The Rainbow Orchid is a

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

written and drawn by

Garen Ewing Garen Ewing (born 1969, England) is an illustrator, designer and most notably a comic creator, being the writer and illustrator of '' The Adventures of Julius Chancer - The Rainbow Orchid''. As an aside, Ewing is a part-time researcher and write ...

, the first of a series of planned Julius Chancer books. It is set in the 1920s and follows Chancer's expedition to discover the mythical 'Rainbow

Orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

'. Starting in England, the adventure takes the characters first to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, then

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and into the

Indus Valley The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

. It is drawn in the

ligne claire ''Ligne claire'' (French for "clear line", ; nl, klare lijn) is a style of drawing created and pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian cartoonist and creator of ''The Adventures of Tintin''. It uses clear strong lines sometimes of varied width and n ...

style and published in English by Egmont, in Dutch by Silvester Strips, in French by BD Must Editions, in Spanish by NetCom2 Editorial, and in German by Salleck Publications.

Publication history

In 1997 a three page preview of ''The Rainbow Orchid'' appeared in Cherokee Comics' magazine

Imagineers Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney Parks, Experiences an ...

. Regular serialisation began in 2002 in BAM! magazine. When the first part was complete it was published as a black and white collection which sold out within months (the last copy was sold on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

after some frantic last-minute bidding for £79). For a couple of years the strip was serialised online before being picked up and published in three volumes by Egmont UK in 2009, 2010 and 2012. ''The Complete Rainbow Orchid'' was published in English as a single album by Egmont in 2012 and a

digital edition A digital edition is an online magazine or online newspaper delivered in electronic form which is formatted identically to the print version. Digital editions are often called digital facsimiles to underline the likeness to the print version. Digi ...

was produced by Panel Nine for their Sequential platform for

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

late in 2013. Garen also produced full

annotations An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented in the margin of book pages. For anno ...

for the story in ''The Rainbow Orchid Supplement'' (2012). In 2010 Silvester Strips published a Dutch edition. Spanish and French language editions followed from Netcom2 Editorial and BD Must Editions respectively, and in 2013 a German-language edition was published by Salleck Publications. In 2015, Tellerup produced a Danish edition.

Plot

Julius Chancer, young assistant to the historical researcher Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey, becomes embroiled in an adventure to discover the lost Rainbow Orchid, largely due to the machinations of scheming Daily News reporter William Pickle. He is accompanied by silent film actress Lily Lawrence, her American agent Nathaniel Crumpole, and Tayaut, a French stunt-pilot. The search for the orchid is opposed by the devious Evelyn Crow, right hand associate to scheming businessman Urkaz Grope. The adventure leads them up the Indus Valley and into Chitral, where they encounter the Kalash people, before heading further into the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Provinc ...

. Eventually, they find themselves within a

lost world The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late- Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century. The ...

, which may hide the secret of a forgotten super-weapon.

Main characters

The book's main characters: * Julius Chancer ~ The young, slightly camp adventurer in the employ of Sir Alfred. * Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey ~ An historical researcher, antiquarian to the King, and ex-director of the secretive Empire Survey Branch. * Sir Reginald Pritchard Lawrence ~ The 15th Earl of Baggall, who "owns half of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

", he is the holder of the Trembling Sword of Tybalt Stone. Unfortunately he has a weakness for the bottle... * Lily Lawrence ~ A young

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

star who is intent on saving her family estate and her father's reputation. * Nathaniel Crumpole ~ Lily Lawrence's movie publicity agent, and wannabe film director. *William Pickle ~ The nosy reporter, willing to stop at nothing to get his next scoop. *Urkaz Grope ~ The evil tycoon intent on getting his hands on the Trembling Sword of Tybalt Stone. In choosing this name, Ewing was inspired by Dickens' Uriah Heep. *Evelyn Crow ~ Grope's right hand associate. Clever, devious, subtle and she doesn't give up. * Box ~ The largest and most brutish of Grope's henchmen. * Tayaut ~ Former Hollywood stunt-pilot, now with his own acrobatic flying circus. Tayaut is French for Tally-ho!Interview with Garen Ewing at Comic World News, 2006
/ref>

Inspirations

Ewing has cited several comics as inspirations, most of them drawn in the

style:

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...

's ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...

'', Edgar P. Jacobs's ''

Blake and Mortimer ''Blake and Mortimer'' is a Belgian comics series created by the writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Tintin'' in 1946, and was subsequently published in boo ...

'' and

Yves Chaland Yves Chaland (; 3 April 1957 – 18 July 1990) was a French cartoonist. During the 1980s, together with Luc Cornillon, Serge Clerc and Floc'h, he launched the ''Atomic style'', a stylish remake of the Marcinelle School in Franco-Belgian co ...

's '' Freddy Lombard''. The story has its roots in the lost world adventure fiction of writers such as

Rider Haggard Sir Henry Rider Haggard (; 22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure fiction romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the lost world literary genre. He was also involved in land reform t ...

