Reds fanfic

[migolito]

Hi. I've been reading Reds! a while, but haven't posted much/at all. Have some fan fiction:

American Romance Comics and the FBU

Forward to The Little Red Book of Romance, Red Stone Comics Publishing, 2006 [1]

Most people trace the American romance genre of comics to Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Young Romance, first published in 1947 [2]. Focusing on young women either at university, college, or doing their time in the military or in the militia, these comics were a revelation for British and French girls. They showed that our parents had lied to us: you can act independently, you can be strong, you can make the first move... and all that didn't have to end just because you fell in love. [3]

Extract from the script of Young Romance #18 (1948)

Page 16- [a traditional 6 panel layout]

Panel 1: we see Pierre injured in a military hospital bed, with Ruth sitting on Pierre's left dressed in her uniform. She is also injured, but less so than Pierre- being bandaged around her head and left hand. [Pierre spent the last page trying to get out of the bed, but Ruth's concern and his own injuries stopped him]
Ruth: I know you want to fight the Nazis, but your not going to do anyone any good dead.
Pierre: But that's why I volunteered!
Ruth: What!?

Panel 2: As before, Ruth listens as Pierre angrily tells his story
Pierre: My country: after my family had been loyal to France for so long, the government decided to turn a blind eye to the fascists hatred of us Jews!
Pierre: They only started to care when they realised that the fascists were trying to take over the government. They didn't care when they went for us in the streets, or when they took over Germany!

Panel 3: close up of Ruth's face. She's horrified and concerned for Pierre. Pierre's speech bubbles lead out of the picture: we are only seeing her reaction to them
Pierre: So you see, I don't have a future!
Pierre: I can't go back to living in my old country, not after this.

Panel 4: close up of Ruth's face again, suddenly understanding Pierre's reckless behaviour she'd previously seen.
Text box [These represent Ruth looking back on the events of the comic]: Suddenly, it all made sense. I knew what I had to do...
Pierre: So the only thing I can do now is die fighting Nazis so maybe those in the future won't have to suffer as I did.

Panel 5: close up of Ruth's face, eyes closed, gathering up courage
Text box: The only question was, did I have the strength to do it?

Panel 6: close view of both Ruth and Pierre, Pierre looking a little confused as Ruth grabs his hospital top with her good hand and pulls him closer to her.
Pierre: What?

Page 17 [1 panel across the whole page]
Ruth has pulled Pierre's face close to her own, and is fiercely yelling at him. Pierre doesn't quite know what to make of it. Across the hospital Ruth and Pierre's comrades look on in shock and surprise.
Ruth: Look buster!
Ruth's thought bubble: Oh god, I'm actually doing this.
Ruth: You can choose to die here if you want, but it would be a goddamn waste!
Ruth: Even if your country won't fight for you, mine will!
Ruth: And since I think you're a great guy, you can come back with me!
Ruth: Cause I've got a nice home, and a family and a rabbi that'd love to meet you!

Page 18 [3 panels, 2 at the top in the traditional style, with the third panel taking up the rest of the page]

Panel 1: close up of Pierre and Ruth's faces, with both no longer talking but maintaining their expressions from the last page.
Ruth's thought bubble: Oh god, I actually did it.

Panel 2: close up of Pierre and Ruth's faces. Pierre has put on a charming smile, whilst Ruth is suitably surprised.
Pierre: Well, you make a good case.
Ruth's thought bubble: What!?
Pierre: When this is over, I'll go back to America with you.

Panel 3: The panel shows a wide shot of the military hospital, with Pierre's bed in the left of the panel. Pierre and Ruth's comrades have are now cheering and clapping the couple, much to their embarrassment.
Text box: After the War, my comrades would tell me that my declaration of love was the best one they had ever seen...

"I bagged an Englishman!", an extract from A History of American Portrayals of The British and French (1989)

A highly influential example of positive portrayals of the British and French in the culture of the UASR are the romance comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The first of these was the romance between Comintern soldier Ruth and IVA volunteer Pierre. Pierre was an exotic French intellectual who was in need of healing, which would take the form of Bronx working girl Ruth. Pierre fulfilled the reader's fantasies of being able to achieve a love that seemed unattainable, whilst his need of healing allowed audience substitute Ruth to have a large amount of agency.

This comic went a long way to creating the model for the "good" British and Frenchman, not only in romance comics but in the wider media of the UASR. These foreigners would in general have some grievance against capitalism, but would be unable to adapt to communism without the love and patience of an American lover. For a time, these stories would be known as "bagged an Englishman stories", which is derived from the front cover of Daring Love #4. This featured all Appalachian woman Joanna in full hunting gear with scantily clad exiled English aristocrat Edward slung over her shoulder, together with the title "I bagged an Englishman!"

Of course, though these romance comics would carry on until the mid 60s [4], this sort of love story would more or less die off with the war in east Africa [5]. Whilst the tropes associated with the British and French characters of these stories would live on in other media, the closest gesture to it during the late fifties is a particularly tragic Young Romance comic. Starting with a British soldier in a Comintern POW camp during the Ethiopian War meeting with a female Comintern soldier working as a guard there, the comic flashes back first to the two of them fighting alongside each other in North Africa during WW2, falling in love, only to find that the British soldier simply can't adapt to life in America whilst the American can't stand life in Britain. Understandably, the two fall out badly. Flashing back to the present, the two soldiers agree that it couldn't have worked but also share a cigarette and agree that in spite of everything they cannot hate each other, so maybe there's hope between their countries if not between themselves.

