Annotations for Scarlet Traces
by Eamonn Clarke
This is a set of annotations to the three Scarlet Traces graphic novels by Ian Edginton and Matt Brooker aka D’Israeli, published by Dark Horse Books.
Update 21/09/08. Now with official Edginton/D'Israeli approval!
D'Israeli was kind enough to feature this page on his blog. Many thanks.
Update 2012. I have added notes for the latest Stickleback story and added a couple of references to the the Great Game page. Please get involved and email me anything else I have missed.
2021 update. The old sites were archived so I have put these back up on the new Google sites. At the moment all the image files have gone but I am slowly restoring them.
Links to the annotations:
The Cold War
Other books by the same authors:
Other pages:
Fishpaste a guide to some of the recurrent in-joke
Links to other annotations: Absalom, Red seas, Alan Moore's Judgment Day
Scarlet Traces is a sequel to H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” (TWOTW) which postulates that England uses the Martian technology described in Wells’ book to power a new scientific revolution and maintain the British Empire. The story fits into the Steampunk genre with advanced technology in a Victorian setting.
The first volume is a fairly faithful adaptation of The War of the Worlds itself. The second book in the series (although it was published first) Scarlet Traces is set ten years later in a dramatically altered England and features a murder investigation and some unpleasant events.The third book is Scarlet Traces. The Great Game which takes the action forward another thirty years to a time when hostilities between the two worlds have resumed.
The books are available in attractive hardback editions but don’t take my word for it. Go and buy them and then come back here to pick up some of the references.All the books feature great writing by Edginton and fantastic colour art by D’Israeli. The second and third books feature an increasing numbers of references to characters and events from British history and popular culture.
I am somewhat late to this because they were published about two years ago. However I could not find any annotations on the internet so here is my attempt.
I am very grateful to the many contributors who have sent me corrections, comments and additional references. This page is developing its own group of 'Scarlet Traces Irregulars' similar to the Divers' Hands who assist Jess Nevins with his annotations. All contributors are acknowledged with their contributions.
Contributors:
Rowin Buist
Eirik Hunt
Paul Schroeder
Jon Rennie
Tom Proudfoot
Adam Bezecny
Ken Shinn
Leigh Penman
Bernard Paxton
Please keep the comments coming. Thanks.
All page numbers refer to the hardback collected editions. The books were published in the following order: Scarlet Traces, The War of the Worlds, The Great Game which is the order I first read them. However I cover them in story order as below. When I refer to book two I mean Scarlet Traces.
Links to the annotations: