Story
Synopsis
Set in the 1930s of an alternate history where Vancouver is Japanese territory, the story follows Imperial Investigator Kitazawa Saburou as his investigation of a terrorist attack leads him to a wider conspiracy with implications for a world war.
It starts one day...
Early one morning, on the beautiful beaches known as Supein Kaigan, there's a Shinto ceremony to inaugurate a newly built torii gate. Many city notables have gathered on wooden planks, set above the wet sands of low tide. The Shinto priest is in the middle of a purification ritual. All eyes are on him, so no one notices a dark figure in a heavy overcoat approaching.
Just as some notice the man in the overcoat, he takes it off to reveal he is wearing a strange suit with tanks and hoses and spray nozzles attached. The man starts shooting noxious green gas, and within moments, people begin to choke and their skin burns. They panic and flee, but not before the strange attacker kills a few of them, including the priest.
Suddenly the tanks on the man's suit begin to rupture and burst, and the man's suit fills with his own toxic gas, which kills him faster than any of his victims. The 'Gas Killer Attack,' as it came to be known, was over soon after it started.
Who was the Gas Killer, and what was his goal?
Special agent Kitazawa Saburo of the Imperial Investigation Agency is sent to Vancouver to find out. As he digs deeper into the mystery, his investigation leads to many more questions. Who was selling guns to the Free Orleans Front? How is the town's largest drug dealer involved? What are Confederate soldiers doing in town? What is the American secret service's connection to a meth cook for the Triads? Who is British intelligence manipulating into spying for them? What does a banking scandal have to do with the Mexican civil war? Who is "the Californian," and what are his plans? And how far will some go to prevent the princess from ascending to the throne?
All of this is connected to a conspiracy that might bring the whole continent, and maybe the world, into war. Saburo can only stop it if he can uncover the secret society behind it all, Hidden Dawn.
Characters
These are some of the characters of Hidden Dawn. I drew these myself. Please forgive the clumsy proportions.
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The alternate history
The Turning Point
The history of this world breaks from our own a little after the year 1600. In the real world, that was when Japan took on an isolationist policy, closing its borders for roughly 250 years. During that time, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa Bakufu, a military dictatorship led by a family named Tokugawa.
In the world of this story, around the year 1630, the Tokugawa Bakufu was overthrown in what came to be known as the Ronin Rebellion, led by a man named Kuroda Toubuzawa. Under Kuroda's rule, Japan became more open to foreign trade, the goal being to catch up in development with the rest of the world. Soon, though, Japan's ambitions grew, and it aspired to become a colonial power on par with the Europeans. It was not an easy route, and there were many challenges and set backs, but by the mid to late 1700s, Japan, known as Nihon in this reality, was on equal footing with the British Empire in reach and territory. The sun never sets on the British Empire, and now the sun is always rising on the Empire of Nihon.
The Nihonjin (Japanese) began colonizing North America a little later than the Europeans, but coming from the north western side of the continent, they found more territory open to them while the Europeans had to cross from the east and south. Of course, there were already natives living there, but the Nihonjin were no more concerned about that than the Europeans ever were.
The Wagen Era
This story takes place in the 8th year of the reign of Emperor Masahito, known as the Wagen Jidai (era, or reign), which is around 1930 in the western calendar. The Great European War was fought to a standstill about a decade earlier, and it demonstrated the horrors of modern industrialized warfare. Many fear a similar war will occur in North America. It is a factionalized continent with many countries at odds with each other. Mexico has recently fought a civil war, resulting in splitting into two countries, Mexico and California. The Confederate States, who never had a formal peace with the United States, is currently facing an insurrection that has created the state of Free Orleans, recognized officially by the League of Nations, but still considered a rogue state by the CSA. The USA has fallen to a fascist coup, and is fomenting discord in the Ouregon Protectorate (“Ouregon” is a historical spelling of Oregon) , a bantu state under the umbrella of Nihonjin control. Everyone knows that if the US establishes a pacific port, their long term growth and eventual dominance is a distinct possibility....
