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Scarlet Traces #2
Scarlet Traces: The Great Game
The front line of the War of the Worlds has been taken to the red planet itself! After almost four decades of conflict, the British invasion of Mars has ground into a bloody stalemate. The nation is cracking at the seams, and liberties are being revoked as Prime Minister Spry struggles to maintain order at home while waging war another world away. What does Spry have up his nasty little sleeve? Robert Autumn, aged gentleman adventurer and hero of Scarlet Traces, is determined to find out!
104 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
1 person is currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Ian Edginton
798 books148 followersEdginton sees part of the key to his success coming from good relationships with artists, especially D'Israeli and Steve Yeowell as well as Steve Pugh and Mike Collins. He is best known for his steampunk/alternative history work (often with the artist D'Israeli) and is the co-creator of Scarlet Traces, a sequel to their adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. With 2000 AD we has written Leviathan, Stickleback and, with art by Steve Yeowell, The Red Seas as well as one-off serials such as American Gothic (2005).
His stories often have a torturous gestation. Scarlet Traces was an idea he had when first reading The War of the Worlds, its first few instalments appeared on Cool Beans website, before being serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine. Also The Red Seas was initially going to be drawn by Phil Winslade and be the final release by Epic but Winslade was still tied up with Goddess and when ideas for replacement artists were rejected Epic was finally wound up - the series only re-emerging when Edginton was pitching ideas to Matt Smith at the start of his 2000 AD career.
With D'Israeli he has created a number of new series including Stickleback, a tale of a strange villain in an alternative Victorian London, and Gothic, which he describes as "Mary Shelley's Doc Savage". With Simon Davis he recently worked on a survival horror series, Stone Island, and he has also produced a comic version of the computer game Hellgate: London with Steve Pugh.
He is currently working on a dinosaurs and cowboys story called Sixgun Logic. Also as part of Top Cow's Pilot Season he has written an Angelus one-shot.
http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Edgi...
His stories often have a torturous gestation. Scarlet Traces was an idea he had when first reading The War of the Worlds, its first few instalments appeared on Cool Beans website, before being serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine. Also The Red Seas was initially going to be drawn by Phil Winslade and be the final release by Epic but Winslade was still tied up with Goddess and when ideas for replacement artists were rejected Epic was finally wound up - the series only re-emerging when Edginton was pitching ideas to Matt Smith at the start of his 2000 AD career.
With D'Israeli he has created a number of new series including Stickleback, a tale of a strange villain in an alternative Victorian London, and Gothic, which he describes as "Mary Shelley's Doc Savage". With Simon Davis he recently worked on a survival horror series, Stone Island, and he has also produced a comic version of the computer game Hellgate: London with Steve Pugh.
He is currently working on a dinosaurs and cowboys story called Sixgun Logic. Also as part of Top Cow's Pilot Season he has written an Angelus one-shot.
http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Edgi...
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 12, 2014
It's a good follow up to the first Scarlet Traces book, but it's just so rushed. There aren't enough pages for the amount of story Edginton wanted to tell. In particular, the revelation that isn't given the panels that it really should be given. Nor does it feel like any of the characters assign it much importance. The ending is so hurried that it felt like I must have missed something, but apparently not. Maybe this should have been twice as long, or expanded into two collection. It's a shame, because there are some great characters, great ideas, and great art represented here.
July 24, 2024
I feel that this book should be twice as thick and in that case it could go all the way up to five star rating. Again, I didn't like the visual style, but that's my personal opinion. It wasn't fitting the story, but the story is great by itself, and art isn't that bad, it just doesn't fit for me.
The Great Game story doesn't start were predecessor left it, so there is more than a couple of questions that arise... most of them went unanswered (apart from Major Autumn fate). Here the setting isn't as Victorian as in previous Volume, but there's a lot of steampunk machines nonetheless. I feel that Edginton was restricted by the number of pages, and that's unfair to him, as the story is captivating and interesting, and could be developed into a whole word/universe if given space (pun intended).
This way, we got a bit rushed story, with a lot of infodumps, to fill up the holes. It starts with Orwellian setting (or at least Handmaid's Tale atmosphere), with continuation of anti-imperialistic tones. Edginton is once again cruel to his main protagonist(s) and that's the style I like, it gives a more realistic tone to the story. Later it transgresses to the hardcore space SF, anti-war narrative with plenty of aerodynamic aircraft and spaceships. There's a lot of depth and historical figures, also nod to C.S. Lewis and some SF classics which I enjoyed.
Overall, I liked the story a lot, and would like to read more, so I'll try to put my hands on the next Volume in line - Scarlet Traces: Cold War.
