Subject: "Ministry of Space" AH comic Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 21:30:21 +0100 From: "Marcus L. Rowland" Organization: Forgotten Futures Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if Apologies if it has been mentioned already - Image Comics are currently publishing a 3-part series called "Ministry of Space" which takes as its starting point a British capture of the German rocket scientists etc. at the end of WW2 (plus bombing Peenemunde while the American salvage team are there to make sure no evidence is recovered), and an immediate crash program to give Britain the lead in space, with minimal attention paid to safety etc. This results in the first satellite, "Victory", in 1948, and the first manned orbital spacecraft, "Britannia", a winged rocket- plane with a Spitfire-style cockpit piloted by a guy with a handlebar moustache wearing a leather jacket, in 1950... It's told in flashback from 2000, at which point there appear to be VTOL ground-to-orbit shuttles that can take off and land from a car park, personal jet packs, and I suspect either very advanced chemical fuels or fusion engines. The aim of the authors / artists seems to be to set up a situation in which the spaceships etc. of the British "Dan Dare" comic of the 1950s and 60s is plausible. Only issue 1 is out so far, but it _looks_ absolutely gorgeous; I'm not convinced by the little that has been said about the politics of the situation, and so far nothing much has been said about the rest of the world etc., but it'll be interesting to see how it develops. Writer Warren Ellis Artist Chris Weston http://www.imagecomics.com -- Marcus L. Rowland Forgotten Futures - The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game http://www.ffutures.demon.co.uk/ http://www.forgottenfutures.com/ "We are all victims of this slime. They... ...fill our mailboxes with gibberish that would get them indicted if people had time to press charges" [Hunter S. Thompson predicts junk e-mail, 1985 (from Generation of Swine)] Subject: Re: "Ministry of Space" AH comic Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 08:02:47 +0100 From: "Marcus L. Rowland" Organization: Forgotten Futures Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 In article , Marcus L. Rowland writes >The aim of the authors / artists seems to be to set up a >situation in which the spaceships etc. of the British "Dan Dare" comic >of the 1950s and 60s is plausible. sorry - _are_ plausible, of course. -- Marcus L. Rowland Forgotten Futures - The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game http://www.ffutures.demon.co.uk/ http://www.forgottenfutures.com/ "We are all victims of this slime. They... ...fill our mailboxes with gibberish that would get them indicted if people had time to press charges" [Hunter S. Thompson predicts junk e-mail, 1985 (from Generation of Swine)]