Story
Cromwell Stone

Story Information
TitleCromwell Stone
Number of pages46
ScenarioAndreas
DraftsmanAndreas
Context Information
AlbumCromwell Stone
AlbumCoffret tomes 1 à 3
AlbumCromwell Stone: all 3 stories
SeriesCromwell Stone
Magazine PublicationLe Journal Illustré (le plus grande du monde) (1983, number 1-4)
Magazine Publication2000+ (1992, number 7)
Comments
from the article "The C of Andreas. Cromwell Stone, Cythraul and Cyrrus (1984)":
Cromwell Stone
After a mutiny thirteen passengers of the "Leviticus" were put overboard in a lifeboat without food or water. As by miracle the shipwrecked were saved; since then they hold a yearly reunion. For ten years each year one of them disappears ...
Just before the latest reunion Cromwell Stone receives a letter from one of the reunionists, offering him to stay over at his place, so they can visit the reunion together.
The letter doesn't comfort Stone entirely, and as he wanders through the abandoned town late at night he imagines that he is being spied upon (see our frontplate). His fear gets bigger and bigger and overcomes him, in the end, in front of a house, as he collapses unconsciously.
Next morning it becomes clear that he has slept at the address where he was supposed to be; the house is for rent, however, and an old neighbour cannot remember the person Stone is looking for ever having lived there. Stone decides to rent the house, which starts a series of fateful events.
from the article "Rork and the fantastic (1995)":
In the first parts of Rork you refer to other authors: the writer of the first house is called Wrightson, the recluse of the forest refers to Neal Adams. Do you like working with those links?
Andreas: Not too often. In Cromwell Stone is another picture with links to Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones... In the second part there is another one, even more crowded than the first. Most readers have found many links. Not all, by the way, because I have put personal things in it that maybe one or two people will see, small things in the corner. Otherwise it's no fun. In the first part friends of mine take part as well.
from the article "Cyrrus (1995)":
It is the beginning of your cooperation with Métal Hurlant and Humanoïdes Associés. How was your relationship with the publisher?
Andreas: I thought myself absolutely unfit for the level of Métal Hurlant. There was a kind of aura around Métal Hurlant. There had been so many things in it I admired. Furthermore Humanoïdes made absolutely no limitations. I made Cyrrus with a feeling of total freedom. It is kind of the reward for what I did in Rork, without the limitations of Tintin/Hello BD (fr); Kuifje (nl). Not that you hád to do Tintin-like things for Tintin, but you couldn't do just anything either. Cromwell Stone gave me the possibility to create Cyrrus in full freedom. Making Cromwell Stone I didn't have the right state of mind, for that I had left Tintin too shortly. With Cyrrus I could really do what I wanted, without any concessions to the reader. I a sense Cyrrus is thus the first real Andreas album, in which I didn't feel influenced, like I was influenced by H.P. Lovecraft in Cromwell Stone and Rork.
--- part of article left out here ---
Do you remember how you felt when you started writing it?
Andreas: No, I never do. But in the case of Cyrrus I remember I felt really driven. It was delightful. All the pieces in my mind, fitted automatically. Everything was connected and at their right place. I don't really remember the accuracy with which I wrote the scenario. I happened organically, different than normal. Only with Coutoo it happened to me. It was also one of the first times, with Cromwell Stone, that I set up the album as an album and not in chapters or smaller pieces for a magazine. I didn't consider prepublication, but wrote the album immediately.