The Great Game story doesn't start were predecessor left it, so there is more than a couple of questions that arise... most of them went unanswered (apart from Major Autumn fate). Here the setting isn't as Victorian as in previous Volume, but there's a lot of steampunk machines nonetheless. I feel that Edginton was restricted by the number of pages, and that's unfair to him, as the story is captivating and interesting, and could be developed into a whole word/universe if given space (pun intended).
This way, we got a bit rushed story, with a lot of infodumps, to fill up the holes. It starts with Orwellian setting (or at least Handmaid's Tale atmosphere), with continuation of anti-imperialistic tones. Edginton is once again cruel to his main protagonist(s) and that's the style I like, it gives a more realistic tone to the story. Later it transgresses to the hardcore space SF, anti-war narrative with plenty of aerodynamic aircraft and spaceships. There's a lot of depth and historical figures, also nod to C.S. Lewis and some SF classics which I enjoyed.
Overall, I liked the story a lot, and would like to read more, so I'll try to put my hands on the next Volume in line - Scarlet Traces: Cold War.
May 3, 2018
I had so many problems with the story of this volume, especially compared with the first part, that it was frustrating. Too many weird developments, too many unanswered questions, too many weird apparent plot holes, and yet I kept turning the pages because I wanted to see what would happen next.
I still wish that the creators had slowed down and told this same story in a greater number of pages, to make the story flow better. It was an interesting tale that could have been better, but was worth reading.
I still wish that the creators had slowed down and told this same story in a greater number of pages, to make the story flow better. It was an interesting tale that could have been better, but was worth reading.
January 8, 2026
Kind of gross.
January 28, 2014
A visita de Ian Edginton ao texto seminal de Wells iniciou-se com uma belíssima adaptação para webcomic da Guerra dos Mundos, com D'Israeli a ilustrar num delicioso estilo steampunk. Depois, num interessantíssio what if, imaginaram o que sucederia após a derrota da invasão marciana num Reino Unido que beneficia da análise dos artefactos tecnológicos marcianos em Scarlet Traces. O tom é imperialista, com Londres e o país radicalmente transformados como palco de uma intriga de raptos e assassínios destinados a alimentar um prisioneiro marciano, peça-chave para o decifrar dos mistérios da avançada tecnologia alienígena. Novamte D'Israeli ilustra, refinando o estilo steampunk que mistura a estética eduardiana com feéricas fantasias tecnológicas.
The Great Game é um passo à frente neste regresso ao espaço ficcional da Guerra dos Mundos. E é um passo assumido como grande. Passaram-se décadas desde os acontecimentos de Scarlet Traces e o poder britânico está empenhado numa guerra sem fim em Marte. Londres é o epicentro de uma potência que começa a sucumbir sob o peso da guerra permanente, com os cidadãos mantidos num estado de ignorância por controle mediático que oscila entre a censura e o exaltar do patriotismo. Há dissidentes e descontentes, e a aventura do livro começa quando uma foto-jornalista é enviada a Marte com uma missão: descobrir porque é que em décadas de guerra poucos foram os soldados que regressam, facto ocultado na historiografia oficial. Assumimos que se tratará de uma guerra desgastante e cujos custos o governo quer ocultar, mas a verdade é mais assombrosa. É-nos revelado que os marcianos de Wells não são de facto oriundos de Marte. Vindos de um mundo estilhaçado na cintura de asteróides, invadiram e aniquilaram a antiga civilização marciana tal como já o haviam feito com outras civilizações no sistema solar. Pior, os alienígenas são capazes de, ao longo de gerações, provocar mutações que os tornam capazes de mimetizar as raças que exterminam. É por isso que a guerra continua, e tudo termina com uma batalha estelar em órbita terrestre.
Premissa interessante e ambiciosa, mas Edginton precisava de mais espaço para desenvolver a narrativa com fluidez. Querendo tocar em muita coisa acaba por ter de recorrer a longos infodumps para nos situar no mundo ficcional. Percebe-se o alcance. Edginton vai além de Wells e toca em Orwell com uma Londres fascizante e em eterno conflito e em C.S. Lewis com a visão de um sistema solar povoado por espécies alienígenas feéricas. Percebe-se a referência a 1984 com a Inglaterra transformada numa Airstrip One para lançamento de vagas de combate que consumem os recursos do império. Os vestígios de um sistema solar onde cada planeta já albergou exóticas forms de vida, aniquiladas pelos novos marcianos, remetem para a trilogia espacial de C.S. Lewis, essa amálgama de fantasia e ficção científica que se iniciou em Para Além do Planeta Silencioso. É até sintomático que Edginton coloque nas paredes de uma antiga cidade marciana um mapa do sistema solar que ecoa o field of arbol de Lewis.
