Bartlett's Bizarre Bazaar

This blog has concentrated quite heavily on politics for the past few weeks. This is meant to be a ‘bizarre bazaar’, conceived as a collection of short pieces on politics, popular culture, science, a site to host my small-press comics on the web and a place to give air some of my semi-academic writings. So, in the interest of diversity, here we begin a new, comic series.

Art is provided by Eleonora Kortsarz, an Argentinean artist who can be contacted at elioh7*at*yahoo*dot*com*dot*ar. Earlier examples of her work can be found here: La Extraña Noche Del Sr. Valdemar, and here: El Niño Que Fue Dios. Both of these are in Spanish, and as I speak, read and understand no foreign languages – to my great discredit – I cannot vouch for these strips.

I think it would be apt if we began with a scene setting trailer, akin the pieces that are found on the back of commercial books that go by the ugly name of ‘blurbs’.

The world is on the cusp of the 20th Century, but modernity is already upon us. The Scientific Revolution of 18th century Britain was taken literally. The old social and political order was overthrown following a brief, technologically unbalanced civil war in which the Armies of Reason deployed the technological marvels of poison gas, air power and mobile fortresses. Mad King George III, condemned for his irrationality, fled to the New World, where the Hanoverian States of America are established, governed as we open the story by his opium addled granddaughter, Queen Victoria. The technocratic councils that govern Britain give free rein to the power of the thinkers, building an open, progressive and globally powerful nation. However, the appearances of freedom may be a veneer hiding a more sinister means of control.

The turn of the 20th Century is a time when empires abut, jostling for position and power. In Europe the Prussians challenge the supremacy of Britain, while across the Atlantic the House of Hanover schemes to regain their Old World throne. Faced with these threats, and possessed by a desire to avoid open, destructive conflict, Britain turns to its Covert Diplomacy Corps to gather intelligence and defuse any crises. One of foremost CDC agents is Kelvin Vijay Brooke, Professor of Ethology at Empirical College of Science and Technology, London. We enter his story at a period of uneasy peace between the powers.

This chapter, and subsequent chapters, will be available in hardcopy. The cover price will be as low as possible, but for the small audience of this blog I think I might be able to stretch to complimentary copies. I couldn’t ask people to pay for what they have already read. Contact me at the e-mail address in the blog header if you want to be added to ‘the list’.

Chapter One, Part One:













Previous fiction work that has appeared on this blog can be found here: Heresy - the History of Alberto Comma, Games, Guilt Trip, Rogue Trooper – Witnesses of War (fan fiction), The Song of Wayland (Bristol Comic Festival 2004 preview pages), The Unbeatable Man, and A Complete Revolution. My writing may be of poor to patchy quality, but please check these out and leave comments.