The gods from space
The Gods from Space is the title of a series of eight comic books by the Polish authors Bogusław Polch (drawings), Arnold Mostowicz and Alfred Górny (texts), which were published by Bastei Verlag between 1978 and 1983 . The story tells of the encounter of the early earth inhabitants with more highly developed extraterrestrial humanoid life forms, which for the Earthlings become gods from space. The comic is based in many parts on the pre-astronautical theses of the Swiss author Erich von Däniken , for example the comic plot of Mostowicz and Górny explains archaeological monuments such as the pyramids of Giza or the geoglyphs of Nazca as the consequences of the prehistoric visit by aliens. Biblical stories have also flowed into the comic in a pre-astronautical interpretation.
Characters
The action takes place in a possible prehistory, prehistory and early history of our planet.
The visitors from space come from the planet Delos in the constellation Sagittarius. In the capital city of Deloport, power is exercised by the Great Brain , an immortal being that constantly renews its cells and used to live in the most brilliant being on the planet. (This is somewhat reminiscent of the situation on the planet Vinea in the Yoko Tsuno series by Roger Leloup .) The big brain foresaw the downfall of the home planet Delos and commissioned expeditions to find a planet on which civilization could continue. The culture of the homeworld should be brought to the living beings there. The flight is spent in deep sleep; The expedition participants are only awakened shortly before their destination. If colonization of the planet is not possible, the flight should continue. Later, the Great Brain revises the planning and orders the annihilation of the mutated: A giant meteorite is supposed to change the planet's orbit around the sun, thereby shifting the polar axis and causing the downfall of Atlantis with the melting of the polar ice.
- The black-haired Ais , director of the Academy of Knowing Regents, has been entrusted with leading an expedition to the third planet of a solar system. Her main color of clothing is orange. After the fact-finding mission, she set up a base of operations on the planet and carried out research. Roub and Chat are both drawn to the only woman on board; for them, however, duty and mission are priority on the agenda. The first settlement ends in a volcanic eruption, but it takes over Beroud's mission on the island of Atlantis. She finds another wrecked grand cruiser from Delos, which, however, is already cannibalized by her opponent. She escapes an assassination attempt by Satham, is kidnapped by him and freed. The insectoids also arrest them briefly on their exploration mission and then release them again. Again and again she leads delicate missions herself, is freed by Rhama and confesses her love for him, which has to wait until the task is completed. In the fight against the insectoids, she travels with Rhama and Zan to the moon, where the enemy base is destroyed. After her return to the grown Atlantis, she is ordered back to Delos, but the flight is canceled: Satham's attacks in Atlantis require a quick return. Chat accompanies them down to earth in new orange overalls: their probe is shot down, in the jungle they have to defend themselves against giants after the emergency landing and finally free Zan from custody. After a victorious battle against the Titans, she returns to Delos as ordered. She doubts and rebels against the new instructions of the Great Brain to destroy the mutated. She warns Zan of the ordered destruction of Atlantis by a polar ice melt and questions her old teacher Allad. Armed with new weapons, she returns to earth in disobedience and helps with the evacuation. On board the spaceship she experiences the punishment of the Big Brain: she too will be killed. Before that, however, a second Ais should be genetically created, which should maintain their skills and courage.
The verdict is then converted into exile in the laboratories of Galxis Berenice.
- The blonde chat , director of the Academy of Knowing Regents, is one of their deputies. The clothing color green is assigned to him. His opposition to Roub becomes apparent early on: he wants to do what the mission requires and what has been ordered - Roub wants to do what he thinks is best. The discovery of traces of intelligent life soon leads to greater tension in the management level, as does the question of where to stay or whether to fly on. After the first mission, he flies to the mother ship and stays there. Later he is in command of the spaceship, but wears the graduated pale purple jumpsuit combination of subordinate members. He too is called back to Delos. On the ordered return flight, he wears the red overalls of a leader. He fights the jungle and giants, helps to free Zan. Then the ordered return to Delos takes place. He follows Ais back to earth in her disobedience. When trying to get back the crystal skull stolen by Satham, he is caught but freed by Ais. He is killed by a Delosian disguised as a robot aboard the spaceship - the Great Brain's verdict for breaking the law.
- Roub , also director of the Academy of Knowing Regents and deputy of Ais, is the oldest of the leadership triad . He is white-haired and wears blue overalls. He is quickly recognized as an opponent of Chat and tries to win Ais by force, but receives a harsh rebuff. While drunk, Roub and his men conduct their own "experiments" with the native women, which he hopes will be genetically more successful than Zan's laboratory experiments. He sabotage the crew to keep them on earth. He doesn't shy away from murdering other expedition members and wants to blow up the mother ship too. When this fails, he escapes into the jungle, followed by Chat. However, he does not find his end through his rival, but through the bite of a snake.
