Rahan

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Rahan , son of prehistoric times (French Rahan, Fils des Âges Farouches ), at Bastei also hero of prehistoric times , is the main character in the French comic series of the same name , published in the comic magazine from issue no. 1239 of March 3, 1969 Pif gadget appeared. The scenario was written by Roger Lecureux, and his son Jean-François Lecureux has continued the series since 2002. Most of the drawings are by André Chéret; some stories were also illustrated by Enric Badía Romero ("Romero"), Guido Zamperoni ("Guy Zam") and José Antonio de Huescar ("Garvi").

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Rahan lives in a fictional prehistoric time full of adventure and danger.
Even as a baby he lost his parents when they were attacked and killed by saber-toothed cats . The hunter Crao finds him and Rahan lives with him and his wife Tawa with the tribe of the Blue Mountain. Guided by the hunter, Rahan developed into a strong and skilful child and from then on referred to himself as "Rahan, son of Crao". A volcanic eruption kills his foster parents and all tribe members, only Rahan manages to survive in the disaster.

Left alone, the boy explores foreign areas, he grows up and meets other tribes and is constantly on the lookout for the story of his parents who were killed by the big cats. His adventures with hostile clans, forces of nature and prehistoric animals - including "realistic" ones such as saber-toothed cats, giant deer , wolves and mammoths, and "fantastic" ones such as giant squids , giant spiders, dinosaurs and plesiosaurs - he has with his intelligence , quick perception and skill .

During his travels, Rahan learns to understand nature and, through his powers of observation, makes discoveries and inventions that prove to be helpful for him on his adventures: He seeks and finds solutions to the problems of individual people and entire tribes and he gives this knowledge to other people further.

According to an oath , Rahan never engages in an argument with other people, although he often has to defend himself against selfish tribal leaders and devious shamans who keep members of their clans in ignorance and fear. Rahan usually treats such opponents with courage, sincerity and diplomacy . He sums up his intentions and his altruistic attitude - at the beginning of the series - when saying goodbye to the fishermen's clan:

“And since he himself no longer has a clan or a tribe, Rahan will be the son of all clans and all tribes! Rahan will go everywhere, he will see everything and learn everything! He will reveal to some what he has learned from others! "

Narrative style

The individual episodes, which span the time frame from Rahan's childhood to founding a family, are thematically self-contained, but occasionally take up topics that were dealt with earlier. Almost every story connects an exciting adventure with Rahan's committed and altruistic attitude to analyze problems and to get rid of them - and to learn from them.
Certain motifs keep coming back:

  • The cave of the sun ( la tanière du soleil ) , which Rahan seeks throughout his journey and also crosses large bodies of water by raft in order to understand where the sun disappears at the end of the day.
  • The ivory knife ( le coutelas d'ivoire ) , which he stole from the cruel leader of the river clan as a boy, serves him as a weapon and "advisor". Lecureux describes Rahan's animistic relationship: Rahan often communicates with the ivory knife and by turning on a stone he lets the knife show him the direction in which he will / should go. Several times in episodes the loss and recovery of this knife plays a central role.
  • The necklace with the claws ( le collier de griffes ) is Rahan's only jewelry and she is proud of her. Four generations before his foster father Crao wore this necklace and in each generation another claw was added before Crao passed it on to Rahan before his death. The claws stand for courage ( courage ), honesty ( loyauté ), generosity ( générosité ), tenacity ( ténacité ) and wisdom ( sagesse ). This necklace is Rahan as a guide in making decisions in difficult situations and in the episode Rahans sons ( Les Fils de Rahan ) receives Rahan a sixth claw for its very own and special virtue that insight ( l'ingéniosité ).
  • Rahan fears the realm of shadows ( le territoire des ombres ; i.e., the realm of the dead ) - and having to switch to it - in seemingly hopeless situations where life and death are at stake. But at the same time he also sees it as indispensable, since in his mind Crao (his foster father) and Tawa (his foster mother) as well as his ancestors are waiting for him there. In one episode he thinks he has found this realm of shadows . The members of foreign clans also use this term.
  • Looking back at his own family history, which Rahan gradually opens up, is very complex and certain aspects appear from different angles over time.

What is special about Rahan's own expression is that he speaks of himself in the third person: "Mais les vertus du collier de Rahan lui permetteront-elles de retrouver son coutelas?" (Eng. But the virtues of Rahan's necklace - they will allow him to find his knife again? ) and that he gives the beings and things around him their own descriptive names: les longues crinières ( long-maned , i.e. lions), ceux qui marchent débout ( those who walk upright , i.e. people), etc. He himself is called Cheveux-de-Feu (dt. Fire hair ) by others because of his hair color .

