Scarlet Traces

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Scarlet Traces is a set of stories written by Ian Edginton, drawn by D'Israeli and published by Dark Horse Comics. The graphic novels are sequels to H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and currently comprise Scarlet Traces and a recently released sequel Scarlet Traces: The Great Game. A separately published graphic adaptation by Edgington and D'Israeli of the original War of the Worlds contains glimpses of the key characters of Scarlet Traces.

Contents

[edit] Scarlet Traces

Scarlet Traces is based on the proposition that Britain was able to develop alien technology, abandoned after the abortive Martian invasion of The War of the Worlds, to establish economic and political dominance over the remainder of the world. The artwork shows an imposition of futuristic devices on late nineteenth century society - London cabbies and the Household Cavalry have swapped their horses for mechanical devices with spiderlike legs; homes are heated and lit by modified versions of the Martian heat ray, the pigeons of Trafalgar Square are thinned out by miniature Martian war machines.

The graphic novel begins with bodies turning up in the dark corners of a glittering post-invasion London. Emerging from comfortable retirement in fashionable Bedford Square, Major Robert Autumn DSO and his trusty manservant Colour Sergeant Arthur Currie search out the culprits. Robert Autumn is represented as a classic Victorian hero, honourable, perceptive and brave but out of his depth in a new age of ruthless exploitation personnified by the cynical government official Dr Davenport Spry. The climax is a grim one in which virtue does not triumph.

[edit] Scarlet Traces - The Great Game

Decades after the events of Scarlet Traces, the counter-invasion of Mars is going badly. The central character is an aristocratic young photojournalist Charlotte Hemming. She is saved from the thuggish agents of an increasingly repressive British Government by a now elderly Robert Autumn but he has a dangerous mission for her - she has to travel to Mars to unravel dark secrets behind the war.

Again both artwork and text skillfully blend real and parallel universes. In this case 1930s Britain is recreated along fairly recognisable lines but with an additional layer of alien derived technology and a political agenda that has modern parallels.

[edit] Publication

Both works have been created by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli.

The first in the series had an initial, abortive, run on Cool Beans World. It got a complete outing in the Judge Dredd Megazine and was then collected together into one volume by Dark Horse Comics:

The Great Game was published by Dark Horse as a 4 part mini-series starting on 12th July 2006.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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