A distinção neste livro vai para D'Israeli. A iconografia steampunk evolui para um estilo dieselpunk, cheio de aeronaves e espaçonaves aerodinâmicas que se inspiram no clássico Dan Dare ou na estética dos Anderson, particularmente no aerodinamismo de Fireball XL5 ou no estilo tão à anos 50 dos Thunderbirds. Há paralelos gráficos com a recriação de Dan Dare por Garth Ennis ou Ministry of Space de Warren Ellis. O traço de D'Israeli é assombroso neste Great Game.
The Great Game é um passo à frente neste regresso ao espaço ficcional da Guerra dos Mundos. E é um passo assumido como grande. Passaram-se décadas desde os acontecimentos de Scarlet Traces e o poder britânico está empenhado numa guerra sem fim em Marte. Londres é o epicentro de uma potência que começa a sucumbir sob o peso da guerra permanente, com os cidadãos mantidos num estado de ignorância por controle mediático que oscila entre a censura e o exaltar do patriotismo. Há dissidentes e descontentes, e a aventura do livro começa quando uma foto-jornalista é enviada a Marte com uma missão: descobrir porque é que em décadas de guerra poucos foram os soldados que regressam, facto ocultado na historiografia oficial. Assumimos que se tratará de uma guerra desgastante e cujos custos o governo quer ocultar, mas a verdade é mais assombrosa. É-nos revelado que os marcianos de Wells não são de facto oriundos de Marte. Vindos de um mundo estilhaçado na cintura de asteróides, invadiram e aniquilaram a antiga civilização marciana tal como já o haviam feito com outras civilizações no sistema solar. Pior, os alienígenas são capazes de, ao longo de gerações, provocar mutações que os tornam capazes de mimetizar as raças que exterminam. É por isso que a guerra continua, e tudo termina com uma batalha estelar em órbita terrestre.
Premissa interessante e ambiciosa, mas Edginton precisava de mais espaço para desenvolver a narrativa com fluidez. Querendo tocar em muita coisa acaba por ter de recorrer a longos infodumps para nos situar no mundo ficcional. Percebe-se o alcance. Edginton vai além de Wells e toca em Orwell com uma Londres fascizante e em eterno conflito e em C.S. Lewis com a visão de um sistema solar povoado por espécies alienígenas feéricas. Percebe-se a referência a 1984 com a Inglaterra transformada numa Airstrip One para lançamento de vagas de combate que consumem os recursos do império. Os vestígios de um sistema solar onde cada planeta já albergou exóticas forms de vida, aniquiladas pelos novos marcianos, remetem para a trilogia espacial de C.S. Lewis, essa amálgama de fantasia e ficção científica que se iniciou em Para Além do Planeta Silencioso. É até sintomático que Edginton coloque nas paredes de uma antiga cidade marciana um mapa do sistema solar que ecoa o field of arbol de Lewis.
A distinção neste livro vai para D'Israeli. A iconografia steampunk evolui para um estilo dieselpunk, cheio de aeronaves e espaçonaves aerodinâmicas que se inspiram no clássico Dan Dare ou na estética dos Anderson, particularmente no aerodinamismo de Fireball XL5 ou no estilo tão à anos 50 dos Thunderbirds. Há paralelos gráficos com a recriação de Dan Dare por Garth Ennis ou Ministry of Space de Warren Ellis. O traço de D'Israeli é assombroso neste Great Game.
March 7, 2017
Ian Edgintonin ja D'Israelin scifisarjakuva "Scarlet Traces: The Great Game" oli päätynyt kirjahyllyyni kaiketi Tähtivaeltajan kirjoittaman positiivisen arvion perusteella, mutta en saanut avatuksi sitä aikaisemmin. Nyt sitten kun sen kimppuun viimein kävin, tulin huomanneeksi että kyseessä on jatko-osa, tosin itsenäinen sellainen jo aiemmin alkaneelle saagalle. No, tämmöistä sattuu!
Sarjakuva kulkee Alan Mooren mestarillisen "Kerrassaan merkillisten herrasmiesten liigan" kanssa samoissa maisemissa, eli tarinan lähtökohdat lepäävät intertekstuaalisella jalustalla. Lähtökohtana on siis H.G. Wellsin klassikko Maailmojen sota.