The psychologist Pascal Hachet took the popularity of the series in France as the starting point for an analysis of Rahan's personality and behavior under the aspect of his family history , which was tragic several times : his endless search for the seat of the sun, his being driven and troubled ( être hanté ) by a clan to pull another, his phobias and his fear of attachment , as well as his unshakable self-motivation . Hachet summarized the result in a book.

Drawing style

The illustrations used in Rahan are very detailed, quasi-realistic and dynamic, which is particularly reinforced by extreme perspectives. Especially in the later stories, the dynamics regularly go beyond the edge of the panel . Nudity is portrayed in a natural way and Rahan is not an aseptic hero, he sweats with exertion and he bleeds after fights.

Mention of geographical locations and paleoanthropological finds

From 1997 onwards, real geographical locations and paleoanthropological finds were imaginatively incorporated into the Rahan stories. In the appendix to the volumes there are illustrated summaries of the facts mentioned in the stories with contact addresses of the relevant museums.

The Solutré rock
  • 1997 (Soleil; outside the series) Rahan et l'homme de Tautavel (free German translation Rahan and the man by Tautavel ).
  • 2004 (Éditions Lécureux) Le Secret de Solutré (free German translation The Secret of Solutré ); the Solutré rock is in the commune of Solutré-Pouilly and large amounts of animal bones have been found at its base.
  • 2006 (Éditions Lécureux) Le Combat de Pierrette (free German translation of Pierrette's fight ); Pierrette refers to the French name for a Neanderthal skull find (female Neanderthal with a healed head injury) in the Paléosite de Saint-Césaire area .
  • 2007 (Éditions Lécureux) Le Trésor de Bélesta (free German translation The Treasure of Bélesta ); The Bélesta cave, discovered in 1983, is located in Bélesta , a municipality in the Pyrénées-Orientales department .
  • 2009 (Éditions Lécureux) La Légende de la Grotte de Niaux (free German translation The legend of the Niaux cave ); In the municipality of Niaux , Ariège department , lies the cave of the same name, in which there are very beautiful cave paintings .
  • 2010 (Éditions Lécureux) L'incroyable Romain la Roche (free German translation The incredible Romain la Roche ); in the municipality of Romain-la-Roche there is a paleontological excavation with many caves and fossils.

Publications in France

In the past 41 years (1969 to the end of 2010) 197 stories on 4,116 pages with one to six panels (usually five) per page have appeared.

Magazines

  • Éditions de Vaillant, No. 1377 bis; Pif Gadget special edition, 1971
  • Éditions de Vaillant, Rahan No. 1–27, first every three months, then every two months, 1972–1977
  • Éditions de Vaillant, Rahan - Nouvelle Collection , No. 1–36, bimonthly, 1978–1984
  • Rahan l'intégrale , No. 1-42, monthly, 1984-1987

Comic albums

  • Éditions Hachette, 1 volume, 1973
  • Éditions du Kangourou, 2 volumes, 1974–1975
  • Édition Presses de la Cité (GP Rouge et Or) 5 volumes, 1980–1981
  • Éditions La Farandole (Messidor - La Farandole) 3 volumes, 1986–1987
  • Éditions J'ai Lu BD, 2 volumes, 1989–1990
  • Éditions Novedi, 2 volumes, 1991–1992
  • Editions Dupuis, 1 volume, 1990
  • Soleil Productions, 25 volumes, 1992–1997 and 3 special volumes, 1996–1998
  • Éditions Frédérique, 6 volumes
  • Éditions Lécureux, 11 volumes, 1999–2010

Cartoons

  • Rahan, son of prehistoric times ( Rahan fils des âges farouches ), French animated television series, 26 episodes, 1987
  • Rahan , Franco-Italian animated TV series, 26 episodes, 2009

Publications in Germany

In Germany, Rahan was published by Bastei Verlag , including in Felix and Topix, before he was allowed to live out his adventures in five 100-page paperback books in 1984.

Movie version

A comic book adaptation by the French director Christophe Gans was in the works and should be released in 2006, but was postponed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roger Lécureux (* 1925, † 1999)
  2. ↑ Jean-François Lecureux (* 1954)
  3. ↑ André Chéret (* 1937)
  4. ↑ Guido Zamperoni (* 1912, † 2003)
  5. ↑ José Antonio de Huescar († 2007)
  6. ↑ “Et puisqu'il n'a plus de clan, plus de horde, Rahan sera le fils de tous les clans de toutes les hordes! Rahan ira partout, verra tout, apprendra tout! Il révèlera aux uns ce que lui auront enseigné les autres! ”End of the 2nd story Le secret du soleil ( The secret of the sun )
  7. ↑ Pascal Hachet Psychanalyse de Rahan: le fantôme psychique d'un héros de bandes dessinées , L'Harmattan, 2000, ISBN 2-7384-9157-X