[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

Comic book pick of the week: Scarlet Traces. Ian Edington wrote it, and D’Israeli did the art. The story is a nifty little murder mystery, and the gimmick is that it’s set in England ten years after Wells’ War Of The Worlds.

“The Martians’ unwitting bequest to their would-be slaves was a form of technology as then undreamt of by mankind. Within a decade our brightest minds had unravelled its secrets, their machineries of war and subjugation adapted and assimilated into our everyday usage. The noble steed — our companion and carriage for millenia is replaced by a clockwork toy! Homes are heated and lit by a version of the once-dreaded heat ray. The great mills and factories of the North are now vast, mechanized estates. The British Empire is now truly a world power without peer, but I cannot help but wonder if we have lost something in the process.”

It’s kind of pricy, at $15 for 72 pages of story, but I like the sturdy hardcover format. It actually rather reminds me of Tintin, which I suspect is no coincidence — Edington and D’Israeli use the same regular grid as Herge, and some of the characters have those distinctive accents Herge loved to use.

Plus the world is a completely cool concept. The big panoramic views of London are beautiful; you can see a few of them here. Very striking.

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

Clayton Cramer has more comments on Amazon; in fact, he posted my email to him (which is fine by me). I emailed him back, and since I don’t know if he’ll post it, I’ll summarize here.

I think it’s ludicrous to claim that nobody takes Mein Kampf and The Protocols of Zion seriously. (Let alone The Turner Diaries.) It’s not too complicated. Buford Furrow. Michael Ryan. Eric Rudolph.

Cramer has a bit of a persecution complex, which is no surprise to anyone who remembers his Usenet days.

[Population: One] More on the WW/Sony Thang

I’ve gotten my hands on the complaint in the White Wolf vs. Sony case. (Link to the complaint replaced, since the people hosting it found a beefier server.) Be warned: there are big fat spoilers for Underworld in the complaint. Some notes, thusly.

The key White Wolf titles are Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Guide to the Camarilla, Guide to the Sabbat, The Book of Nod, Caine’s Chosen: The Black Hand, Under A Blood Red Moon, Children of the Night, Time of Thin Blood, and Transylvania Chronicles One: Dark Tides Rising. And, of course, Nancy Collins’ The Love of Monsters, which is apparently set in the World of Darkness.

There’s an extensive list of similarities between Underworld and various White Wolf titles. I have no doubt the similarities exist, but I think they’re on the same level as the similarities between L.A. Story and When Sally Met Harry. “Hey, the protagonists fell in love! And they live in major American cities!”

Some examples:

56. In the World of Darkness, some vampires are capable of amazing speed. In Underworld, some vampires move with amazing speed.

57. In the World of Darkness, vampires “have the strength of ten men.” In Underworld, vampires “have the strength of ten men.”

71. In the World of Darkness, the history of the vampires is written in an ancient text. In Underworld, the history of the vampires is written in ancient texts.

Cause, you know, histories of ancient secretive races are usually written in modern texts.

There are more specific correspondences, but nothing that doesn’t exist in prior art. White Wolf just doesn’t have the copyright on “tall and lithe” vampire assassins. Even female ones with “a dusky, classical tone to her skin and black hair.”