Sota vieraita valloittajia vastaan on jatkunut lähes neljäkymmentä vuotta ja laajentunut jo Marsin kamarallekin. Englanti on samalla muuttunut dystopiaksi, jossa skottilaiset vapaustaistelijat räjäyttelevät pommejaan ja oikeutta käyttelevät pääministeri ja tämän salainen poliisi. Tapahtumat käynnistyvät kun Afrikasta kotimaahansa palannut lehtinainen ryhtyy selvittämään kadonneiden sotaveteraanien kohtaloa.
"Scarlet Tracesin" kuvaama steampunkahtava miljöö kaduilla kulkevine metalliraajaisine autoineen ja todellisine historiallisine henkilöineen (marsalkka Montgomery, Oswald Mosley jne) on paikoitellen varsin vinha, ja monet tekijätiimin ideoista ovat vallan mainioita: esimerkiksi avaruudessa taistelevan brittiarmeijan tommy-univormut ovat mukava yhdistelmä uutta ja vanhaa. Avaruusraketit näyttävät sen sijaan vähän turhan moderneilta.
Sarjakuvan kuvitus jättää hetkittäin toivomisen varaa, mutta ei toisaalta häiritsekään lukukokemusta. Harmi vain, että tämän kakkososan luettuaan tuli samalla spoilanneeksi itselleen avausosan tapahtumat - vaan siitä huolimatta täytynee myös ensimmäinen osa ottaa haltuun.
Sarjakuva kulkee Alan Mooren mestarillisen "Kerrassaan merkillisten herrasmiesten liigan" kanssa samoissa maisemissa, eli tarinan lähtökohdat lepäävät intertekstuaalisella jalustalla. Lähtökohtana on siis H.G. Wellsin klassikko Maailmojen sota.
Sota vieraita valloittajia vastaan on jatkunut lähes neljäkymmentä vuotta ja laajentunut jo Marsin kamarallekin. Englanti on samalla muuttunut dystopiaksi, jossa skottilaiset vapaustaistelijat räjäyttelevät pommejaan ja oikeutta käyttelevät pääministeri ja tämän salainen poliisi. Tapahtumat käynnistyvät kun Afrikasta kotimaahansa palannut lehtinainen ryhtyy selvittämään kadonneiden sotaveteraanien kohtaloa.
"Scarlet Tracesin" kuvaama steampunkahtava miljöö kaduilla kulkevine metalliraajaisine autoineen ja todellisine historiallisine henkilöineen (marsalkka Montgomery, Oswald Mosley jne) on paikoitellen varsin vinha, ja monet tekijätiimin ideoista ovat vallan mainioita: esimerkiksi avaruudessa taistelevan brittiarmeijan tommy-univormut ovat mukava yhdistelmä uutta ja vanhaa. Avaruusraketit näyttävät sen sijaan vähän turhan moderneilta.
Sarjakuvan kuvitus jättää hetkittäin toivomisen varaa, mutta ei toisaalta häiritsekään lukukokemusta. Harmi vain, että tämän kakkososan luettuaan tuli samalla spoilanneeksi itselleen avausosan tapahtumat - vaan siitä huolimatta täytynee myös ensimmäinen osa ottaa haltuun.
October 10, 2011
I'm having a hard time rating this book. Probably 2.5 stars instead of 3. It's set about 40 years past the Martian invasion (from War of the Worlds ), and you see the continuance of the war that launched ~30 years earlier at the end of the previous Scarlet Traces.
The artwork is still lush, as in the previous titles by this duo. The use of color to set the mood is quite impressive. You still have the steampunk nature of the adopted (and now evolved) Martian technology (such as video screens in cars, and video phones). And there are interesting alternative history elements cropping up (for example, Haile Selassie I shows up in a news story, but there's no mention of Hitler. Why would you need Hitler's fascism, when it's firmly established in the post-martian England?
Nevertheless, I didn't enjoy the story as much. It felt unnecessarily crass in a few places, it felt like it jumped around too much in the beginning, and there were a couple of convoluted plot twists that left me confused. But I'm going to read it again - with better lighting (in deference to my presbyopic eyes) and a still open mind.
The artwork is still lush, as in the previous titles by this duo. The use of color to set the mood is quite impressive. You still have the steampunk nature of the adopted (and now evolved) Martian technology (such as video screens in cars, and video phones). And there are interesting alternative history elements cropping up (for example, Haile Selassie I shows up in a news story, but there's no mention of Hitler. Why would you need Hitler's fascism, when it's firmly established in the post-martian England?
Nevertheless, I didn't enjoy the story as much. It felt unnecessarily crass in a few places, it felt like it jumped around too much in the beginning, and there were a couple of convoluted plot twists that left me confused. But I'm going to read it again - with better lighting (in deference to my presbyopic eyes) and a still open mind.
