Manga International Waters (working title)

[Raiyuu]

[COLOR=DarkGreen][SIZE=1]Ah, back in the Manga Workshop. I had a thread in here a while ago about a manga project I was thinking of working on (I think you can still find it [URL=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=42418]here[/URL]), and it actually got off the ground (well, the site has the first strip up but the artist I'm collaborating with, myOtaku's xXxAlucardxXx, has had computer difficulties and so the next few, while drawn already, are taking ages to Photoshop).

You can find it [URL=http://rapturecomic.keenspace.com]here, hosted on KeenSpace[/URL]; alternatively click the link in my sig, which I'll update every time a new strip goes up.

Well, flushed with success (perhaps a little prematurely?) I've been working on another idea. Far more light-hearted this time, in that the world's population doesn't get wiped out in chapter one :rolleyes: I'm indulging my love of mecha but also trying to make a political point...

The story takes place fifty or sixty years in the future. The world's oil supplies are seriously depleted; governments are in thrall to an oligopoly of oil companies. America, having cheesed off the Middle East somewhat in the early 21st century, wields little political power anymore. Governments rule in the letter of law only; oil companies can dictate policy pretty much as they please, holding whole countries to ransom by threatening to cut off oil supplies, and therefore the electricity the country needs to survive.

Many governments have finally realised the truth; that renewable energy is the only way to go. Unfortunately it is too late. Installing windmills, geothermal plants, solar mills, takes time and money. The country needs power [I]while[/I] the windmills etc. are installed, and for that they need oil; unfortunately the price of oil, as set by the cartels, is so enormous that no government can afford to power their country while simultaneously paying for installation of new power sources. It's simply an economic impossibility.

No oil wells exist on land anymore, they've all been drilled dry. The only places left are the vast expanses of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Around 2020 some bright spark in one of the oil companies had the idea of putting colossal caterpillar tracks on all their oil rigs, so when the rig drained a well, it could simply move - albeit [I]very[/I] slowly - to the next location the company's scientists recommended.

Soon all the companies were doing it, and every time satellite imaging picked up another promising site it was a very ponderous race to see which company could claim the area first. Another bright spark decided it would be a good idea to blow up rival companies' rigs so they couldn't be beaten to it. Soon every rig doubled as a massive arms platform. A constant state of war has existed between the rival companies ever since. No armed forces intervene, because no government is wealthy enough to have armed forces anymore.

An oil rig is an inhospitable place to do maintenance. High temperatures, high water pressures and dangerous machinery are all involved. Robotic exoskeletons were developed so that maintenance crews could operate relatively safely at massive depths to free the drill from blockages, replace parts, keep the caterpillar tracks running smoothly and free from barnacles, that sort of thing. Every oil company owns subsidiaries that manufacture these 'shells'. A third bright spark had the idea of kitting out some shells with armaments to help fight off attack from other rigs. So now, while maintenance shells are still used, combat models are far more prevalent and far more diverse.

The story (got there in the end, phew) follows the crew of one rig. It's basically a light-hearted action mecha manga; they fight other rigs, eco-terrorists and pirates (forgot to mention pirates! Obviously rigs are fantastically valuable to their parent companies, so some individuals choose a life of roaming the seven seas hijacking them and ransoming them back to the company for an exorbitant sum). It will be a full story with a beginning, middle and end, not an ongoing series; the deeper plotlines will involve eco-terrorists, subaquatic cities, worldwide conspiracy and fighting back against the system, but all with a good healthy helping of mecha-on-mecha combat along the way.

Nobody works on oil rigs unless they're running from something, so the crew is a gang of misfits, outcasts and shady weirdos. The main character will be a gunfighter with an intimate knowledge of the rig's inner workings, who just turns up one day in a speedboat and demands a job. He won't actually pilot a shell, though. The main shell pilot is a girl who has been paralysed from the neck downwards by the botched installation of a new, supposedly miraculous shell-control system in her brain; piloting her mech is the only way she can actually move. Her fellow combat pilots include her overly-protective best friend; a sickeningly macho man with connections high up in the company; a nervous guy who's always trying to stop them goofing around in firefights; and the rig's captain, a violent man who's slightly unhinged and more concerned with socking it to the other companies than actually drilling oil.

The maintenance shell crew consists of a dullard obsessed with the rules and regulations, who obeys the captain's every command, however insane; a dangerously inept work-experience kid whose work experience placement expired years ago, but nobody remembers that except him; and a practical joker who takes every opportunity to needle them both. Also technically a maintenance man is the rig's mech tech, a laid-back rastafarian who looks after the shells and configures them for their pilots.

Finally (so far) is a mysterious man who spends all his time lounging in the canteen with his feet up on the table eating effeminate cakes. Nobody seems to know what he actually [I]does[/I] on the rig, but there's this sort of feeling around him ... you don't want to ask him ... you don't know what he might do ...

The project has the working title of [I]International Waters[/I], but i'm not happy enough with that to use it as the final title. I'm looking for feedback and any interest from artists; if I can get one interested then I could possibly run this parallel to my current comic, instead of having to either a) wait for the story to end before starting this one or b) work my artist's fingers to the bone.[/SIZE][/COLOR]