Scarlet Traces Volume One by Ian Edgington and D'Israeli.
Rebellion 2017
Scarlet Traces Volume One contains a re-telling of H.G.Wells's War of the Worlds and a sequel that answers the question of what happened to the Martian technology after the war.
War of the Worlds tells the story of the Martian invasion from the point of view of the hapless George and in the post-war world of the sequel (Scarlet Traces), the British have studied and exploited the technology the Martians left behind them to revolutionise transport and infrastructure. Early-twentieth century London is now a city of vast buildings of various fantastic shapes that dwarf Big Ben and Nelson's Column, and over-ground trains suspended from cables. The horses that previously drew carriages have been replaced not by internal combustion engines and wheels but by mechanical spider legs that scuttle around in clouds of green smoke.
However, not all is well in this sleek new world. In the industrial heartlands of the north of England and in Scotland, employment has been destroyed by super-efficient machines and there is some disquiet about the disappearance of young women and the discovery of emaciated corpses in the Thames marshlands.
When Sergeant Archibold Currie discovers that one of those missing women is his niece, he and his employer Major Robert Autumn set out to find her, and in the process they discover one of the dark secrets of the British government.
Edgington's wry, fast-moving script and D'Israeli's cartoonish but meticulously detailed art (Herge is an obvious influence and Tintin himself makes a brief cameo) combine to create a compelling mixture of the comical and the grotesque. Much of the humour stems from the book's steampunk sensibility - the clash of Victorian fashions and customs with the kind of science-fiction elements we associate with the late 1950s. Thin gruel, you might think, but scenes in which elaborately moustashed soldiers fire cannons at tentacled tripod war machines are irresistable.
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