January 13, 2009
I was recently given this book as a Christmas gift from a friend of mine, and I finally sat down to burn through it yesterday.
The book tells the tale of the Earth some time after the events of the War of the Worlds. We have learned much from retrieved alien technology, and the British Empire has pushed the war back to the Martian front line. However, the war efforts are pushing towards something else, something the Empire wants to keep desperately quiet. It's not just a war to wipe out the martian threat abroad...
The story gets a little convoluted towards the end, but the idea is sound. The art is also very distinctive if somewhat simple. Anything human or Earthlike generally is kept to ver simple design. However, anything Alien or sufficiently advanced technology-wise is much more precise, more detailed.
It's a fun read, and it has a half-crazed, one-armed Scottish ex-spy. What's not to like?
The book tells the tale of the Earth some time after the events of the War of the Worlds. We have learned much from retrieved alien technology, and the British Empire has pushed the war back to the Martian front line. However, the war efforts are pushing towards something else, something the Empire wants to keep desperately quiet. It's not just a war to wipe out the martian threat abroad...
The story gets a little convoluted towards the end, but the idea is sound. The art is also very distinctive if somewhat simple. Anything human or Earthlike generally is kept to ver simple design. However, anything Alien or sufficiently advanced technology-wise is much more precise, more detailed.
It's a fun read, and it has a half-crazed, one-armed Scottish ex-spy. What's not to like?
August 30, 2011
The sequel to Edington's re-imaging of The War of the Worlds. Deftly done, putting our hard-nosed photojournalist protagonist in a futuristic Britain that's a weird blend of steampunk and high technology. Britain is currently engaged in an endless war on Mars after an attack force is sent into space, the date being forty years after the original invasion by the martians. The technology has been stolen from the failed invaders and is used to bring the earth to a near utopia while boosting troops on martian soil.
Charlotte Hemmings will stop at nothing to find out the truth about Mars! Why have the troops not been sent home? What is really going on?
Looking forward to the next installment!
Charlotte Hemmings will stop at nothing to find out the truth about Mars! Why have the troops not been sent home? What is really going on?
Looking forward to the next installment!
Want to read
August 9, 2012This is a quick little read that I consumed on quiet afternoon. The story is a sequel to the novel "War of the Worlds" where Britian takes the war to Mars. The Brits have reversed engineered the alien technolgy and have prospered after the initial invasion However this prosperity and the war has come with a price. The empire is its breaking point and dark secrets about the true purpose of the war are arising. I was genuinely suprised and pleased by the twists that were revealed in the last third of the book. The artwork and text economically told a story that is bigger than the hundred or so pages the book ran. I would know like to read the first book Scarlet Traces.
August 13, 2008
This instalment is much better than the previous volume, and very ambitious in scale, however it still feels rushed. After a promising start, the story fails to deliver and gets resolved in a few final pages with what looks like a "deus-ex-machina" trick. The art is good, but I feel that a longer treatment would have suited the story much better; there's very little subtlety, with the bad guys explaining their plans in long dialogues like it was a Flash Gordon adventure (it's 2008, for Moore's sake!). But if you like the classics like Flash or Dan Dare, this is for you.
August 28, 2007
I actually read this book in comic book form, sent to me by my friend Phil during my final days in Harveyville.
My favorite part of the story is that the main character is a woman, a reporter, probably in her 40s, tough and fearless and a little frumpy. This woman is not a babe in any traditional sense, and I like that a lot. She rocks!
It's a good story about Martian invasion and government cover-up. Not the very best comic I have ever seen, but solid and entertaining.
My favorite part of the story is that the main character is a woman, a reporter, probably in her 40s, tough and fearless and a little frumpy. This woman is not a babe in any traditional sense, and I like that a lot. She rocks!
It's a good story about Martian invasion and government cover-up. Not the very best comic I have ever seen, but solid and entertaining.
January 25, 2015
Nice follow up to Scarlet Traces, which itself was a wonderful premise for a miniseries. We're having Ian Edginton on The Comics Alternative for an interview, so I wanted to read more of his works I wasn't previously familiar with.
June 26, 2008
The second book was just not that fun.
June 19, 2009
For those who have the sick desire to read a Dan Dare comic written by Orwell, you prayers are answered. File with Ellis's Ministry of Space and Moore's League.
January 21, 2011
Very enjoyable - especially for all ardent readers of "martian" SF.
January 24, 2016
Great 2nd series in this storyline. Nice continuation of the H. G. Wells "War of the Worlds" theme. Great steampunk story. Very recommended
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews