Deae ex machina

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Deae ex machina (Latin for goddesses from the machine ) is a comic series by the German artist Erik . The work is laid out as a continuous story in five albums of approx. 80 pages each, of which four have been published so far. It confronts mystical elements, above all from Nordic mythology , but also from the apocalyptic of other cultures, with the mechanization and social upheaval in the first half of the 20th century. In addition, the motifs of war, conquest and occupation appear repeatedly in different historical contexts.

publication

Erik initially presented Deae ex machina from January to the end of August 2009 in nine monthly episodes of, usually two chapters as a webcomic . As a motivation for this form of publication, he stated his own interest in the reader's reaction. He didn't want to “go down to the basement to sing” , as he did with his previously created comic Eiszeit . He also saw this as an opportunity for the publishers to be able to better assess the project in advance, despite the length, and thus to take less risk. A consequence of the rejection of the Ice Age , because Deae was also planned as a big, continuous story from the start. In 2009 Erik could not predict exactly how many pages the epic would ultimately have, but he structured it into around 30 chapters and had an idea of ​​the end of the story. Ultimately, the first 17 chapters, which were drawn in just 18 months and published as the webcomic Hunt for the Blue Jaguar , comprised 160 pages and were conceived as the first part of a trilogy.

This version was published in Comix magazine in 17 episodes, starting with the very first issue 06/2010 up to and including 03/2012, although the original chapter distribution was deviated several times. In July 2011 and April 2012, this "first part" was published in a bound form, divided into two albums. The first volume was supplemented by three one-page prologues, the second by a new chapter of five pages between the eleventh and originally twelfth, but the original chapter structure was restored. In addition, the comic pages were provided with numerous explanatory, sometimes humorous footnotes. Erik originally planned the series for a possible book publication in US format , or even smaller A5. It was only when it was printed in Comix that he was convinced that it would be published in albums and that the original first part should be split into two volumes.

At the end of 2010 Erik had written the scenario completely to the end, said goodbye to the trilogy and worked out the series on five albums with a total of 53 chapters and approx. 400 pages. The release of the third album Der Atem der Jormungand took place after a two-year break, due to his parallel series Dédé , shortly before the Erlangen Comic Salon in June 2014. About half of it was again pre-released in Comix 09/2013 to 02/2014 . The subsequent episodes will no longer appear as a webcomic, but the blog will be updated with pictures and comments on the creation process.

content

The apocalyptic Otto von Klumpp tries to get hold of three powerful modules. Thanks to them, he could link his fate to those millions of other people and thus escape his destiny. He took possession of two of them during the First World War : the old Persian Ormuzd bowl, which apparently gained importance during the conquest of Tire by Alexander the Great. As well as a world serpent Jormungand made of ivory , which was stolen from Vikings who ended up in the Black Sea in 923 AD by soldiers from the Ghuzz people and fell into the hands of crusaders in the Negev desert in 1099. There is only one artifact left, according to legend, created by Quetzalcoatl : the Blue Jaguar. The three Norns , goddesses of fate in Norse mythology, who carve the life of mortals into their sticks of fate, then feel compelled to become active themselves in Midgard , our world. For this they need the young Chris as an ally, because he happened to be the bearer of an amulet at the time that the Norns had created themselves thousands of years ago. But in a world in which technology is preparing to replace mysticism, the power of the talisman is no longer what it used to be.

characters

The Norns :

  • Urd stands for past and wisdom. Nevertheless, it was she, the oldest, who triggered the Ragnarök through careless writing .
  • Verdandi stands for the present and youth. She is the youngest and also more naive than her sisters, because the present is the only passing time, past and future endure.
  • Skuld stands for the future. By definition, she is also the goddess of "kindness towards mortals", Urd sees her more as that of "secrecy". Concern for “their future” also makes them particularly skeptical of divine intervention.

