Foothold - New Webcomic

[rihatsu62.livejournal.com]

Name's Rihatsu, from the UK, and I've just started work on a vigilante-type webcomic, working title Foothold. My main influences are Watchmen, Atlas Shrugged and those retro Marvel webcomics of the Captain America/Iron Man ilk.


In the not-so-distant future, the Union of European Socialist Republics has renounced its history and denounced its culture, semi-Islamising according to popular demand, its economy failing and its people starving. Japan, a closed nation, withdraws from the global stage, its government sending agents across the world to monitor the international situation. The world as we know it is falling apart.

Amidst the chaos, only one nation—the United States of America—retains its former identity and prosperity. But slowly, the social and political institutions of the USA show signs of collapse. Donations of taxpayer's money are sent more and more frequently to the UESR, with no return and no signs of improvement in the recipient nations. The media attacks with increasing frequency and viciousness the industrialists and businessmen of America. The government is distrusted and the Universities preach altruism, relativism and, above all, pessimism.

Coinciding with a series of terrorist attacks that rock Philadelphia to the core, the paths of four unlikely individuals cross, and it soon becomes clear that optimism, individualism and integrity must prevail before America—and the world—can be saved...


The community with updates and such can be found here. Crit and input seriously appreciated! <3

Comments

[mprice.livejournal.com]

Why are you heroes atheist?

Just wondered.

[rihatsu62.livejournal.com]

Cause I am. XD I have a funny relationship with religion, though. While I don't subscribe to the idea of an actual, existing God, I wouldn't class myself in that oh-so-fashionable Dawkins camp either. I'm more of a Feynman type. :) Simply, I don't find the literal Christian/Jewish explanations of reality very compelling, but there's quite a lot of good morality inherent in both institutions. I want to incorporate both of those ideas into my work.

[mprice.livejournal.com]

You sound more like an agnostic rather than an atheist.

[rihatsu62.livejournal.com]

Agnostic is understood to mean a bunch of different things. I'm fairly sure I'm an atheist, though; I am under absolutely no doubt—within the extent of fallibilism—that there is no God. This isn't something I lack an opinion on, or within the extent of my current understanding am undecided about. However, I imagine that "atheist" has become fairly synonymous with a person who actually hates religion, religious institutions, all ideas endorsed by religions and religious people, which I am most definitely not.

Does that make sense? ^^; Sorry, it's very late at night here.

[mprice.livejournal.com]

Yes and no.

Does your reply make sense? Yes.

Does a belief that there is no God make sense? To me, no. As a deeply spiritual individual who has had too many personal experiences to the contrary, again, no. Do I believe in God? Absolutely.

As with the others on my flist with differing views on all things, we must agree to disagree.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you are putting for the ideals of freedom and integrity and hope, then best of luck to you!

[rihatsu62.livejournal.com]

aww, thanks a lot, hun! :)

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

So... Atlas Shrugged meets... I don't know, 24? Interesting...

Amidst the chaos, only one nation—the United States of America—retains its former identity and prosperity. But slowly, the social and political institutions of the USA show signs of collapse. Donations of taxpayer's money are sent more and more frequently to the UESR, with no return and no signs of improvement in the recipient nations. The media attacks with increasing frequency and viciousness the industrialists and businessmen of America. The government is distrusted and the Universities preach altruism, relativism and, above all, pessimism.
Mention nationalization of many institutions. You're making this too optimistic, all things considered. :D;; (And make the UESR a bit more subtle. People's European Union? Something like that. You could even keep it as the European Union, if you're willing to make it quite clear they've become socialist.)

Also, preaching "altruism"... That's not quite the approach. Preaching "entitlement", I'd say. Those below you are ENTITLED to your lifestyle. You are ENTITLED to the lifestyle of those above you. After all, it's all just chance, the evil capitalists are stealing all your money, etc. Remember the Tale of the Motor Factory (from the hobo to Dagny Taggart). People don't want to give stuff away until they can be fooled into thinking they'll get more stuff for it, by-and-large. Few people are ACTUALLY through-and-through altruistic, and I respect them for it, even if I think they're too optimistic. The rest of the feel-good types are handing their things away with one hand and sticking their other hand out in back of them for rewards. Reasonable rewards, of course. Ones that just happen to increase over time, as people get accustomed to thinking that such-and-such is their natural RIGHT.

