Story begins! Starting right off with trouble. Not just for the characters, either. Nine vehicles plus a number of police in full tactical gear, all in a downshot perspective. Even for Max-the-Artist, who likes drawing vehicles, this took some care. But we needed one scene, one shot, one large panel (plus an inset) that clearly set the stage, and I have to say, I think he delivered.
More below!
Bobservations
Picturing Rochester
I’d actually been in Rochester some years ago for a Transformers convention. Because of my work as a story editor on Beast Wars, I’d been invited as a guest speaker/panelist. The convention organizers flew me out there and gave me a hotel room to stay in.
Which all sounds kinda cool, but honestly, if you’re just a writer and not somebody awesome like a voice actor, it’s not quite as sweet as you might think. For one thing, yes, you get a plane ticket, but it is absolutely the cheapest plane ticket the organizers can swing. You’ll have layovers in two cities, including Chicago, and will almost certainly miss at least one connection due to delays. I missed two. Getting from Los Angeles to Rochester took me seventeen hours, and I arrived.. um… somewhat annoyed. But I finally made it to the hotel at 2AM, where I was informed that since I hadn’t arrived by midnight, they’d given my room away.
Blessedly, my wife (who had been on the phone talking me out of murdering everyone in O’Hare some hours previous) thought this might happen, and had arranged another room — a better room, by the way — across the street. Because she is awesome that way.
Anyhow, after a few hours sleep my panel started, and it went pretty well. It’s admittedly kind of a heady experience to have people wanting you to sign scripts and to have their pictures taken with you. But at 3PM the organizers needed the room for another panel and tossed us out. Because of the schedule I had eaten nothing since the day before, and I was pretty ravenous. So I walked out of the convention center into downtown Rochester at 3PM of a Saturday afternoon and tried to find some food.
There was nothing. Boarded-up businesses and shuttered stores were all I could see.
I walked for three blocks, increasingly confused. There were a couple of stores and restaurants, but for some reason they’d all closed at 2PM. I don’t know if it was some sort of civic regulation or because as the sun begins to move behind the buildings and the dark shadows lengthen along the deserted streets, the Rochester undead begin to stir and moan, thirsting for the blood of the living. All I knew was that I was the only pedestrian I could see in any direction and there was very little traffic. Shades of the Omega Man.
I did find a Bruegger’s that was closed, but the glass door was still open behind the iron security gates. The clerk was getting ready to throw the leftover bagels into a garbage bin. I was so hungry offered him five bucks for one. He shook his head and said it would get him in trouble, but eventually he took pity on me and shoved a plain bagel out through the bars. He refused the money. I think he was expecting the zombies to get me at any moment, and he’d feel guilty.
That was the best bagel I’ve ever eaten, and I was almost tearfully grateful. Made it back to the convention center with my brains more or less intact.
I did ask some questions afterward of the hotel clerks. What had happened to this city? Huge buildings everywhere with no one in them. Stores shuttered. The people all seemed nice but sort of desperate and worried. I got answers, and they all came down to one thing. Eastman-Kodak.
From what I was told, during the era of film photography, Eastman-Kodak was sitting on top of the world. The business of photographic film was insanely lucrative, and Kodak in its heyday controlled something like 90% of the market. Vast, vast quantities of money, and lots of work, lots of jobs. All of Rochester was created to serve the Kodak empire, directly or indirectly.
And then digital cameras were invented. Sure, they were a joke at first, but not for long. Before they knew it, Kodak’s formerly lucrative empire found itself sliding downhill on an avalanche of scree, and no matter how their cash cow danced, it never could seem to get a footing. Kodak tried making digital cameras. In memory of my time at Rochester, I even bought one once. But I’ll be the first to admit it wasn’t as good as the competition. And the competition was everywhere. Heck, digital cameras were in people’s phones.
So film photography and movie stock essentially went from making billions upon billions of dollars to… well, a hell of a lot less. And the entirety of Rochester — good, proud, hardworking people, most of them — found themselves suddenly adrift. Another casualty of the digital revolution. It happens. It’s no one’s fault. God knows, I’d rather shoot digital than film myself. But even then I could sense the worry in the air, and from what I gather it’s even worse now.
Fear. Stress. Fretting about money. Fretting about the future. We’ve all been there. Most of us learn to handle it, as best we can.
But for a few… well, the pain just becomes too much.
Stay with us.
— Bob out
Shame about Rochester :'(
Well, about the story!
Snipers… are… cool B-)
I love snipers. Playing as one gives you this sneaky, deadly, godlike high. Stories about snipers are usually really layered and interesting, and when you’re fighting a sniper? Exciting stuff! Who will see who first? Who will catch who first?
If the cover gives any hint, this won’t be Washburn’s story for long, and he’s going to catch something in his scope most unexpected.
Right into the action!
Good ole Ra-cha-cha,
Lived there from 70s-10s. Moved to the South like everyone else. Very few good jobs. Miss the place a lot. Really nice city with lots of cultural and ethnic diversity. Lots of good folks there. Should’ve tried Nick Tahou’s or Monroe Ave.
Love the comic. Thank you both for producing such a fine story.
Thanks Argyfoe!
