Scarlet Traces by D'Israeli - I.Edginton (.CBR)

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Mar 6th, 2011, 1:07 pm
#724525 by Ojay
Scarlet Traces by D'Israeli - Ian Edginton
Requirements: CBR Reader. 42 MB.
Overview: A decade after the Martians abortive assault on the Earth and their attempt to establish an invasion bridgehead on the British Isles; the industrious Victorians have assimilated the Martian technologies into their everyday lives. Hansom cabs now scuttle along the Capital's streets on multi-limbed crab legs and the terrible monopoly of the Martian heat-ray has assured the dominance of the British Empire over two-thirds of the Earth's surface, and whose benign tyranny looks to continue to do so far into the next century. However, there is something rotten at the heart of the Empire...


Genre: Comics, Sci-Fi.

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Scarlet Traces
    Writer: Ian Edginton
    Artist: D'Israeli
    Published by Dark Horse Comics. 2003

    When the bodies of several young women are found washed up on the Thames, drained of blood, enter Captain Robert Autumn (retired soldier turned gentleman adventurer) and his former Sergeant Major now manservant Archie Currie. Together they are drawn into the mystery which leads them from the gin palaces of the East End, and the grinding poverty of North, to Whitehall's corridors of power and the very Hall of the Martian King!

    A scientific adventure by Messrs Ian Edginton & D'Israeli, purveyors of fantastic fiction for young gentlefolk and the mentally deficient.

Reviewed by Paul Brian McCoy. Posted: Friday, August 29, 2003

    The setting is London, ten years after the Martian invasion collapsed in upon itself and our germs killed them all off (surely you’ve heard of this, right? There was a book about it, and a movie?). Martian technology has made England the superpower of the world and now young girls from around the world, lured to the big city looking for work, are disappearing. When an elderly drunk named Ned Penny stumbles across the a number of bodies filled with holes and drained of blood, rumors of vampires begin to circulate. But is a vampire responsible or something far more sinister? You guessed it. Far more sinister.

    Ian Edginton is currently writing Sojourn for CrossGen and was responsible for one of my favorite comics of the past few years, The Establishment – which none of you bastards read, so it’s gone now. D’Israeli is the artist responsible for (along with Warren Ellis) Lazarus Churchyard, a drug-swilling assassin whose really just a bit of brain locked inside a sculpted intelligent plastic body, which of course, renders him immortal. “And all he wants to do is die.” Very nice stuff that all Ellis fans, D’Israeli fans, and fans of obscene violence and swearing, should read. He and Edginton have worked together on a number of occasions over the years (all of which are harder than hell to find, by the way, but I’m looking), and what we have here is a wonderful science fiction mystery in a handsome hardback format.

    The production values on this are perfect. The colors are vibrant and the pages are firmly sewn. This looks good on the shelf and reads even better. Being a free-standing one-shot hardback, the creators didn’t even bother trying to pander to the regular comics crowd, and will probably be overlooked by many because of it. Hell, I forgot it was even being released, having only seen it listed in the Previews catalog months ago and then having heard nothing about it since. So when Cheryl, the owner of my local comics shop, handed it to me upon my arrival this past Wednesday, I was surprised and overjoyed. I’ve been bitching about what publishers should be putting out to attract adult readers and their green green money (in America anyway) for a while now, and here in my hands is a very good example. Of course it’s not being marketed at all that I can tell, so we’ve still got a way to go.

    The story is dark and realistic, set among the many spider-legged machines that are roaming the streets of London. The Martian technology is everywhere and D’Israeli’s design work, often inspired by Edginton’s ideas, is fantastic. The cityscapes are a wonder of style and detail. Every page is a work of art. A joy to look at. The human characters are stylized and cartoonish, reminding me at times of the work of Charles Burns and at other times of Dan Clowes. Needless to say there are some creepy characters lurking around in the shadows of this story.

    The main characters, Major Robert Autumn and his manservant Sergeant Archibald Currie, are on the hunt for who is responsible for the missing girls – one of which is Sergeant Currie’s niece. There are government plots, near death experiences, and heartbreaking losses along the way, and while the ending is not quite what many people may want it to be, it stands strong. Like I said, this is not for your average comics fan. This is for fans of science fiction and alternate histories. If Planetary #16 hadn’t come out at the same time, this would have easily been the best thing I read all week.

