1ST EDITION
ANTUMBRA 1. IN THE WAKE OF SHADOWS
SIMON
ROWE
Dedicated to those few who stand in defiance of the Chinese Regime, to the former citizens of Hong Kong who fight to protect their liberties even in the face of relentless oppression.
賦權個人 Stuart Moore Editor - original series Julie Rottenberg Associate Editor - original series Scott Nybakken Editor Robin Brosterman Design Director - Books Louis Prandi Publication Design Karen Berger Senior VP - Exectutive Editor, HK Comics Bob Harris VP - Editor-in-Chief Diane Nelson President Dan DiDio and Jim Lee Co-Publishers Geoff Johns Chief Creative Officer John Rood Executive VP - Sales, Marketing and Business Development Amy Genkins Senior VP - Business and Legal Affairs Nairi Gardiner Senior VP - Finance Jeff Boisin VP - Publishing Operations Mark Chiarello VP - Art Direction and Design John Cunningham VP - Marketing Terri Cunningham VP - Talent Relations and Services Alison Gill Senior VP Manufacturing and Operations Hank Kanalz Senior VP - Digital Jay Kogan VP - Business and Legal Affairs, Publishing Jack Mahan VP - Business Affairs, Talent Nick Napolitano VP - Manufacturing Administration Sue Pohja VP - Book Sales Courtney Simmons Senior VP - Publicity Bob Wayne Senior VP - Sales
Cover illustration by Simon_Rowe.
UMBRA: THE FALL OF SOVEREIGNTY Published by HK Comics. Cover and compilation Copyright © 2047 HK Comics. All Rights Reserved. Introduction Copyright © 2047 HK Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters, their distinctive likenesses and related elements featured in this publication and trademarks of Simon Rowe. HK2 FREE PRESS is a trademark of HK Comics. The stories, characters and incidents featured in this publication are entirely fictional. HK Comics does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories or artwork. Simon Rowe, 97a Rowley Way, London, NW8 0SN. Web: www.sirowe.com / Email: mail@sirowe.com / Mobile: 07795 185334 ISBN: 978-1-4012-2084-632 PN6728.T68E432589 2047 741.5’9786-hk23
204701786975
WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY
SIMON
ROWE DIPLOMA UNIT 2
DIDIER
FAUSTINO KOSTAS
GRIGORIADIS
You walk a street every day for a year and you know it. Its smells, noises, its character and rhythms‌
But not this city
This city has no Final form, no moments of stagnation... Changing, evolving...constantly on its way to becoming.
I am my own point of reference, my own calm stillness in a city on some high speed chase.
My subdermals refresh and update on my terms.
Faces that pass me are hidden, Features obscured by veils and recognition masks
As the faces part, the city has shifted. A strange and unfamiliar backdrop.
The digital content is more assuring and familiar than anything physical. And right now, on this walk…with what I have to do…
…I need its privacy.
Above me my invisible request pings out through the towers Fired through the urban sprawl.
VEIL DEPLOYED/ACTIVE SCHEMATIC PLAN
HONG KONG DIGITAL CONSULATE
CITIZEN DIGITAL VEIL MK.1
HK-DV-001-2044
And I know that somewhere, not far from me, an algorithm is activated.
It assesses me in an instant. My location. My priority stream.
And as it deems me worthy, it writes its strategy.
When they were First deployed, they were branded ‘Shadow Territory Drones’
Until some clever kid abbreviated it.
GPS data harmonises And my STD hunts me
above the city it tracks my location
And like some shiny predator,
‘Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose’ Charles Eames
it Finds me.
GEOSTATIONARY DEPLOYMENT SCHEMATIC PLAN
HONG KONG DIGITAL CONSULATE
CENTRAL SATELLITE RELAY
HK-CTL-000-2047
i watch its illuminated union form above me
As I feel the subdermal in my arm shudder, I know I’m linked.
I’m in Umbra. Deep shadow
My cochlear implant whispers “Welcome to HONG KONG, Sir”
I get where I needed to be My own vista on the city
Below me, thousands of users migrate like digital nomads
Not many choose to settle now Their lives are mobilised...
Lives compressed to digital clouds, accessible and immediate
above them STD’s dance their mechanised choreographies.
For a while their Flight paths were predictable
allied to business districts, tied to international time zones ...openings of stock exchanges...
Then their algorithms became more complex and their movements more erratic
USER TRACKING MODE SCHEMATIC PLAN
HONG KONG DIGITAL CONSULATE
SOVEREIGN TERRITORY DRONE
HK-STD-037-2048
Before that they would shape real estate value Costs tethered to drone movements
OffIces frequently caught in the shadow would demand twice their market value.
then the swarms grew larger...
