Hans (comic book)

The series tells the story of special agent Hans, caught up in a struggle for power in a totalitarian city, the only one left on Earth after a nuclear war. During his adventures, which include both space and time travel, Hans falls in love with Orchid, one of the outlaws who live in the ravaged areas around his home city. Eventually, Orchid gives birth to their daughter, Mahonia. With time, Hans becomes the ruler of the city and has to face numerous threats both on the inside and the outside.[1][2]

In 1976 young Polish comic book artist Grzegorz Rosiński met Belgian comic book writers Jean Van Hamme and André-Paul Duchâtea during an exhibition in Germany. The Belgians were impressed by Rosiński's art style and decided to work with him on some unspecified future project, tentatively "about Vikings", since Rosiński, because of the ongoing Cold War, did not want to work on any story set in the modern world. The Viking project would eventually materialize in the form of the Thorgal series, which debuted in 1977. In 1978, Duchâteau drafted a new, science-fiction themed story, and again asked Rosiński to work in it. The series debuted with a short story in early August 1980 in the Franco-Belgian magazine Tintin.[2][3]

At first, Duchâteau was unsure if he wanted to develop Hans into a full-fledged series, and so that first story (La Tour du désespoir) is chronologically an unspecified time after the publication of Volume 1 (La Dernière Île, 1983); it is also often omitted from smaller reprint runs.[3] Hans also appeared in few other short stories. In 1986 a one page short story featuring Hans was published in French magazine Circus and another, two page short story was part of Tintin's 40th anniversary special edition (and featured Tintin almost meeting Hans).[4] The series was at first published in comic book magazines (in Tintin until 1989, then in La Suisse and Hello Bédé), before being collected in larger volumes, of which twelve were eventually published. The series transited to debuting in volumes from Volume 7 (Les Enfants de l'infini, 1994).[2][4] Work on Volume 13, tentatively called Les Amazones, was eventually cancelled, with Volume 12 (Le Pays des abysses), published in 2000, marking the final volume of the series.[5] The series has been collected in twelve volumes published in France by Le Lombard.[2]

In late 1980s, Rosiński became increasingly busy working on the popular Thorgal series, and started looking for someone to take over Hans, eventually deciding on another Polish artist Zbigniew Kasprzak (Kas), whose style, Rosiński felt, would be most true to his own.[4][6] Kasprzak started working with Rosiński during Volume 5 (La Loi d'Ardélia),and took over from Volume 6 (La Planète aux sortilèges) onward.[4]

• 0, La Tour du désespoir, August 1980. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Grzegorz Rosiński
• 1, La Dernière Île, (ISBN 2-8036-0427-2), June 1983. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Grzegorz Rosiński
• 2, Le Prisonnier de l'éternité, (ISBN 2-8036-0509-0), July 1985. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Grzegorz Rosiński
• 3, Les Mutants de Xanaïa, (ISBN 2-8036-0590-2), September 1986. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Grzegorz Rosiński
• 4, Les Gladiateurs, (ISBN 2-8036-0709-3), October 1988. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Grzegorz Rosiński
• 5, La Loi d'Ardélia, (ISBN 2-8036-0783-2), April 1990. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Grzegorz Rosiński
• 6, La Planète aux sortilèges, (ISBN 2-8036-1046-9), September 1993. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Kas
• 7, Les Enfants de l'infini, (ISBN 2-8036-1083-3), April 1994. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Kas Colors: Graza
• 8, Le Visage du monstre, (ISBN 2-8036-1152-X), February 1996. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Kas Colors: Graza
• 9, La Princesse d'Ultis, (ISBN 2-8036-1281-X), December 1997. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Kas Colors: Graza
• 10, Le Péril arc-en-ciel, (ISBN 2-8036-1350-6), October 1998. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Kas Colors: Graza
• 11, Le Secret du temps, (ISBN 2-8036-1415-4), November 1999. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Kas Colors: Graza
• 12, Le Pays des abysses, (ISBN 2-8036-1517-7), December 2000. Story: André-Paul Duchâteau Art: Kas Colors: Graza

The series has been translated to several languages, including Polish[1][7] Italian[8] and German.[9] A number of collected editions have also been released.[3]

The series has received a number of reprints and translations.[2]

In 2001, Ksenia Chamerska, reviewing the series for the Polish magazine Świat Komiksu, praised Duchâteau for the novel ideas and surprising plot twists.[1]

Daniel Koziarski, reviewing the series in 2015 for the Polish portal Rebelya, noted that the quality of the series, impressive at first, declined near the end.[5]

Duchâteau noted that Hans is in fact inspired by Rosiński himself, and the dystopian theme of the struggle against the brutal, totalitarian ruler of the city was a nod towards the reality of the Cold War. He chose the German name Hans for the character, as he wanted a simple, recognizable name, and decided to settle on the one known through the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.[3] The name Hans, however, was changed in the Polish edition. When the series was published in Poland in the 1980s, the publisher decided to change the protagonist's name and the title to Yans, as the German name was largely unpopular in Poland, due to long history of troubled Polish-German relations, particularly in recent memory of World War II.[5][10][11] Early Polish editions used the Polish version of Hans (Jan) instead of fictional Yans before settling on the latter.[11]

• Patrick Gaumer, «Hans», in Dictionnaire mondial de la BD, Paris, Larousse, 2010 (ISBN 9782035843319), p. 401–402.