    Engaging and intelligent speculative fiction paired up with excellent and innovative artwork. It will cost you a bit more than you might want to part with, but for a graphic novel that really has enough story to be called a novel (or a novella, anyway, at around 80 pages), it’s a good deal.

Note:

Download Instructions:
http://novafile.com/hlnozb3j6ktz -- Scarlet Traces HC (2003)
http://novafile.com/im0vwdle8fno -- Scarlet Traces - The Great Game 01 (2006)
http://novafile.com/efsi9xt6y4ms -- Scarlet Traces - The Great Game 02 (2006)
http://novafile.com/i96fammyel0p -- Scarlet Traces - The Great Game 03 (2006)
http://novafile.com/qh4l1i5fzkgk -- Scarlet Traces - The Great Game 04 (2006)

Mirror:
Mar 6th, 2011, 1:07 pm

Labor Omnia Vincit Improbus... Hard Work Conquers Everything!
Mar 6th, 2011, 7:32 pm
#724830 by Ojay
Scarlet Traces: The Great Game by D'Israeli and Ian Edginton
Requirements: CBR Reader. 39 MB
Overview: Thirty years 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 must travel to Mars to unravel dark secrets behind the war.
This fantastical new miniseries picks up where the critically acclaimed hardcover left off. After almost four decades of conflict, the British invasion of Mars has ground into a bloody stalemate in the dust of the red planet. Launched to fanfares and cheers, the times and mood have changed, as the British Government under the iron hand of Prime Minister Spry struggles to wage a war another world away while keeping its grip on an increasingly troubled and turbulent empire.Riven with revolt and revolution, the glory that was Great Britain is unravelling at the seams with freedom and free speech brutally sacrificed to maintain order. However, this is nothing compared to what is happening on Mars, and the worst is yet to come!

Sequel to the best comic book of all time, Scarlet Traces.

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Scarlet Traces: The Great Game
    Writer: Ian Edginton
    Artist: D'Israeli
    Published by Dark Horse Comics. 2006

    This fantastical new miniseries picks up where the critically acclaimed hardcover left off.
    After almost four decades of conflict, the British invasion of Mars has ground into a bloody stalemate in the dust of the red planet.
    Launched to fanfares and cheers, the times and mood have changed, as the British Government under the iron hand of Prime Minister Spry struggles to wage a war another world away while keeping its grip on an increasingly troubled and turbulent empire.
    Riven with revolt and revolution, the glory that was Great Britain is unravelling at the seams with freedom and free speech brutally sacrificed to maintain order. However, this is nothing compared to what is happening on Mars, and the worst is yet to come!

    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!

    He approaches the gifted photojournalist Charlotte Hemming with an offer she can't refuse-a covert mission that will send her straight to Mars, and into the heart of the beast! As the last great battle in the War of the Worlds rages around her, and the Martians close in, she stumbles across a secret history of the planet . . . and an even greater revelation that could spell the extinction of all human life on Earth.

• From the creative team that brough you the critically acclaimed Kingdom of the Wicked!
• "Bold and shattering, writer Ian Edginton and artist D'Israeli's Traces is a well-crafted complement to its literary antecedents." -- Entertainment Weekly

    About:
      Scarlet Traces is a comic story of the Steampunk genre, written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by D'Israeli. It was original published online before being serialised in 2002. A sequel, Scarlet Traces: The Great Game, followed in 2006.

      Edginton and D'Israeli's 2006 adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is effectively a prequel to Scarlet Traces, as key characters of Scarlet Traces can be glimpsed therein and the same designs for the Martians and their technology are used.

      Scarlet Traces is based on the premise 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 early 20th century society. In the first series, set in 1908, 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. In the sequel, Britain of the late 1930s is recreated along fairly recognisable lines but with an additional layer of alien derived technology and a political agenda that has modern parallels.

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Mar 6th, 2011, 7:32 pm
Last edited by Ojay on Mar 7th, 2011, 3:42 am, edited 2 times in total.

Labor Omnia Vincit Improbus... Hard Work Conquers Everything!
Jul 15th, 2014, 9:33 am
#2025414 by Ojay
Added updates and Post merged
Jul 15th, 2014, 9:33 am

Labor Omnia Vincit Improbus... Hard Work Conquers Everything!