They bathe whole city districts in shadow
Tethered to their host embassies they migrate like worker bees from a hive
...and we follow their liberties
LIKE ADDICTS CHASING NEW SYNTHESIZED HIGHS Tracking and trailing shadow space
Each material has its own shadow. The shadow of stone is not the same as that of a brittle autumn leaf. The shadow penetrates the material and radiates its message. Sverre Fehn
Brokers seek out national shadows, at the moment their stock markets open overseas.
Tourists tie themselves to their familiar, home media streams.
Whole hotels even allied to foreign territories
and hackers vie for priority levels to rival my own.
While the city around me has whored itself to its tourists its true dna rains down in isolated data showers
The architecture of the city is reduced to a framework
Apartments like mine have become repositories for disposable, consumer fetish
And it all began at the start of this century
Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization. Frank Lloyd Wright
to protect our liberties, our city... ...our lives.
Identities were already reduced to data Flows Personas manifest in bytes
So the threat was personal I remember how scared the city felt in the end
There were publicised attacks
but the whispers were far worse the rumours of tactics and wrangling
and so now the embassy towers loom over the city
climbing upwards as demand grows
shedding technology as it’s superseded
A defence mechanism replicated through the city Britain’s initiative has become something much more aggressive.
Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space. Mies van der Rohe
CONTROL MODULE DISTIBUTION TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN
HONG KONG DIGITAL CONSULATE
DATABASE CONSULATE TOWER
HK-SRT-000-2047
‘CHINA’S WORLD CITY’
today, it seems more like the world’s chinese city
Filled with people in immediate proximity...yet separated occupying a threshold between territories
...in a state of balance that i was about to unravel
The lev train hurtles through the old territories... ...No one around me even looks up
this whole place makes me angry
The locals AND the tourists...
you visit a place and you’d rather see it reduced to rgb pixels.
Drowning in ‘Digital DisneyfIcation’
and right now they must be pissed
There’s a whole swarm tracking me, Fighting to keep pace I’m sure their feeds are laced with static.
They’re caught in my PENUMBRA, on the edge of my shadow.
But sod ‘em. I can’t risk china’s eyes on me now
my facial recognition visor is cycling...scrambling my features.
I have to risk the walk through central
They don’t know what’s coming But this city has left me paranoid
So I take an older, veiled street...just to be safe
I fifollow my sudbermal and i reach the street i need
China’s surveillance drones descend and ascend around me
I chose the busiest point of access, hiding my face among others.
even ducking behind stalls I feel them trying to scan my subdermal data
But my veil holds.
I reach the consulate undetected
dwarfed by its growing stature
A shrine to the city that was once here
I cast aside my veil
I won’t need it now
I have to act through China’s networks.
The encrypted command sent from within their digital realm.
Once more, my illegal ping is resonating through the waking city
And now I have to move
the police will mobilise even before they understand its true nature
And so I cross in to another country
I need its protection, a refugee in its mechanical tower...
As my lift opens, i can only hope its immunity will hold.
While i’m hurtling upwards...
...Thousands of STDs activate on my forbidden command
As the storm lifts, their shadows fall over the city below
and as long as my algorithm will hold, their security encryptions are lifted Their feeds overlap and intertwine
American drones swarm with korean drones British drones with russian
their invisible streams deployed
In the heart of downtown
The sun begins to break through And hundreds of thousands of users cross every threshold
instantaneously everywhere
Corporate transactions wired through multiple servers
Media free from regional restrictions
Ownerships dissolve The lines of separation drawn up centuries ago are irrelevant
And all it takes is a few illicit acts, a few sovereign violations and our legislations collapse.
I’ve lifted every protection on our global dialogue
Immediacy manifest.
‘The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.’ Voltaire
...the end
COMING JULY 2054
VOLUME 2
EVERYWHERE
AND NOWHERE Hong Kong, ‘The World’s Chinese City’, is a territory on the edge of collapse. A new condition, with the eyes of the world burning down on it. Its citizens lead a revolution that might yet alter all of our futures...
“A catalyst for the next generation, a call to arms for hackers and digital revolutionaries everywhere.” - The Hong Kong Liberty
“As a young writer Simon Rowe has demonstrated a maturity far beyond his years” - Spin Publishing
“Ground-breaking...[the] most compelling comic I’ve read since WATCHMEN 3.0” - Graham Saunders, author of Hong Kong’s Demise
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