FEMOPOLIS: A Graphic Novel

CHRONOPOLIS

Being an epic saga of the fall of two great houses —
one felled by human design, and one by the hand of Fate —
that did precipitate the end of a continent-spanning matriarchal empire.

Left to right: The Judiciary, The Concordia, The House of State, The Imperial Palace, The Ministry of Science.

Setting:

The waning American Empire’s capital city of Chicago, coloquially reffered to as Femopolis by its citizens. We’ll traverse all its environs, from palatial courtyards, opulent drawing rooms, and elegant neighborhoods, to waterfront saloons, sweatshops, and decaying slums — a visual feast depicted with verisimilitude born of extensive historical research.

Period:

The turn of the twentieth century, an era of social, cultural, and technological upheaval. Revolutionary devices such as telephones, motorcars, and aeroplanes are becoming commonplace.
Five years before our tale begins, an enigmatic scientist ingratiated himself at court through the presentation of a mechanical woman, and has since provided many of the city’s elite with secretarial automatons.

The Ministry of Science Building houses the laboratories of Professor Auxo.

Players:

A young street urchin named Iris, accompanied by a dog that she claims possesses the power of speech, is adopted by Brickman, a labor organizer. When Brickman comes to realize that the girl is heir to the House of Bracemantle, he can’t help but ask dangerous questions: Who abandoned her, and why?
Brickman’s son, Caractacus, is a decorated combat pilot and paramour of Countess Gale. The Countess is next in line to rule the Empire, but her affection for the aviator is frowned upon. Her status, and possibly her life, are jeopardized when she decides to become protector to the orphaned Iris.
Meanwhile, Professor Auxo (the aforementioned enigmatic scientist) uses information provided by his automatons to plan a coup against the Concordia, the empire’s governing body. Caractacus discovers his plot, but is killed in an aerial duel before he can quash it. The Countess, aggrieved by her lover’s death, vows requital.
Eventually the coup is foiled and the aviator avenged, while the House of Bracemantle falls due to the scandal involving its orphaned heir. The Countess, finally outmaneuvered by her enemies, abandons claim to the leadership of the Concordia and devotes herself to working with Brickman’s union and aiding the downtrodden poor of Chicago.

Left to right:

Iris

Countess Gale of the House of Windspire

Lt. Caractacus Brickman

Tone:

I hold that a comic book’s basic story should be evident from its graphics. My characters will do, not tell. Femopolis will be visceral and exciting, not some dry narrative explained by talking heads. Lurid elements include political assassinations, violent strikes, terrorist bombings, street riots, aerial and cavalry combat, as well as assorted chases and fights. At no point will Femopolis get darker than the Grimms’ fables, however, as I’d like my neighbors’ kids to be able to read it without parental objection.


Interior of a Tea House in the Burnham District.	Slum conditions in the Sawyer District.

Style:

Locales large and small will be depicted at a level of detail not seen in American comics since the fantastic world of Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo. Comics have the (largely untapped) potential to present spectacles that would bust the budgets of most movie productions.
Back in the day, silent film classics like Ernst Lubitsch’s Madam DuBarry and D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance utilized literal casts of thousands and could linger on master shots. Recent popcorn movies like The Patriot and Gladiator employ digital extras, but the expense of such shots, combined with current rapid-fire editing styles, means the audience isn’t given much time to drink in all that glorious visual detail.
My goal with Femopolis is to make the story an absorbing page-turner, while allowing readers an opportunity to immerse themselves inside every scene.


The LaSalle Autocarrette.	The Fullerton Horseless Carriage.

Antecedents:

This tale will be told in the traditions of William Thackeray and Charles Dickens, with characters who span economic classes yet inhabit a bounded world. The main players are loosely based on real-life historical figures from the Victorian age: labor activists like Eugene Debs and Bill Haywood, and the royal Hapsburg family of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. My approach to fact-based fiction is influenced by historian/authors such as Walter Scott, Robert Graves, and Gore Vidal.

Above: Lt. Brickman on patrol. (Click on illustration for larger version.)

For further imagery that will play an important part of the story,
visit my gallery of 19th century airships.