It's in this world that this story takes place, starting with a terrorist attack in Vancouver that could be the flash point that leads to war. The reasons behind the attack need to be uncovered before millions die and many more suffer.
Setting
1930s Japan
The imagery of the story draws upon a period from about the 1920s through to the end of the 1930s, which roughly equates to a period in Japan known as the Taisho Era. At that time, in the real world, Japan was a burgeoning democracy, and western influences were mixing with Japanese styles and sensibilities. Unfortunately, in the real world, from around the start of the 1930s, hard right fascist factions began to take the reigns, and we all know how poorly that worked out for everyone. Fascists ruin everything.
In this story, Nihon is a democratic monarchy. They do not have a constitution, but they have a parliament and the royal family is politically limited, though they are the titular head of the military. Extreme political ideologies are ever present, trying to alter the direction of society. For most people, though, there's freedom of speech, of thought, and to try and make the most of their lives.
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People
These are images of people from the 1920s to 1940s, used to inform the look of the characters.
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Vancouver
Why would a city be called "Vancouver" if it's a Japanese city?
In this story, in the early to mid-1800s, the British tried to secure a port on the West Coast, ahead of Nihonjin settlement. They rushed to build a fort on the coast, naming it “Vancouver”. However, Nihonjin settlers kept coming into the territory faster than the British could match, and for a while the city was a de facto Nihonjin city even though it was administered by the British. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a war between Nihon and Britain in and around Madagascar, known as the "Merina War." As part of the peace treaty, there was a territory swap where Nihon ceded land in India to the British, and Britain ceded Vancouver to the Nihonjin. However, as part of the deal, the British kept a small area of land by the docks, known as the "British Concession," so they could retain a pacific port.
So in this story, Vancouver is a Nihonjin city, but it is culturally very mixed. There are lots of British settlers who remained through the handover, and they make up a sizeable segment of the population. On top of that, the city was a destination of choice for many other communities seeking opportunity or safety. For example, there are many black people who fled during the American civil war, and others who still come to Vancouver as a result of the fighting in Free Orleans, as well as refugees from the Mexican civil war, and many South Asians and Chinese brought over as laborers, just to name some examples.
While the city in the story diverges from the city in reality, a lot of the architecture and layout remains similar, as a base to build on.
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Rain
Rain is a constant in Vancouver. In this story, it's almost always rainy, foggy, or drizzling. The few times it's not raining, the sky is colorful and dramatic. Vancouver has fantastic sunsets.
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Artist credit: Impressionistic rainy street painting by JPH.
Noir
As a spy thriller and political drama with elements of a detective mystery, there is a film noir ambience in Hidden Dawn. It's not a distinctly hard-boiled, pulp fiction type of narrative, but it draws inspiration from them, and it is gritty and dark in places.
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Artist credit: Neon signs on a Vancouver street photo by Greg Girard.
Artist credit: Train station interior by Benjamin Carr.
Artist credit: Vancouver Noir painting by artist Tom Carter.
Technology
Items, interiors, and transportation may have a slightly more fantastical look, but only for visual effect. Technology in the story stays within the bounds of reality, there is no science fiction element. So it's approaching dieselpunk, but stops short of any retrofuturism. However, technology doesn't have to match exactly what was possible in the real world up to 1930. Technology may vary in terms of development, being more advanced in some cases, but still within the realm of technologies we know were possible at least at some point in history.
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Art style
Pre-manga Japanese art
Before the outline of the story was even written, inspiration for the look and feel of this story came from seeing Japanese art from the early 1900s, in the middle of the Meiji Era. It was a period after Edo woodblock carvings, but before anime and manga became so dominant. Around the time of the Russo-Japanese War, there was an artist named Kobayashi Kiyochika who has an art style that was a big influence on the look and feel of this story.
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Current comic artists
These are artists who have styles that match the aesthetic of the story in one sense or another. Of course, none of these should be taken as the final word on the style of the story, but just point in a direction without deciding the destination.
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Artist credit: Mona Finden.
Artist credit: Des Taylor.
Artist credit: Irene Horrors.
Artist credit: Enrico Marini.
Artist credit: Satoru Noda.
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