The Rainbow Orchid

Posted: Feb 21, 2004 16:15:24 by Tintinrulz [moved to off-topic by admin]

I've been to the Rainbow Orchid site. I love it! The hero seems to have a Tintin persona about him, from what I've read.
Is that your comic?

I just bought a copy of this book and I thoroughly recommend it. It's a very good read and I'm looking forward to more...

It's available here.

Tintinrulz -
Yes, this is my comic, and while I hope I retain my own individual stamp on it, Orchid is definitely influenced by Hergé very much, as well as Edgar P. Jacobs and Yves Chaland.

Harrock -
Thanks for buying it and for the recommendation, very much appreciated. Book Two is taking shape.

All the best -
Garen.

Garen, I remember your saying that you would like to see the books published in full colour. Can we fans expect Book Two to be in colour?

Part 1 of Rainbow Orchid appeared in BAM!, a long-running British adventure comic. This will not see any more issues due to the editor working on a graphic novel, so I am looking for other venues to publish part two (besides it being collected when completed).

My current idea is to post the episodes online (password protected), and it is likely these could be in colour as there is no printing restriction on the web.

Hi Garen,

On your website you mention Edgar P. Jacobs. Are you a fan of his books? I've only been able to find The Time Trap and Atlantis Mystery in English, although on the back I think it mentions that The Yellow 'M' and The Mystery of the Great Pyramid were also done. I have those in French though I've never managed to track them down in English. Maybe they don't exist.

They were made by Comcat Comics/ Catalan Communications (printed in Catalonia it says!) of New York in the late 80's.

They have also done the only 2 English language Yoko Tsuno translations (which I managed to acquire). Yoko Tsuno is drawn by Studios Hergé (Flight 714), Roger Leloup.

Chris

Ps sorry for moving off topic by the way

Yes, Chris, I am a huge fan of Jacobs - I love his work, indeed I like some Blake et Mortimer adventures more than some of the Tintin ones (but not more than the best that Hergé produced).

The Yellow 'M' probably saw Jacobs at his height, it's a beautiful work, don't you think?

Those two Catalan Communications books are the only ones I've actually seen in English.
I do wonder if the others even got printed by Comcat as quite a few European albums were published in the 'graphic novel' boom of the 80s, and with the market saturated some didn't appear in the end. But I do believe there were English translations of The Yellow 'M', Secret of the Swordfish and The Mystery of the Great Pyramid from Editions Blake et Mortimer in 1986-88. Those Comcat editions certainly lack the album quality of the hardback French editions (I love the three-albums-in-one-book edition of Le secret de L'Espadon).

I also like the Yoko, Vic & Paul adventures by Roger Leloup (was Ringo there too!?).
Have you seen any of Jaques Martin's books? I only have one (in French), a Lefranc adventure called La Crypte. His people are a bit stilted, but Martin excels at various forms of transport - a job he had in Hergé's studios, I think. His most famous character was Alix.

Can I also (sorry for the long post!) recoommend Yves Chaland if you don't know him? Two volumes of his work are in English, published by Humanoids Publishing, Chaland Anthology 1 & 2, a great clear-line artist.

I don't mind you going off topic... that's the way a conversation runs! (Though maybe we should start a topic for other Studios Hergé artists and their careers..?)

Very best wishes -
Garen.

Hi Garen,

I'm interested in buying a copy of Rainbow Orchid. It looks very good! Do you ship to Australia? Also does the 4 pounds for Orchid include shipping costs?

Thanks!

Tintinrulz

Hello... I'll send a copy anywhere in the world, and yes, the £4 price (for parts outside Europe) includes postage and packing. As you probably know you can purchase a copy via PayPal through my online shop.

Part two, by the way, will now be serialised in an anthology called Fusion, this being hot-off-the-press news, just finally agreed yesterday.

And Camden Library in London is having a comics exhibition sometime in the next few weeks, including some Rainbow Orchid material - I don't know any details yet, I'm afraid.

Thanks for the interest!

- Garen.

Moderator Note: Garen's current shop, with books and other RO goodies can be found here.

The Happy Tintinologist Team

Camden Library in London is having a comics exhibition sometime in the next few weeks, including some Rainbow Orchid material

Oh good! That's my local library!

Chris