Whisper: Wikileaks before the internets
Feb. 21st, 2011 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glaurung posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyIn 1986, Whisper got a new series and (thankfully) a new art team (Dell Barras and Tim Burgard, with Barras and Rico Rival on inks). So, without further ado, 10 pages from Whisper #1 (vol 2), focusing on the Lesa-Alexis friendship, which, as I may have mentioned before, passes the Bechdel test with flying colours:
The issue opens with Barrow, an assassin, killing someone and then calling in to learn his next assignment. Then, after a splash page (with the disconnected voiceover "my name is Alexis Devin. I was born in Seattle,") we get:
Meanwhile, Eckart investigates a series of embarrassing leaks of secret government information to the media. Squadron 49 is the entity that claims responsibility for the leaks of this info to the media (think Wikileaks, only without the internet). The leaks have been in various agencies and departments, the only common thread is that all of them were using a particular brand of computers (Kronos 25) to store their data. The computers were manufactured by Kirk Mallinder's company. Noticing that Mallinder is dating Alexis, Eckart puts a surveillance detail on her.
Alexis' disconnected voiceover continues throughout, evidently being dictated into a recorder or something. I'm not going to type it all in, but it's a very depressed thumbnail biography, punctuated with every person in her life, except except for her cat and Lesa, ending up dead. There's not a lot to it, but she keeps losing track of what she's saying and having to start over, which enables it to fill the whole issue.
Evening, and Alexis and Kirk are double dating with Lesa and "Michael" (I think this is the first we see of him). They're on the Staten Island ferry, and Alexis and Lena take a moment to throw the Whisper costume into the water (litterbugs, I know).
Next, a splash page devoted to Alexis and Lesa trying to get a massive couch up a narrow flight of stairs, and then:
Poor Alexis, no matter how often she tries, she just can't get rid of that costume - people keep sending her copies of it in the mail.
The poor minion assigned to tail Alexis runs afoul of Cynthia, who sprays mace in his face while singing a song that I can't find on Google ("she once inspired terror, she made people faint, but now the faces scare her, they crumble off paint. Pressure's been too much for her, the girl's gone mad, baby fall down").
Eckart visits Kirk and, after expositioning about the possibility of backdoors built into the OS, demands a list of everyone who's had access to the Kronos 25 computers in Kirk's employ. Reading between the lines, we can guess that it might be Kirk himself who is responsible for the backdoor and the leaks.
Alexis is visited at a lunch counter by Carol, her office manager at work, who tells her that Cynthia has inherited her father's firm, and she has ordered a downsizing -- Alexis is fired. Fortunately for Alexis, she's only just that day gotten notification that her stepfather Jiro's will is leaving her a ton of money.
Eckart visits Lesa at their new apartment, and tells her that by spilling his campaign slush fund onto the sidewalk, Alexis was responsible for her fiancee's death ("she may not have put the gun to Senator Canales' head, but she pulled the trigger, sure as shooting"). Lesa kicks him out. Outside on the stoop, however, Carol (presumably on Cynthia's orders) greets him and gives him Lesa's diary.
Which brings us to the conclusion of the issue:
Alexis runs out of the building in tears. She calls Kirk from a phone booth ("I need to see you! Tomorrow? I need you now! You can go to hell too!"). And then the phone in the booth rings, and it's Eckart: "I hear you're looking for a job. I've got one for you.... Come on over and we'll talk about it.... And this time you won't even have to use scotch tape."
And the last page is yet another splash (that's four, I think) of Alexis running out of the building, fists clenched, in tears. The disconnected voiceover (which we haven't learned the context of, yet) concludes: "He couldn't kill me. He found out who I was, and he couldn't kill me. So he killed himself. He died. Jiro died. I wish that I could have died myself."
As you see, this is not a cheery series full of happy endings and fluffy kittens. Although it is true that Eckart only has a few more issues to live. Anyway, I'll post the next issue later this week, as long as there's still people interested in seeing more.
