Valérian is a French science fiction comic series created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières and is an international classic. Of all the comic book masterpieces this one holds a special place in my heart. Valérian first appeared in the magazine Pilote in 1967, re-baptized Valerian and Laureline for the 40th birthday in 2007, the final installment was published in 2010. The 22 album series for Valérian is a classic of the ninth Art and a masterpiece of the Science Fiction genre. It has been translated into 16 languages more than 3 million copies sold.

This popular long running sci-fi comic series has proved to be hugely influential for many science fiction films including; The Fifth Element, The Empire Of A Thousand Planets, and frequently in the Star Wars series, and especially The Empire Strikes Back . The Fifth Element, directed by Luc Besson, features the main character (Bruce Willis) as a very similar character to the cab driver S’Traks in the Circles of Power (Les Cercles du Pouvoir). S’Traks drives a flying taxi around a great metropolis on the planet Rubanis. In The Empire Of A Thousand Planets (L’Empire des Mille Planètes) Valérian is encased in a liquid plastic. Many times the Star Wars series embraced ideas from Christin and Mézières. In a scene in The Empire Strikes Back, the character Han Solo, is encase/frozen in a substance called carbonite. Even Han’s spaceship is a carbon copy from the story Valerian and Laureline. Someone on George Lucas’s team did the homework and did not pay a dime for it. Mézières’ response upon seeing Star Wars was that he was “dazzled, jealous… and furious!”

In the Valerian comic book story, Earth is destroyed in 1986 by a nuclear catastrophe and it takes centuries for civilization to rebuild itself. However, by the 28th Century, Earth has become the center of an interplanetary empire, Galaxity. Valerian and his younger partner Laureline are agents of the Galaxity Space-Time Service. Valérian is the veteran of the two, an expert pilot and handy with a ray gun. He picked up Laureline in medieval France on an early mission. Originally intended to appear in only one story, the popular reaction to the character meant that she was retained for subsequent stories and she has since become elevated to the main star of the series. Her superior intelligence, determination and independence paired with obvious sex-appeal makes her one of science fiction’s most notable heroines. They use a space ship, called the Astronef, which allows them to travel in time and space.