SAGA DE XAM
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Saga de Xam is a story in seven chapters credited to Nicolas Devil, and based on a scenario by film director Jean Rollin. The book was published by Éric Losfeld in 1967 in an edition of 5000 which quickly sold out, and has remained out of print ever since.
Devil, aka Nicolas Deville, was one of Rollin’s art directors who also worked for a time as a comic artist and illustrator. For Saga de Xam Devil was the principal artist in the first six chapters, and wrote most of the text and dialogue. In the final chapter other hands are involved: Jim Tiroff, an actor from Julian Beck’s Living Theatre, provided a poem in English, while the artwork is an unusual exercise in the Surrealist “Exquisite Corpse” technique with Devil, Druillet and several other artists—Barbara Girard, Merri, Nicolas Kapnist—collaborating on a series of improvised splash pages.
Saga de Xam is a science fiction story with a moral and political slant. Narrated in a mixture of science fiction and erotica, Saga addresses racial issues and violence and non-violence. Sent by The Great Lady of Xam Planet, Saga, comes to earth at different historical eras to learn about the past of violence and survival of the human race, and to establish a psychic protection against the invaders of their planet. But on Earth is allowed to seduce men. Fascinated by their strength and power, Saga wants to transform Vam into a strong and vigorous planet, but without violence.
5000 copies of Saga de Xam were printed on heavy 300gsm paper, and quickly sold out. Éric Losfeld said in his autobiography that he wouldn’t reprint it, preferring it to be a collector’s item. Check all seven chapters here. Devil’s next book was the 256-page Orejona ou Saga Generation, a continuation of Saga de Xam‘s anti-war/inhumanity polemics published by Kesselring in 1974.
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