Revue of the Week : Safe Inside #1

Digital Comic Review
Safe Inside #1
By Zerocalcare
Published January 1st 2009

Today (Wednesday February 2nd) we saw a fresh burst of violence (including gunfire and burning) during the over week long and going crisis in Egypt, as people continue to protest their government and work towards repairing what they proclaim is an oppressive regime. Oppressive regimes, in our world and in the world of fiction be it comics or anime/manga or whatnot, is nothing new. It's been around forever, but today as I watch the news coverage I can't say I have any parallel to this to recommend in terms of digital comics... until this.

Safe Inside, 2009, is a digital comic from DC Comics set in a post apocalyptic future where the world has been bent over due to an apocalyptic outbreak of the undead. Humanity, now sealed away in huge fortress cities ala the Mega Cities of Judge Dredd only not as impressive looking, linked by sealed tunnels and manned 24/7 by walls of gunners whose sole job is to shoot whatever approaches the city (as most likely it'll be some mutant animal or undead human or animal) in order to keep the peace.

The peace, however, is nothing more than a talking point of the present ruling governments of the city fortresses who terrorize their own people repressing them under the banner of protecting them. This repression, however, is tolerated and even accepted as a way of life as people are more fearful of the undead outside of their cities than they are of the threat locked away with them in the form of an oppressive police state mixed between aggressive humans and obedient robots, as well as a military government structure where the status quo is more important than individual rights or freedoms.

The story, however, doesn't just focus on the small pockets of resistance who struggle to mete out a life while fighting for their basic human rights (by exposing the plot of the city's leaders who are exploiting the fears of the populace in order to keep them under their control), we focus on one dweller of the city (one of those whose job is to man the wall of guns aimed outside towards the wasteland that used to be fertile living earth, as dead as the undead they fear) who is beginning to remember his dead mother, especially her death which may have been because of the undead... or worst... as he finds himself suddenly thrust into the growing situation between the city's regime leadership and the so called "terrorists" who oppose him as, at the end of a seemingly dull day at work on the wall, is caught up in a terrorist attack... will he join the anti-government group or will he stick to his life even as he may be given good reason to turn against the fear mongers once he fully remembers his mom's death.

I'm going to do a post apocalyptic vote in December 2011 (one year before December 21st 2012, the so called end of the world according to the Mayans) of which this will be one of the titles recommended for review. So while you wait check it out, and post here what you thought of it once you read it. Of course it's nothing like the present crisis in the Middle East as people begin to rise up for change in their individual governments and express their desires for progress they can believe in... but somehow I am sure down the line we'll see comic creators from that part of the world put fingers to keyboard, pencil and pen to comic board, and interpret the events of the day in comic form from the perspective of those who have been there.

Final note? Since this is a free will open article I'll fill in weekly with a short review or commentary I don't have any idea what I'll do next week... I'll just let my muse speak to me then and we'll see what we do next.