The issue opens with Barrow, an assassin, killing someone and then calling in to learn his next assignment. Then, after a splash page (with the disconnected voiceover "my name is Alexis Devin. I was born in Seattle,") we get:
Meanwhile, Eckart investigates a series of embarrassing leaks of secret government information to the media. Squadron 49 is the entity that claims responsibility for the leaks of this info to the media (think Wikileaks, only without the internet). The leaks have been in various agencies and departments, the only common thread is that all of them were using a particular brand of computers (Kronos 25) to store their data. The computers were manufactured by Kirk Mallinder's company. Noticing that Mallinder is dating Alexis, Eckart puts a surveillance detail on her.
Alexis' disconnected voiceover continues throughout, evidently being dictated into a recorder or something. I'm not going to type it all in, but it's a very depressed thumbnail biography, punctuated with every person in her life, except except for her cat and Lesa, ending up dead. There's not a lot to it, but she keeps losing track of what she's saying and having to start over, which enables it to fill the whole issue.
Evening, and Alexis and Kirk are double dating with Lesa and "Michael" (I think this is the first we see of him). They're on the Staten Island ferry, and Alexis and Lena take a moment to throw the Whisper costume into the water (litterbugs, I know).
Next, a splash page devoted to Alexis and Lesa trying to get a massive couch up a narrow flight of stairs, and then:
Poor Alexis, no matter how often she tries, she just can't get rid of that costume - people keep sending her copies of it in the mail.
The poor minion assigned to tail Alexis runs afoul of Cynthia, who sprays mace in his face while singing a song that I can't find on Google ("she once inspired terror, she made people faint, but now the faces scare her, they crumble off paint. Pressure's been too much for her, the girl's gone mad, baby fall down").
Eckart visits Kirk and, after expositioning about the possibility of backdoors built into the OS, demands a list of everyone who's had access to the Kronos 25 computers in Kirk's employ. Reading between the lines, we can guess that it might be Kirk himself who is responsible for the backdoor and the leaks.
Alexis is visited at a lunch counter by Carol, her office manager at work, who tells her that Cynthia has inherited her father's firm, and she has ordered a downsizing -- Alexis is fired. Fortunately for Alexis, she's only just that day gotten notification that her stepfather Jiro's will is leaving her a ton of money.
Eckart visits Lesa at their new apartment, and tells her that by spilling his campaign slush fund onto the sidewalk, Alexis was responsible for her fiancee's death ("she may not have put the gun to Senator Canales' head, but she pulled the trigger, sure as shooting"). Lesa kicks him out. Outside on the stoop, however, Carol (presumably on Cynthia's orders) greets him and gives him Lesa's diary.
Which brings us to the conclusion of the issue:
Alexis runs out of the building in tears. She calls Kirk from a phone booth ("I need to see you! Tomorrow? I need you now! You can go to hell too!"). And then the phone in the booth rings, and it's Eckart: "I hear you're looking for a job. I've got one for you.... Come on over and we'll talk about it.... And this time you won't even have to use scotch tape."
And the last page is yet another splash (that's four, I think) of Alexis running out of the building, fists clenched, in tears. The disconnected voiceover (which we haven't learned the context of, yet) concludes: "He couldn't kill me. He found out who I was, and he couldn't kill me. So he killed himself. He died. Jiro died. I wish that I could have died myself."
As you see, this is not a cheery series full of happy endings and fluffy kittens. Although it is true that Eckart only has a few more issues to live. Anyway, I'll post the next issue later this week, as long as there's still people interested in seeing more.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-22 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-22 04:29 pm (UTC)Is that collected anywhere?
no subject
Date: 2011-02-22 07:13 pm (UTC)If you want to read the whole thing, all but one of the issues has been scanned by the DCP people and is available for download via bittorrent. If you want to own them, you'll have to buy them - you can get the series relatively cheaply on ebay if you wait for a large lot to show up for sale.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-22 07:14 pm (UTC)urgh. that should be, "buy the original comics." Sorry about any lack of clarity.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-22 10:06 pm (UTC)Being nitpicky here but...
Date: 2011-02-22 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-23 08:15 am (UTC)