This website uses cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies on this website to analyze visits and to show you relevant messages on social media. By clicking 'Accept all' you give permission for their placement and for the processing of personal data obtained in this way, as stated in our privacy & cookie statement.

Our privacy & cookie statement:

Lone Sloane's Relativity
29 June 2019

Lone Sloane's Relativity

Philippe Druillet, born on 28 June 1944, is known for his baroque drawings and bizarre science fiction stories. After having worked as a photographer for several years, Druillet made his debut in comics in 1966 with Lone Sloane, le Mystère des Abîmes, a comic book that drew inspiration from Druillet’s favourite writers H.P. Lovecraft and A.E. van Vogt. Later, Druillet would design several covers for reissues of Lovecraft’s work and a number of film posters.

Philippe Druillet and Jacques Lob, Délirius (1973)

Philippe Druillet and Jacques Lob, Délirius (1973)

M.C. Escher, Relativity, lithograph, July 1953

M.C. Escher, Relativity, lithograph, July 1953

After Druillet joined the Franco-Belgian comic magazine Pilote in 1970, his Lone Sloane saga became increasingly flamboyant. Six stories were collected in 1972 in Les six voyages de Lone Sloane, widely regarded as his masterpiece. In the comics, the titular character ends up in a universe that is strange to him, becoming an interstellar explorer with strange powers. He is trapped in a galactic battle between space pirates, giant robots, malevolent gods and other strange entities. Druillet makes no distinction between science fiction and fantasy and creates a world in which everything seems possible.

Philippe Druillet and Jacques Lob, Délirius (1973)

Philippe Druillet and Jacques Lob, Délirius (1973)

A unique look at Relativity

Sloane was again the hero of the graphic novel Delirius (1973), written by Jacques Lob. In the novel a religious group asks him to help them steal a large sum of money from the Imperator, the ruler of the hedonistic planet Delirius. The book contains a page in which an intriguing and exuberant variant of M.C. Escher’s Relativity (1953) can be seen. Escher’s work had previously been used as cover images for books, and psychedelic versions of his prints were also made by hippies and students in the late 1960s. But this is possibly the first time that an artist used an Escher work as a source of inspiration for a completely unique version.

Druillet’s revolutionary designs are what make him unique. He dispenses with the waffle iron model (four rows of three identical frames) and experiments wildly with the page layout. Druillet did not shy away from using very large images. Sometimes a page only consisted of two pictures, yet was still crammed with detail. He also used round frames, triangular frames, octagonal frames—anything was possible. Occasionally, the reader has to tilt the book sideways, because the draftsman was inclined to draw a page in a different direction. Lone Sloane and the characters from his other books roam around in worlds filled with gigantic buildings and bizarre spaceships, displaying a mixture of Art Nouveau, Mayan and Aztec temples and Gothic cathedrals. He uses a lot of symmetry in his work and it is not only the aforementioned print that is reminiscent of the worlds of Escher.

Page examples from Druillet's books

With Lone Sloane but also

,

and Salammbô (1980)

In 1975, together with Bernard Farkas, Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Moebius, he founded the publishing house Les Humanoïdes Associés and the magazine Métal Hurlant. For this magazine, he created several short stories, which were later collected in the book Mirages in 1976. He kept on working on new comics and stories in the 1970s. At the end of the decade Druillet began expanding his activities to encompass animation, sculpture, architecture, film, photography and painting. Druillet is still active as a comic artist and creator, but outside France he will probably mainly be remembered for his science fiction hero Lone Sloane.

Philippe Druillet, Salammbô (1980)

Philippe Druillet, Salammbô (1980)

Erik Kersten

Erik Kersten

Editor

Share:

More Escher today

J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien

‘Imagine being without Tolkien! The lonely evenings are the most difficult for my patience. But he helps me through them with his fantastic world of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and good wizards, contrasting with the most horrible, diabolical monsters’.
This ode to the British writer and academic John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), who became world famous for his fantasy cycle The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the posthumously published The Silmarillion, is found in a letter dated 29 June 1962 that Escher wrote to his son George. His son Arthur had treated him to a copy of The Hobbit earlier that year, a book Escher read voraciously whilst bedridden, when reading became a useful means of escape.
San Michele dei Frisoni

San Michele dei Frisoni

In June 1932, Escher was commissioned by the Dutch Historical Institute in Rome. The institute wanted to devote attention to a church whose visibility was threatened by the emerging new building sites in the capital. In the lithograph that Escher produced of this San Michele dei Frisoni (the Frisian Church), he allows himself a considerable degree of artistic licence. He does not depict the current version of the church (built in 1141) but instead the original version, which was destroyed by the Normans in 1084 during the Investiture Controversy. This controversy is known as the conflict between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and the then pope Gregory VII.
Unique loan

Unique loan

Last week a display case was revealed at Escher in The Palace, containing a unique bequest. It was given to us by Mr and Mrs Hoogendijk-Floor. They purchased several works by M.C. Escher over the years, and these were recently bequeathed to Escher in The Palace. The works they owned include a vignette featuring fish and the accompanying woodblock. Very few of Escher's woodblocks are extant and intact, and most of them are privately owned. Hence this gift is invaluable to the museum.