The heroes :

  • Chris Meyer is a pilot who is not killed by the dangers of early aviation, but by a courageous cut from Urd into his staff of fate. According to Erik, he was the character at the beginning of the development of the story, which was originally conceived as a classic superhero vehicle: with a hero whose handicap is disembodiment and whose ability is reincarnation thanks to a magical amulet.
  • Monika "Mo" Sass is Chris' lover and student pilot, the latter out of an emancipatory conviction that technology can promote equality for women.
  • Pawel alias Patras took on the war orphans Chris and Mo in 1915 and fled with them as Germans from Alsace-Lorraine at the end of 1918 . He is a dealer in mystical antiques, the current owner of the Blue Jaguar and gave the amulet to Chris.

The villains :

  • Otto von Klumpp anticipated the approach of the Second World War as early as 1928 . And seeks to prevent this by giving the peoples of Europe an enemy that unites them: himself.
  • Dok carried out countless amputations in field hospitals of the First World War, which should have only fully developed his sadistic tendencies. In addition, he has a German national attitude. He doesn't really take von Klumpp seriously, but he has no concerns as long as the pay is right.
  • Luigi Barletta witnessed the murder of his godfather (a Jormungand middleman) by von Klumpp in 1917 and then joined him. He is overly vain, has a rather simple disposition and has a fetish for firearms.

Structure of the narrative

The number three determines the structure of the story. In addition to the three groups, each with three main characters, the three prologues each address one of the three objects that Klumpp intends to appropriate. This also applies to some groups of minor characters: three crusaders who go in search of the Jormungand, three Macedonian soldiers to whom a Phoenician promises the Ormuzd bowl, and so on. The comic can also be roughly divided into three levels of action:

  • The main line in the demilitarized, French-occupied zone on the left bank of the Rhine in 1928. It corresponds to the “present” of history and is therefore the responsibility of Verdandi.
  • The historical insertions across world history, all of which have so far been linked to campaigns of conquest and to the four magical artifacts (the three that von Klumpp is looking for and Chris' amulet).
  • In the meantime and nowhere on the world tree Yggdrasil .

From the end of the third chapter, the episodes are continuously linked with match cuts . While the picture structure of the pages is otherwise free, the chapters each begin and end with a strip of four panels of the same size, in which at the end a detail is zoomed in and at the beginning a similar object is zoomed out. Even the subsequent insertion of a chapter in the album edition does not break with this consistency. The new division that took place in Comix sometimes destroyed this trick, which is also reminiscent of the first Highlander film due to its repeated use in connection with time leaps . As an additional attraction of a scenario with various time levels, Erik sees the possibility of putting his characters in different outfits and implementing various historical decors in drawings.

Crossover

In November 2009 Erik published three guest posts on Sarah Burrini's webcomic Life is not a pony farm . This led to a crossover between the Norns and Sarah, the protagonist of the “Ponyhof”.

Album release

Web links

Individual evidence

Erik on his blog

  1. ↑ On August 30, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 4, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eriksdeae.de  
  2. ↑ On April 5th, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 8, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eriksdeae.de  
  3. ↑ On December 1st, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 12, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eriksdeae.de  
  4. ↑ On December 27, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 12, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eriksdeae.de  
  5. ↑ September 16, 2009 ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 6, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eriksdeae.de
  6. ↑ September 19, 2009 ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 6, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eriksdeae.de

Others

  1. ↑ a b c Deae ex machina 1: Hunt for the Blue Jaguar; Page 78
  2. ↑ a b Deae ex machina 2: The plan of the goddesses; Page 92
  3. ↑ a b Interview by Michael Hüster with Erik in: Zack 118 (April 2009); MOSAIK Steinchen for Steinchen Verlag, Berlin-Westend, 2009, ISSN  1438-2792
  4. ↑ Comix 06/2010 to 03/2011, 05/2011 to 08/2011, 01/2012 to 03/2012; all Verlag Jurgeit, Krismann & Nobst; Berlin
  5. ↑ Deae. German Comic Guide , accessed June 24, 2014 .
  6. ↑ Erik in an interview with Achim E. Stuehler on the sales homepage. . Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  7. ^ The first post by Erik on the pony farm page. Retrieved July 21, 2013.