Scarlet Traces

Steampunk comic series by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli

Scarlet Traces is a Steampunk comic series written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by D'Israeli. It was originally published online before being serialised in 2002, in the British anthology Judge Dredd Megazine. 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. A fourth series, Scarlet Traces: Cold War, appeared in 2000 AD in 2016 and 2017.

Scarlet Traces is based on the premise that Britain was able to reverse engineer 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.

The story begins ten years after the abortive Martian invasion of Earth, with bodies being washed up on the banks of the river Thames. The bodies are all female and drained of blood, prompting a local drunk, whose dog discovers them, to think that a vampire is on the loose. Emerging from comfortable retirement in fashionable Bedford Square, Major Robert Autumn DSO and his trusty manservant Colour Sergeant Arthur Currie search for the culprits after being informed that Currie's niece is most likely one of the missing girls. Autumn is represented as a classic Victorian hero: honourable, perceptive and brave but out of his depth in a new age of ruthless exploitation personified by the bullish, cynical government official Dr. Davenport Spry. After following the investigation across England and Scotland the pair, now accompanied by the drunk from London, discover that a single Martian has survived the bacteria by turning its own war machine into a hermetic chamber. In return for its life and human blood to sustain it, the alien dubbed "Humpty", has been assisting British scientists in mastering advanced Martian technical skills. In the finale Spry reveals that Britain, having come to dominate Earth using its newly acquired technology, now intends to invade Mars. In an ensuing fight Currie is killed, and Autumn loses an arm. Spry kills the captive Martian which has now served its purpose, and contemptuously dismisses Autumn as a "dusty relic". Later, a crippled and alcoholic Autumn witnesses the departure of Britain's Stellar Expeditionary Force to Mars, amid general scenes of patriotic fervor.

Thirty years after the events of Scarlet Traces, the counter invasion of Mars is going badly, with the Martians successfully defending themselves using heat ray weapons against the invaders. Charlotte Hemming, an aristocratic young photojournalist, is saved by Robert Autumn from the thuggish agents of an increasingly repressive British Government led by Spry, now Prime Minister. Autumn asks her to travel to Mars and investigate why out of the thousands of soldiers sent, only three hundred and seventy two have returned from the war. At the same time, the government is shown to be under pressure from a Nationalistic Scottish breakaway faction; plus Canada, Australia and New Zealand who wish to remove their troops from the space combat. Hemming's spaceship is shot down as it enters Mars' atmosphere. She survives, but her cover is blown. She discovers that the Martians are not in fact native to Mars, but seem to have originated from a now destroyed planet that became the asteroid belt. She theorises that a previous civilisation existed on Mars and was itself plunged into warfare by the arrival of the Asteroid "Martians", resulting in their extinction. Hemming also discovers that the Martians have been using genetic techniques to mimic humanity to an indistinguishable degree but the government is already aware of this, and has been preventing any substantial return of veterans to Earth, in case they are in fact disguised Martians. Spry's government is about to deliver a coup de grace in some unknown form, and destroy all the remaining Martians as well as an expendable rearguard left behind when the main body of the expeditionary force is secretly evacuated. The expected doomsday weapon is delivered, and turns out to be modified Cavorite in capsule form, which sticks to anything it touches, and lifts it off the planet into the vacuum of space. Hemming is amongst those who survive, but they discover that humanoid Martians have taken control of the Lunar colony, and turned its mass driver into a weapon targeted on Earth. The bulk of the returning expeditionary force has been ambushed and destroyed. Ultimately the Martians are defeated when a Commonwealth space fleet, originally intended to evacuate their own troops, arrives and with the surviving British ships engage the Martians in a crossfire. Earth is saved, and the British government falls, with Spry being amongst those killed in the mass driver attacks which have devastated London and much of southern England. Some years later, a retired Hemming is approached by officials of the new government who are worried she will expose the truth, which has been repressed. She assures them that she has no intention of upsetting the status quo, and returns to her garden which contains several Triffids. A further sequel Scarlet Traces Volume 03, set in 1968, was published in March 2022.