Storm (Don Lawrence)

Storm
Painting by Don Lawrence of Storm and Ember.
Publication information
Publisher	Big Balloon (Dutch) Uitgeverij Oberon (Dutch) Egmont Ehapa Verlag (German) Norbert Hethke Verlag (German) British European Associated Publishers LTD. (English) Glénat (French) Interpresse (Danish) Star Comics (Greek) Esperos Comics (Greek) Incal (Polish) Apu-Magazines (Finnish) P.T. Gramedia (Indonesian) Forum Marketprint (Yugoslavian) Amigos Do Livro Editores LDA. (Portuguese) Norma (Spanish) Sarpe (Spanish) Tercuman Tesisler (Turkish)
Publication date	1976 – present
Number of issues	25 (28 including spin-offs)
Main character(s)	Storm Roodhaar/Redhair/Carrots/Ember Nomad Marduk
Creative team
Writer(s)	Martin Lodewijk Dick Matena Kelvin Gosnell Philip 'Saul' Dunn Don Lawrence Vince Wernham
Artist(s)	Don Lawrence Dick Matena Romano Molenaar

Storm is a soft science fiction/fantasy comic book series originally (and for most albums) drawn by Don Lawrence. The series is primarily available in Dutch, although all the books are translated in English and German, and some in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Indonesian. The books are published by Big Balloon, Uitgeverij Oberon (both Dutch), Egmont Ehapa Verlag, Norbert Hethke Verlag (both German), Star Comics and Esperos Comics (both Greek), Incal (Polish), and Glénat (French). English copies are published in the Don Lawrence collection. The Living Planet and The Slayer of Eriban were also published in Heavy Metal magazine in January 1997 and March 1999. The Navel of the Double God had an early publication in the Dutch magazine Myx.

The actual series can be split in two parts: The Chronicles of the Deep World, which takes place on post-apocalyptical Earth, and The Chronicles of Pandarve, taking place in the Pandarve multiverse.

The main characters are Storm himself, Roodhaar/Redhair/Carrots/Ember, Nomad and Marduk, the Theocrat of Pandarve, although the last two only make their appearance in The Chronicles of Pandarve. Storm is an astronaut who accidentally got lost in time. Ember is a beautiful red-haired girl and Nomad is a hairless red skinned muscle man.

The Deep World was originally conceived as a framework for stories revolving around the character Commander Grek. An episode was written in 1976 by Vince Wernham and drawn by Don Lawrence, which was not picked up by Dutch publisher Oberon. The story was later reworked by Philip Dunn, now with the astronaut Storm as the main character. Storm did get published by Oberon. When Storm appeared to be a success, the previously unreleased Commander Grek album was published as part of the Storm series, as "Episode 0". The album includes background information regarding the inception of Commander Grek and Storm.

Storm is an astronaut in the 21st century who makes a journey to the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. The Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic storm which has already been there for at least 300 years. Once arrived, his ship gets dragged into the storm. When Storm manages to escape, it seems he has traveled through time. The civilizations on Earth have collapsed and turned into a barbaric society. This is where the adventures of Storm begin.