You make it sound accidental, Mr Forward. Kodak’s death was anything but. They decided early on that digital was a fad. They stuck to that. And according to quite a few reports, they hounded out of the company anyone who suggested they get into the digital camera market. And as you noted, when they did try digital, their contempt for the fad showed through with better resolution than their camera had.
Not that I’m still bitter about their decisions wiping out the stock portfolios and retirement accounts of some relatives or anything…
Washburn, eh? Hope he doesn’t say the tagline that claims 90% of Washburns.
As for the story about Rochester – there are ghost cities like that all over North America. Companies that didn’t change with the times and who were moguls suddenly found themselves in serious financial straits.
There is always a chance that deciding to change (or not to) will end in this kind of scenario – be it with multi-billion dollar companies or even something akin to getting a new job.
I feel for those that got hit by Kodak’s demise, but it does stand as one hell of a cautionary tale about staying abreast in the ever-changing world we inhabit.
Loving the comic, keep ’em coming!
Much of NY State wound up in similar difficulties , often due to government policies as well as business decisions. I loved much about growing up there, well up in the forested hills near the finger lakes. Politicians with urban voter bases don’t care much what the rural people need or want, and I learned that many of their decisions were and still are not business friendly. Many manufacturers as well as service industries decided to leave the tax heavy regions for the south and west, and most people soon followed out of necessity. We did. Georgia has been good to me the past 34 years or so.
Guess you could say his targets are…all washed up.
(•_•). ( •_•)>⌐□-□. (⌐□_□)
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!
I was so hoping someone would do that. 🙂
I’m not familiar with Edgarton, I lived there up until two years ago – for 10 years, this is a made up story so have at it. As for Rochester, sure Kodak is no longer the big wheel, but there are quite a few jobs related to the well endowed University of Rochester and RIT. ITT Technical has taken over part of Kodak, and the company is slowly getting carved up. The area also has the shortest commute for a city of its size in the nation – mainly because the highways were intended to support 1.5 million people not the 500K that live in the area now.
As for Mr Eastman, much of his money was given away. Bunches went to hospitals and educational instutions all over the world. MIT received donations of his from “Mr. Smith” that built engineering schools. As for if he still has a Hand-In, you’ll have to talk to Sophie or that new hot shot Detective Letola about that.
Glad to know there’s some hope for Rochester. I’m sure there are some great places there. Picturesque, even.
Since it had been a while, when we were planning this page I googled “bad areas in Rochester” and Edgarton was named prominently. Google Earth supplied confirmation. I was going to identify this as “just off Lake Ave” but decided we didn’t to be that specific.
Oh, one funny note that you touch on, but didn’t know that you touched on. Kodak wasn’t a pictures company primarily. “What!?,” you say, “they were known the world over for their cameras and film….” See that’s it, the film was a side business to the chemicals to develop it. By introducing the Brownie Camera Kodak not only sold film, but the chemicals to process it. An integrated Supply chain. That was where their money was made – The Eastman Chemical Company. Chemicals production is what makes up most of their Infrasturcture. Its what makes funny smells in the neighborhoods downwind of the plants. Fun stuff.
Kodak was the FoxConn of its Day over 140K people world wide and about 100K in Rochester. They have (maybe had) their own Full time Police, Fire and Ambulance Services. There was an internal bus route up until 2000, There are freight rail lines connecting the different parts of Kodak Park and to the Rail lines around it. If there ever were a zombie apocalypse, Kodak has its own coal fired power and steam generation facilities. They have their own Deer Herd made up of deer which have hopped a fence or wandered though a gate. I’ve never seen them, but I bet they have killer fallout shelters scattered all over. There is one hugish rail to truck freight exchange building approximately 1500 feet on a side. I’ve never been inside, just walked around it on lunch. It has indoor dock space for probably 20-30 trailers and 6-10 rail cars.
The inkjet printing industry tried going the same route, extremely cheap printers and very expensive consumables. It worked for a while, but only grandparents print things any longer, everyone else just keeps one copy on some destructible media and hope that it lasts the ages. Perhaps, if they are from Rochester, they have a spindle of Kodak Gold CD’s rated for archival storage.
You don’t work professionally, do you? I go through a toner cartridge a month during the slow season. Hard copies are legally required, since they can’t be altered like digital. For once, bureaucratic foot dragging proved correct.
well I used to be a professional Printer repair person. Laser is not inkjet. Those systems do get a lot of use, on a per page rate, Laser print is about 1/4 the price of ink, and if you stick to black only its closer to 1/10. I personally would trust a true digital fingerprinted copy over printed. However government is not equipped to deal with that — whiteout and photocopiers happen. you can even carefully scrape letters off paper. One neat trick is if your paper is too moist, Laser printed letters wont stick to it, though they will fuse in the fuser. so you get a sheet full of letters that can be knocked off the sheet. A real word Jumble.
Did a bit of a double take at the sniper’s name. Don’t see my surname much of anywhere, and that about made my night. Really loving this comic, you guys rock!
Another episode 5? I thought we were starting episode 6? =) Typo I assume.
We decided for purposes of tidiness the Interludes would be an epilogue to Episode 4. So they are now listed on the site as chapter 4A. This is Episode 5. Just dealing with how WordPress likes to arrange things.