Free Mars

PAGE EIGHTY EIGHT.          Combine siege lines, four kilometers of Amazonis Prime.
The minstrel boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death ye may find him;
His father’s sword he hath girded on,
With his wild harp slung along behind him;
Land of Song, the lays of the warrior bard,
May some day sound for thee,
But his harp belongs to the brave and free
And shall never sound in slavery!”

 Happy Friday again, Marsers.  Thanks for stopping by to check out this week’s offering: P88.  With the offensive launched and the rebels gaining ground, we find our old CSC friend Colonel Lynch in a rather bad way.  Poor old bean!  The soothing green strobe lights don’t even seem to help.

I love how the Free Mars forces are utilizing bulldozers in their desperate advance.  Not that they don’t also have some very swass looking aerospace tech.  Lynch seems intent on fusion bombing more Marsers this week, but again, he’s looking down the business end of a re-purposed mobile processing plant crawler…

I think this is an appropriate week for Joe Strummer’s cover of ‘The Minstrel Boy.’  Best remembered for ‘Black Hawk Down’, there is like a 20 minute version on the album (Global A Go-Go).  It is naffing long, really naffing long.  I like the soundtrack version.  Anyway, I love this song.  Written around 1798 by Thomas Moore to commemorate the Irish Rebellion.  It has sort of travelled down the ages but became very popular with Irishmen serving on both sides of the American Civil War.  In a strange way, I think of Vikki, Sam, and Vexx as 2339 Martian versions of warrior-bards.  And Joe Strummer is missed.

How cool is this?  From the Library Journal:

As civil war clouds gather on the Red Planet in the year 2339, a rebel girl band decides to rock the revolution. Described by the publisher as a “gritty sci-fi rock opera,” this webcomic looks the way the music is supposed to sound, no doubt: wild, punk, unconventional, and simply smashing. Just the thing for libraries where the rocker CDs circulate like crazy. Looks adultish, so heads up.

I want to take a quick opportunity, if I may, to recommend another webcomic this week.  I read as many webcomics as I can, but I sometimes fall behind on a lot of ‘em and have to catch up, which is actually a fine way to read webcomics.  However, this is one that I think I’ll be visiting each week.  Surreality by Caleb King with exceptional art by Carla Wyzgala.  It’s literally just started, so time to get in on the ground floor.  By the way, I would love to see Carla do a version of the Sisters Grimm.

Finally, have you pre-ordered your copy of ‘Free Mars: Riot Girls’?  Did I mention that it includes a prequel story?

Dave

P.S.  I can’t say much about this/them, but you should check it out.