- Zan , brown-haired and in purple overalls, is the President of the Academy of Knowing Regents and has scientifically supervised the expedition from the beginning. He is always reconciling between the different characters of Ais' deputies. He does the genetic experiments to change the natives in the laboratory, soon stops the experiments and instead drives a learning program for the natives. He successfully continued his genetics experiments on Atlantis. Using special communication techniques, he makes contact with the kidnapped Ais and frees her. When the insectoids attack, he develops a preparation to protect the Delosians and humanoids of the earth. He also develops protective helmets against the tracking rays of the insectoids and researches a captured bio-robot. He develops further weapons against the insectoids and ensures the destruction of the first enemy ship on earth with a nuclear weapon. When attacking Atlantis, he falls into the hands of Satham, but is freed by Ais and Chat and Enoch. During the destruction of Atlantis, controlled by the Big Brain, Zen and Enoch organize the evacuation and the planning of permanent monuments by the mutants in the new colonies. The other members of the expedition (all men) wear uniformly light purple overalls. Communicators in the form of earrings connect everyone with each other. After contact with female natives in a drunken state, grumbling and resistance arise, fueled by Roub.
- Commander Elo and his companion Lom belong to the first, Commander Fent and his companion Pam to the second team, which set foot on the unknown planet and soon have to deal with the animals of the jungle.
- Beroud , leader of a second expedition, will soon come to Earth in Ais. On the plain of Nazca , Ais has a landing area prepared and symbols and signals burned into the ground. The natives imitate many of the characters. Beroud dies of poisoning soon after landing and is buried near Nazca.
- Eness is Beroud's pilot, who then enters Ais' service and flies her to Atlantis. Soon he belongs to her staff and takes on other tasks, but is not directly distinguished by higher-colored overalls. He seems to like Ais very much, bids her goodbye with a hug as she sets off on the mission to India, and greets her just as warmly on her return. During the time of this mission he built the city of Atlantis with the locals and rose to green overalls. He has to deal with the problem of connections between Delosians and mutant women while Ais is recalled to Delos. During the second attack on the city, Eness and Zan are captured by Satham. Eness telepathically warns the Big Brain. Satham cannot break Eness's will. In a scuffle, he is burned to ashes by a death ray.
- Satham , head of genetic operations and the chemical laboratory in Beroud's expedition to Atlantis, becomes a traitor and saboteur of the experiments. He prevents an analysis of suspicious preparations and dedicates himself to his own breeding of gruesome mutants without intelligence. His colleague Malan tries to assassinate Ais. When this fails, he has Ais kidnapped and wants to win her over. After their release, he continues his experiments. He keeps the crew of the third spaceship at his disposal in deep sleep. With his mutants he tries to attack the base, but it is rejected. He later carried out further experiments with giants. He puts on green overalls and is the unrestricted ruler of his base camps. The attack of the giants on the city of Atlantis initiated by him is repulsed. Further experiments transform the giants into weak-willed slaves that are controlled by remote control. In the second attack on the city, he can capture Zan and Eness. He kills Eness in cold blood. His goal is to turn the earth into a kind of hell. When Ais returns, he has no qualms about shooting down the probe. His revolt of the titans fails, and once again he is able to break away in time. It brings a lot of knowledge (seafaring, technical knowledge, navigation and astronomy) to the mutated and complements the efforts of the Delosians. ("Sometimes, despite everything, evil creates good! Hopefully, in the long run, good wins!" Extremely Zan wise, Volume 5, p. 11). When Atlantis sank, he steals the crystal skull from the spaceship. As the sea god Oannes , he brings Sargon and other knowledge from the stars and demands the construction of a large tower. When Aistar arrives, he wants to catch her and take possession of the newest Delan spacecraft. Through targeted cell division, it creates duplicates of itself and thus becomes almost immortal. In Egypt he changed the course of the Nile and, with his assistant, took care of the silting up of North Africa. He wants to prevent the building of the pyramids with an army of giant scorpions.
Aistar finally arrests him in a capsule on the sea floor, but frees him after the news of the sinking of Delos.
- The bald Azazel is Satham's close collaborator on Atlantis. He discovers the existence of the giants as a result of the links between Delosians and primate women. He instructs the mutated in fighting techniques, sows envy, hatred and discord. He brings the mutated and the primates to brute force with dice games and carousing parties. Like Satham, it is continually cloned and also nearly immortal. He finds his death in a duel with Manesse on the Sphinx.
- Thamiel , a red haired curly head , is another close associate of Satham. He wears yellow overalls and, together with Azaziel, teaches the giants how to use primitive weapons. Furthermore, he should lure the creatures of the earth with various temptations on the path of evil. He lets the mutants forge primitive weapons.
- Rhama is the blond leader of the third expedition, who comes to Ais after being released by Satham and brings her new instructions from the Great Brain of Delos: A foreign spaceship destined for India threatens the new colony. Rhama wears green overall and can therefore be recognized as a senior member. It takes the place of chat. He too shows feelings for Ais. On Atlantis he saves the killing of the Delosians and the humanoids by distributing a Zan preparation. When Ais again falls into the hands of the insectoids, he daringly starts a rescue operation and rages like a berserk among the enemy flying balls. He finally saves her when the insectoids drop Ais over the sea with a glass container. On the mission to the earth's satellite, it is Rhama who urges Ais and Zan to set off, stays behind on the moon and detonates the explosive devices that destroy the enemy base.
