The 2000 AD Prog 2432 saw a new scar-colored trace from the first series. Empire of Blood draws attention to the era between the end of HG Wells’ famous 1898 novel The War of the Worlds and the first series of continuation of fictional comics featuring the British Empire turbulent by Mars technology.
Co-creators Ian Esington and Dairael’s Scarlet Trace hold a key position in their partnership, especially in all the series and stories they have worked together (Evil, Leviathan, Stick Look, Helium) – their longest collaboration.
Just as Scarlet Traces: Empire of Blood brings us back to the aftermath of the invasion, the Creator looks back on the beginning and questions about the location of the prequel and the future of the series itself.
It’s been four years since I last saw scar color traces on Deam Simons: Prog. Why absent for so long? What can you tell me about this new cereal?
Ian Edginton: We were busy working on other projects. It also takes a while to register a 20-part series and execute it from concept to completion! The new series is set shortly after the end of HG Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds, and just before the first Scarlet Traces series. You can see how one is woven into the other.
Simons: This new series is Scarlet Trace (itself a sequel to HG Wells’ “The War of the Worlds). Why did you guys just choose to get the clock back now? Is that a prolonged idea from the early days?
Esington: That’s an idea we’ve always had. The realm between the end of Wells’ novel and the beginning of the Scarlet Trace, set decades after Britain truly embraced the Martian technology of reverse engineering and changed countries and the world as we know it. We wanted to answer the question: how did they get there from here?
Simons: What is the enduring appeal of the world’s war against both of you?
D’ISRAELI: I think the fictional universe, especially expanded by Ian, is kind of a playground for us. For example, every story from the Great Game onwards has a love letter to Jerry Anderson’s fictional world.
Empire of Blood is a slightly different beast than the Scarlet Traces story of the past decade. For me, it was a nostalgic return to the way I was thinking in 2005 when I was working on the war of world adaptation.
Essington: On the surface, it’s a simple idea, a plunder of alien invasions we’ve seen many times, but it was horribly new back then. I had my first idea for teens: what happened to Mars’ technology after the war? It stuck with me for years. Only when I was older I realized there were more facets to it. For me, there are two threads that hold the appeal. The first is how the invasion and its aftermath affected ordinary people.
It’s like the difference between Star Wars and Andre. One is about a big story, a wide stroke, and the other about countless ordinary people on the ground at the sharp end who endure that fear.
It is not an attack by an enemy from overseas, but from another world. What does that do to your way of thinking, especially considering the status of the British Empire at the time? It was vast and seemingly unaggressive, but in the space for a few days, I was kneeled by an overwhelming, mysterious enemy. What I found appealing was to tell them about them.
Simons: Scarlet Trace is perhaps your longest and continuous collaboration, not too far from your professional partnership, and you’re on a considerable journey. Does it have a special place for you? Do you have any important memories related to the project?
Esington: It’s not just Matt (Brucker, aka D’Israeli) for now, I’m a good friend. We have experienced a lot over the years. It was fun to go back and revisit the early days of scar-colored traces.
D’ISRAELI: That was interesting. Among them, quietly in the last decade, scar-colored traces have become the longest-lasting project I have ever worked on. Looking back at it now, it really seems like my big Magnum Opus.
Anyway, the scar color traces always represent a massive change in gear for me. I was there about 7 years ago before I started it. There, I was a kind of assistive technician, working mainly as an inker and colorist. Scarlet Trace marked the point where I switched to my rights artist and properly grasped digital art. I’ve produced professional comics digitally before that, but the first page of scar colored traces is actually my first page of full color digital comic art. It was also the beginning of my relationship with advertising in 2000 as an artist.
It is also the fact that scar color traces have been in the planning stage for a long time. It existed as an outline of my sketches for the majority of the decade heading from publisher to publisher before it was finally featured in Cool Beans in 2000, so I felt like a neglected child who finally came to myself. In the years since it first came out, there have been moments like, “How do you know that?” Every time everyone mentions me a scar colored trace!
Simons: The final series ended with a somewhat major cliffhanger. Among them is a revelation about the Martians. Will the first part be tied to the main cliffhangers in the main series or will it be a standalone arc?
Esington: No, this series fits neatly between world wars and scar-colored traces. We’ve already talked about picking up from where the final series left off.
Simons: Are there multiple first series? This seems to be broadly globally centred. Can we see things from Venus’s perspective?
Esington: No, this is it. It’s a particular story we want to tell, and now we’re done. Or is it us?
Simons: Does this first part require a lot of research? Does Scarlet Trace require a lot of research to get the overall tone, or have you reached a point where you can both freely invent?
Edginton: We’re investigating that point, but we don’t make it out of the way of the story. The goal is to keep it interesting and fun.
D’ISRAELI: From my perspective, it was very easy as there are many references from both the original Scarlet Traces and the 2000 ad series Stickleback. At this point, drawing something from the late Victorian makes it feel like you’re wearing comfortable old slippers!
It features the first article in the 2000 AD PROG 2432 Empire of Blood and so far, a collection of 2000 advertising WebShop prints and digital three scar-colored traces. The print version of PROG 2432 will be available in the US on March 2nd in the March Program Pack (Previews Code MAR251585).
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