WOULD YOU MOVE TO MARS TO SAVE YOUR LIFE? (2)
We're ahead of schedule for a Respirator Reality š·
Shanghai 2019 . . .
. . . the future arrived while we were busy elsewhere.
Alice and Alex, 2015
This drawing, Alice and Alex, was made way back in 2015: Iāve discussed the graphic style of the characters (linework and colors) in another email, so today I want to talk about the illustrationās environment. The aim of the drawing was to help me understand Aliceās day-to-day; in this instance a back-alley chase and takedown of a criminal, against a graffiti- and propaganda-smothered wall.
For this illustration I made three wall posters. I ended up not using them overtly in the image as they distracted from the characters, so I will talk about them here.
In the novels there is a constant background pressure to push people into the solar system, and therefore reduce the load that Earth has to carry. One of the best ways to get people to do something is the carrot-and-stick approach:
The carrot: Suffering from cancer? If you leave, we will reprint you with a new, healthy body.
Move to Mars and start over in new flesh. While youāre there, why donāt you grab some land for yourself? Like the wild westāor colonialismāin these books when you arrive in a new territory and register a plot of land itās all yours.
The stick: If you stay on Earth you will die of starvation or disease.
I made these posters to help explain those inducements. The first is āI Want You For Mars,ā a blunt-force-trauma reworking of the famous "I Want You" poster from 1877:
Hey, what do you want from me? Good, new, and innovative graphic design? Pffftttt š
The next one, Stamp Out The Unemployed, is based upon the 1941 "Stamp Out The Axis" poster. This is an important theme for Book 2, This Automatic Eden:
The third, Farm Europa, is done in such a way as to suggest Asiatic farms on that moon. Once weāve moved into the solar system, Earth-based nationalities such as American, British, or Chinese, will become replaced by whether youāre Martian, or European, etc. (unless those nationalities are reinforced through money, aid, and other inducements.)
(Above) Here are the propaganda posters used in the final image: a combination of all three, worn and faded out to match the wall texture . . .
Originally the wallās propaganda posters were much more obvious, but then I blended them not the background to focus of the mainevent: characters and actions (just like my writing style)
(Below) After I worked out and faded the posters I added the rear wall ināthis is an actual photo that I added a yellow fade overābefore I drew the main characters of Alice and Alex.
Countries with extreme overcrowding in this futureāsuch as India or Chinaāwould have a real incentive to push people into the system, both to reduce their population and to stake claims on mineral deposits and other supplies.
(I was planning the next book to be set out in The System, but Barlow had other ideas and now Iām arms deep in a desperate gang war . . .)
The posters I made are super-simple in execution, but I was finding my way into drawing the world and characters at the time.
Advertising is far more subtle these days, though political propaganda remains as crude as a brick.
Iād love to hear your thoughts on future propagandaāand I will do my best to blend it into the next Cortex novelsāso drop me and email and let me know! š