- Insectoid beings from the Z7 system land on the Indian subcontinent. After a population explosion, their staple food, leafy greens are completely used up. On the blue planet there would be food for many thousands of years so they intend to be conquered and exploited. The beings are technically highly developed and have innumerable bio-robots that are supposed to exterminate thinking beings. In a targeted attack, they destroy the base on Atlantis. To better locate their opponents, they start a large defoliation campaign. On the earth's satellite, the insectoids have created a large base from where they want to start their invasion.
- Enoch (the biblical Enoch ) is a powerful mutant who is believed to be trustworthy by Zan and Eness and who is asked for help. Enoch explains to them the existence of the giants and reports on the mood of the Delosians against the leadership. He later helps Ais and Chat free Zan. He has a special ability: he feels the body heat of living beings even through thick rock. He has botany and knows defensive odors against mutated aquatic animals. In gratitude for his services, Enoch's life is effectively extended. Enoch exercises the function of a regent. During the evacuation from Atlantis he was given preferential treatment, as was his son Methuselah , grandson Lamech and still unborn great grandson Noah ( Noach ). After the successful operation with the ark, Enoch is the first person on earth to be taken on board the spaceship.
- Allad lives in the Academy of Knowledge and was Ai's teacher. He wears a white robe with a blue vest and a long white beard - a true patriarch. His life's work is the crystal skull with which he switches off all electronic systems.
- The genetically created Aistar is Ai's daughter. After Ai's banishment, she receives orders from the Great Brain for the Blue Planet. Her first mission takes her to Mars, where a robot mutiny has broken out. On the moon, where another Delos base has been destroyed, she is confronted by a surviving insectoid that threatens to blow up the earth's satellite with its robots. On earth she and her co-worker are first captured by King Sargon, but the latter falls in love with her and asks for her hand. It prevents a major natural disaster by blowing up an insectoid meteorite that is deliberately falling onto the earth. Sargon makes her a goddess and she spends a long time at his court. Aistar and Marduk are informed about wars from Manesse. In Egypt they meet Nemrod, Noah's grandson. After Nemrod's death, she ascends the throne of Egypt herself and has Nemrod buried in the pyramid. She gives power to a pharaoh. As Delos is threatened with demise, the Great Brain commissions them to carry out a forty-year experiment to test a device in practice that is supposed to donate food to people. In order to acquire the Manna machine, it must first fight the insectoids again on the moon. She gets rid of Sathams by sinking him in an encapsulated cabin in the sea. A picture message informs them of the destruction of Delos. It frees Satham and lets him live on as a symbol of evil.
- Aistar's collaborator is Marduk , a proven scientist. He and Aistar meet Lot in one of the cities . Marduk saves Lot and his family from the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by meteorite debris. He instructs priests and scholars in the construction of the cosmos. It neutralizes rabies fungi in Egyptian soil and helps build pyramids with new building materials and bio-robots. He fends off the attacks of the giant scorpions with sonic weapons, which he designed as a flute. He finds an antidote to the nerve agents. In the land of Goshen he selects Moses as leader to lead the closed biological group of the Hebrews in the forty-year experiment from Egypt. It divides the Red Sea for Moses with a thermal wall. He also explains to him the function of the manna machine and instructs him to build the ark . He mercilessly punishes distortions of the test series by meat eaters with death.
- Manesse is a blonde slave who is given freedom by Sargon and who arouses Marduk's interest in his story. He and his people are fighting against Egypt. He is kidnapped by Azazel and equipped with new weapons by Satham to continue the war. He hesitates to use nerve agents on Aistar. Aistar kidnaps him, tells about the construction of the pyramid and Satham's role in the development of the planet and brings him back to the palace. He had an accident while riding a wild horse, a gift from Satham, but was saved by Marduk. In a duel, he kills Azazel.
- Nemrod is the son of Chus , a descendant of Cham , son of Noah. He rules Egypt and built the Sphinx. A pyramid is built under Marduk's guidance. He bravely stands between the attacking elephants and the Delaner Ais and Marduk to save them. Soon after, he fell victim to an attack. Noah himself is buried in a marble sarcophagus in a secret chamber under the Sphinx.
- Dogo is in the service of Nemrod and supports the Egyptians in the fight against the armies of Manesse. After the fight, he evades to his old homeland and becomes a teacher for his tribe there .
Title overview
The texts are by Arnold Mostowicz and Alfred Górny, the drawings by Boguslaw Polch. The books are a German album edition by Bastei.
- 1978: Landing in the Andes
- 1978: Atlantis - experiments with humans and monsters
- 1978: War of the Fire Wagon - Report of an Invasion
- 1978: Revolt of the Titans
- 1978: The Fall of Atlantis - The Revenge of the Gods
- 1978: When Sodom and Gomorrah died
- 1982: The Secret of the Pyramid
- 1982: When the sun stood still
Radio plays by Fontana
- Landing in the Andes (1978)
- Atlantis - experiments with humans and monsters (1979)