Sorry, just nitpicking. :D;;

Japan, a closed nation, withdraws from the global stage, its government sending agents across the world to monitor the international situation.
Eh... closed? I get what you're saying, but don't they export a lot of things to the US? (Might be wrong. Just curious.)

...And I'm frankly a bit curious as to how four people can prevail against the _world's_ moral decay. Not bashing, genuinely curious. :D;;

I mean, even Ayn Rand didn't have a TRUE answer as to how the world could be fixed - Galt's Gulch is more an LSD trip than anything that would work in reality. ...I mean, yes, I'm pessimistic. If I was optimistic, I'd be a liberal. :D;; But HOW would "optimism, individualism and integrity" prevailing WORK? (I'm not sure "optimism" is such a great thing, anyway. Watch the Obama supporters to see what I mean.) For every person that agrees with Atlas Shrugged, it feels like there's three or four who mock it and completely miss the point.

I'm all for this, I'm just not sure how you can pull it off. If you can, infinite kudos to you. World needs a counterbalance to all the propaganda in the OTHER direction, and Atlas Shrugged is mocked too much for it to really work alone. (Goodness knows, I picked it up in a bookstore for laughs alone, and, when I flipped it open, found that I completely agreed with what was being said.) So, good luck.

Oh, as a final note -
The media attacks with increasing frequency and viciousness the industrialists and businessmen of America.
Weeeell... some of them ARE flat-out "looters", to use Ayn Rand's terminology. Remember, Joe Taggart, Wesley Mouch, Boyle, etc. were technically industrialists and businessmen. So don't blindly defend them all - specify which are which. :);; *preaching to the choir here, I know* Emphasize that you're defending the ones with INTEGRITY and FORESIGHT. 'K? Just trying to head off any attacks-stemming-from-deliberate-misinterpretations on you before they occur. I really do wish you the best of luck.

[rihatsu62.livejournal.com]

Edited for HTML failing =_=

Gah! I still want to watch 24! What I know of it implies that that is a super-accurate comparison, though. Eehee, Jack Bauer <3

Dayum, I like. Heh, I toyed with the notion of keeping the EU - out of interest, do you think there might be copyright issues to that? XD

Preaching "entitlement", I'd say.
Mm, yes, I suppose that's true.

I get what you're saying, but don't they export a lot of things to the US?
Sure, but this is all in the not-so-distant future, remember. ;)

...And I'm frankly a bit curious as to how four people can prevail against the _world's_ moral decay.
I'll find a bloody way! ;) I don't know. Persuasion, I imagine. Only one person needs to have an idea and understand it well enough to persuade others for that idea to work well. Cite Galileo.

But HOW would "optimism, individualism and integrity" prevailing WORK?
It would look a bit like the Enlightenment, I suppose, only better, and this time we'd have cotton underwear! ;) (Industrial Revolution, thank you. XD)

Optimism is important in imagining that humanity can improve. It's the anti-human liberals that think that's impossible, that we're all going to hell (literally, surrounded by lots of very angry polar bears) and we don't have a hope of improving, etc. Obama supporters are essentially.. what, some kind of cross between the germany that voted for hitler and the britain that voted for blair? something like that.

Also, only three or four? I'm thinking more like ten or twenty. =_=;

World needs a counterbalance to all the propaganda in the OTHER direction, and Atlas Shrugged is mocked too much for it to really work alone.
Funny enough, that was actually my exact inspiration to make this. XD And thanks a lot! :)

Humm, yes, good point!

Bloody hell, that was an AWESOME comment. XD Thanks so much for all the crit, it was really useful :)