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

and

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

Prequels

The Girdle of Polly Hipple is four pages long and looks at one of the first reporting jobs of William Pickle. It first appeared in ''Twelve'', a comic strip

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

from Accent UK. This comic had 12 different stories from 12 different creators, each story being based around one of the 12 tasks of Hercules. It was republished in French as "Le Ceinture de Polly Hipple" in a flip-book along with The Sword of Truth by BD Must in 2013. The Sword of Truth is six pages long and looks at an event in the early career of Lily Lawrence. It first appeared in ''The Girly Comic'' issue 5 in May 2004, was translated into Dutch in 2010 (as "Het Zwaard Der Waarheid"), appearing in the comics magazine, ''Stripschrift'', and into French in 2013 (as "L'Épée de Vérité"), published as a flip-book with The Girdle of Polly Hipple by BD Must. It tells the story of two actors struggling for Lily's affections on her first stage appearance. The Secret of the Samurai is twenty pages long and is set a couple of years before the events in ''The Rainbow Orchid'', featuring the search for a lost set of

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

armour in 1920s England. It was serialised in four episodes in The Phoenix in 2013.

Books

*''Volume 1'' (48 pages, Egmont, August 2009, ) *''Volume 2'' (48 pages, Egmont, July 2010, ) *''Volume 3'' (48 pages, Egmont, April 2012, ) *''Complete'' (144 pages, Egmont, September 2012, ) The Complete Rainbow Orchid includes 17 pages of extras in the form of sketches, research and notes.

Reception

''The Rainbow Orchid'' has received considerable critical acclaim. In 2013, it won the Young People’s Comic Award in the

British Comic Awards The British Comic Awards (BCA) were a set of British awards for achievement in comic books. Winners were selected by a judging committee; the awards were given out on an annual basis from 2012 to 2016 for comics made by United Kingdom creators publ ...

. It was named The Observer's Graphic Novel of the Month for May 2012The Observer online - The Adventures of Julius Chancer: The Rainbow Orchid, Volume Three
/ref> and was shortlisted for a UK National Comic Award in 2004 within two categories, Best Independent Comic and Best New Talent. In its early days it was named Fool Britannia

Small Press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

Comic of the Year 2003 by

Comics Bulletin Comics Bulletin was a daily website covering the American comic-book industry. History Silver Bullet Comicbooks The site was founded in January 2000 as Silver Bullet Comicbooks by its New Zealand-based publisher/editor Jason Brice. During this ...

. The comedian

Rhys Darby Rhys Montague Darby (born 21 March 1974) is a New Zealand actor and comedian, known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. He was nominated for ...

included it as his Cultural Highlight book in The Observer's 'On My Radar' in Jun 2012. * "... I couldn't like it more if I tried ... It is all so beautifully done: the historical references are spot on ... the dialogue is pitch-perfect ... the result is one of the most satisfying comics around, whether you are a small boy, or a grown woman." -

Rachel Cooke Rachel Cooke (born 1969) is a British journalist and writer. Early life Cooke was born in Sheffield, and is the daughter of a university lecturer. She went to school in Jaffa, Israel, until she was 11, before returning to Sheffield, and atten ...

, The Observer * "The between-the-wars setting is meticulously rendered, the storyline intricate and engrossing... Ewing has crafted something at once reverential and joyous that has a life of its own." - ''

James Lovegrove James M. H. Lovegrove (born 1965) is a British writer of speculative fiction. Early life Lovegrove was educated at Radley College, Oxfordshire, and was one of the subjects of a 1979 BBC television series, ''Public School''. A follow-up progr ...

'', (

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

) * "This is a spectacular work... the art is wonderfully attractive but what impressed me the most was the slow-burning, exquisitely constructed plot." - ''

Comics International ''Comics International'' was a British news and reviews magazine about comic books. Founded in 1990, it was published monthly by Quality Communications until 2006, and then by Cosmic Publications Ltd. until 2010. Over time, ''Comics Internation ...

'' * "The characters are real, the setting is authentic, and this opening chapter hints at many plot strands. It's got depth, charm and real polish." - ''TRS2'' * "Tightly-plotted, well-researched and beautifully drawn, this book is a real delight. Garen Ewing's mix of engaging characters, exciting old-school adventure, attractive ligne claire artwork and fluid storytelling makes The Rainbow Orchid easily one of the best graphic novels of the year." - ''

Bryan Talbot Bryan Talbot (born 24 February 1952) is a British comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of ''The Adventures of Luther Arkwright'' and its sequel '' Heart of Empire'', as well as the ''Grandville'' series of books. He collaborated ...

'' * "...beneath the obvious beauty of the artwork is an equally great, old fashioned adventure tale. It works for children and it works for us adults. An absolutely cracking adventure story." -

Forbidden Planet International Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate UK-based science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, and is named after the 1956 feature film of the same name. Specialisi ...

blog"The Rainbow Orchid Volume 1: Julius Chancer’s beautiful adventures…", Forbidden Planet International blog, 27 July 2009
/ref>

References

External links

Official Site

The Beat interviewForbidden Planet Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rainbow Orchid, The British comics titles Egmont Books books