By Andreas (Michel Deligne Publishing Co)
ISBN: 2-87135-022-1
To me the perfect comic strip begins with the humble line. The greatest drawing is always the versatility of black against white. Colour enhances but it doesn’t create.
Andreas Martens is a versatile East German artist (from a time when that meant another country not different location) whose work has appeared in Le 9e Rêve, and Tintin for which last he produced Udolfo and Rork (from 1978).
Andreas has adapted the works of Francois Rivière (collected as Révélations Posthumes in 1980) and produced a graphic edition of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre for Je Bouquine. Among his many original efforts are Raffington Detective, Cyrrus, Arq and a host of others. All his works are steeped in classical style and rich in visual tension. Many are thematically linked.
In 1982 he crafted a chilling, moody pastiche of the fantasy works of August Derleth, William Hope Hodgson and H. P. Lovecraft that related the tale of a survivor of a mysterious maritime tragedy.
Years ago a mutiny aboard the ‘Leviticus’ led to thirteen survivors being abandoned in a lifeboat on the High Seas. Against all odds they reached land safely. Every year they hold a reunion, and every year there has been one less survivor at the table…
Now the last three are to meet again and Cromwell Stone feels that the mystery is coming to an end. He arrives in the small seaside town to prepare but is sucked into a swirling maelstrom of unease and anxiety…
And the horrors of an unimaginable world are waiting for him to misstep…
The art is a stark blend of early Berni Wrightson and classical woodcut prints in this suspenseful tale of the unknown. Compelling beyond belief this is a superb horror story from a criminally under-regarded creator. Hopefully some enterprising publisher will get the English language rights and bring this and all his other works to a greater public.
© 1985 Editions Michel Deligne S.A. and Andreas. All Rights Reserved.