New 'Scarlet Traces' series begins in 2000 AD this July

Across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us...

Their plans failed. But what happened to the world they coveted?

2000 AD is proud to announce that the new series of Ian Edginton and Matt “D’Israeli” Brooker’s Scarlet Traces, Cold War, will begin in 2000 AD Prog 1988, on sale 6 July 2016.

Scarlet Traces took place ten years after the abortive Martian invasion of Earth, with reverse-engineered alien technology allowing Britain to dominate the world. But when women’s bodies were washed up on the banks of the Thames, a retired soldier and his trusty manservant discovered a dark plot to strike back at the Martians – a plan with devastating consequences for them and for their world 30 years on.

Set in 1968, Cold War sees a diminished Britain outpaced by its rivals and dealing with an influx of Venusian refugees fleeing the Martian invasion of their planet. As the nation falls into racist acrimony, the Royal Air Force’s Ahron Shakespeare, a first generation Earth born Venusian and an engineer, and flamboyant human/Martian hybrid, Icarus, uncover diabolical Martian plans that could mean the end of all life on Earth.

Ian Edginton said: "Matt and I always intended to return to Scarlet Traces, I knew that there were a lot more stories to tell, both prequels, sequels and sideways! We're following British and world history as it actually happened but it's also how it's been warped and distorted by cultural and technological changes bought about by the original Martian invasion in War of the Worlds, Earths invasion of Mars in Scarlet Traces and The Great Game and now the Martians occupation of Venus in Scarlet Traces: Cold War. We keep jumping ahead in twenty year increments and see how far these ripples have spread. I'd also like to go back and chart what happened between War of the Worlds and the first Scarlet Traces series and if possible explore the origin of what we think of as the Martians and their invasion of Mars millennia beforehand."

Last year, 2000 AD took the unprecedented step of securing the rights to Scarlet Traces, its sequel The Great Game, and the prequel adaptation of War of the Worlds from Edginton and Brooker – the first time the company has bought the rights to a previously published property from its creators, in order to not only bring it back into print and then provide them with a venue for the story to continue.

In 2017, 2000 AD will also publish new collections of Scarlet Traces, followed by The Great Game, and the War of the Worlds adaptation.