the vessel and followed him back to Earth where Chat tracked him to his final fate in the deadly beast-filled jungles…
Their troubles were far from over. The second expedition, under the command of Beroub, had set up operations on a far-distant continent, but the back-up colony suddenly fell prey to an unknown contagion and, as Ais and Zan rocketed off to investigate, they barely survived a cataclysmic volcanic eruption which completely eradicated the Nazca facility…
With the entire colony wiped out, Chat was trapped in space and Zan and Ais had no choice but to head for unknown peril on the far distant Atlantic continent…
Atlantis, Men and Monsters picks up the story as Ais, Zan and pilot Eness land at the troubled second base and soon discover the cause of the disease. Somebody has adulterated the chemical solution used by the Delosians to aid respiration in Earth’s inimical atmosphere, turning it into a slow-acting poison.
Suspicion immediately falls upon their head scientist Satham, who seems to be plagued with the same lust for domination that afflicted Roub.
Ais is utterly determined to carry out the edicts of the Great Brain and decides to act decisively – as soon as she has proof…
Taking charge of the recovering survivors, she orders Zan to begin his genetic manipulation of the vast island’s carnivorous primates, wedding their DNA to the civilised germ-plasm of the Delosians.
During this process Satham and his cronies disappear and Ais uncovers his plans: a plethora of hideous, savage hybrids designed for conflict. Satham was making an army of monsters…
Ensuring that Zan’s benign, intelligent humanoids are secured in a protective wildlife preserve, Ais and a small team then track the deranged renegade and discover a third Delosian star-saucer crashed in a desert. There is no sign of the crew, and much of the intergalactic juggernaut’s machinery has been removed…
Satham has constructed a huge secret complex beneath an inland sea and is far along in his plans to build force to dominate the world, but is not so far removed from rationality that he will kill the only species-compatible female on Earth. Capturing Ais, he shows off his abhorrent triumphs and urges her to join him, but underestimates her determination and dedication, as well as Zan’s ingenuity…
Engineering her escape from afar, the master technologist lays siege to the submerged fortress and devastatingly destroys the lake to reveal Satham’s citadel to the massed firepower ofDelos, before rescuing Ais.
Sathan brokers a tenuous truce, but almost immediately reneges and lures his enemies into a explosive booby-trap aboard the downed star-saucer…
Ais was ready for such a move however and, after narrowly escaping, leads an all-out attack on the exposed fortress of horror, recovering the imprisoned crew of the doomed third ship and activating a dormant volcano under Satham’s facility, although the rebel himself eludes capture.
Meanwhile, tragedy has struck Zan’s “childrenâ€. Placed in a protective garden, the genetically augmented humanoids initially seemed a great success, but after eating the fruit of one particular tree they erupted into manic, mindless violence. The gourd had somehow triggered a regression to their more aggressive forebears and a spontaneous wave of violence compelled them to savagely attack and kill each other… all but one male and female…
Increasingly convinced that this Blue Planet is steeped in some inescapable psychic evil, Ais and Zan resolve to carry on regardless of setbacks when Satham attacks with a legion of monstrous beasts he has constructed and grown. After a fierce and decisive battle above the surviving hominid prototypes, Ais’ forces are finally triumphant, having used blazing energy guns and the flaming jets of the Aerosondes to burn the winged, fanged and clawed demon-beasts into oblivion – a racial memory forever seared into the consciousness of the first man and woman of Earth…
With the danger temporarily abated, the Delosians rededicate themselves to forever protecting their manufactured progeny and making their new Blue World the last bastion of their culture and civilisation.
Of course, there are more terrible tests to face; especially since Satham’s body cannot be found…
There’s a bucket-load of plot and plenty of action packed into this colourful, oversized (292x219mm) 52 page tome, and the increasingly sleek, slick illustration from Polch is beguilingly seductive and something no traditional science fiction connoisseur could resist. Maybe it’s time to revisit this lost series and even go looking for a few more of those embargoed comics classics from the Land of the White Eagle…
© 1978 Econ Verlag GmbH, Dusseldorf. English translation © 1978 Methuen Children’s Books, Ltd.