[1] Red Stone Comics Publishing is a small FBU publishing company (first privately owned, later reformed into a co-op in 2005) that specialised in republishing oddball comics originally written in Comintern countries. The "Little Red Books of Romance" originated in the 1960s as collected volumes of American romance comics from the 1940s and 1950s, and were Red Stone's best seller for most of their history. The 2006 reprint is at least in part a celebration of both the improving relations between the UASR and the FBU and the more relaxed atmosphere allowing Red Stone Comics to get away with more.

[2] This is as OTL, though it's actually a little complicated in both time lines. OTL, there were a number of teen humour comics that had a large focus on romance before Kirby and Simon's Young Romance, most famously Archie comics, but they are distinct from the genre created by Kirby and Simon in several respects in both the plots (with romance comics generally being self contained stories), techniques used in writing them (with romance comics usually having text boxes written in first person), and in the audience they were aiming for (with romance comics being aimed at young adults instead of teens). ITTL, things are a little more complicated due both to romance comics developing differently and to the genre itself cross pollinating with other comics. By the present day ITTL, some would suggest that romance comics are best delineated from other genres by the fact that they are aimed at young adults.

[3] OTL romance comics were usually quite conservative. However, between the first cultural revolution and women serving in the military, ITTL American romance comics emphasise female agency to a greater degree.

[4] Here, the writer is wrong. The genre of American romance comics as understood by its readers in capitalist countries came to an end. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, romance comics were heavily cross pollinating with other comic genres, then with the second cultural revolution they not only began have polyamorous and homosexual love stories but also became more willing to be sexually explicit or even erotic. As such, many countries both in the capitalist sphere and in the more conservative parts of Comintern simply don't import later American romance comics and often have the impression that they were subsumed into other comic genres.

[5] The writer is also wrong here. The trope, or something like it, would actually return in the post 1950s gay romance comics. That said, it is actually developed independently: being derived from the experiences of gay French and British people who came to the UASR in order to escape the hostile atmosphere in the FBU instead of the fantasies of young American women. Indeed, from the late 1960s onwards the so called "bagged an Englishman" stories alternated between periods of being discredited and periods of resurgence based on the public's perception of the FBU and the experiences of immigrants who came from the FBU to the UASR.

 

[WotanArgead]

[3] Here, the writer is wrong. The genre of American romance comics as understood by its readers in capitalist counties came to an end. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, romance comics were heavily cross pollinating with other comic genres, then with the second cultural revolution they not only began have polyamorous and homosexual love stories but also became more willing to be pornographic. As such, many countries both in the capitalist sphere and in the more conservative parts of Comintern simply don't import later American romance comics and often have the impression that they were subsumed into other comic genres.

I'm not sure that this will be considered pornography .... although in attempts to disassemble the red-American "sexuality" I broke many copies, and did not achieve special results. Sometimes I have a feeling that it simply copies the "original" porn culture, and after all, exploitation for the purpose of extracting profits, an empty wrapper ...

 

[Bookmark1995]

Excellent update.

I can imagine "Bagged an Englishman" stories being a popular kitsch subculture. Such a culture could achieve a revival in the present day ITTL, what with the current detente that exists.

 

[migolito]

I'm not sure that this will be considered pornography .... although in attempts to disassemble the red-American "sexuality" I broke many copies, and did not achieve special results. Sometimes I have a feeling that it simply copies the "original" porn culture, and after all, exploitation for the purpose of extracting profits, an empty wrapper ...

Fair point. I'll edit the post now.

I can imagine "Bagged an Englishman" stories being a popular kitsch subculture. Such a culture could achieve a revival in the present day ITTL, what with the current detente that exists.

I was aiming for it to be kitsch. I'd imagine having a cyclical relationship with the rest of American culture: either being discredited or experiencing a resurgence based on the extent to which the FBU seem to be bad guys and the experiences of French and British immigrants to the UASR. I should probably edit that in to.

 

[WotanArgead]

Excellent update.

I can imagine "Bagged an Englishman" stories being a popular kitsch subculture. Such a culture could achieve a revival in the present day ITTL, what with the current detente that exists.

Devil's stilyagi

 

[WotanArgead]

Fair point. I'll edit the post now.



I was aiming for it to be kitsch. I'd imagine having a cyclical relationship with the rest of American culture: either being discredited or experiencing a resurgence based on the extent to which the FBU seem to be bad guys and the experiences of French and British immigrants to the UASR. I should probably edit that in to.

Do not worry! It was just my point of view! Someone here called me a puritan so do not pay attention ... I saw how I was indignant when I found out that in UASR legalized prostitution (I really had reason to believe that this was over).

 

[migolito]

Do not worry! It was just my point of view! Someone here called me a puritan so do not pay attention ... I saw how I was indignant when I found out that in UASR legalized prostitution (I really had reason to believe that this was over).

Even so: I'm not sure I should use the term pornographic, largely because though they would be sexually explicit and erotic, I'm not sure about the degree red Americans would put it in the same category as OTL porn or even porn from the FBU. At the very least, the more egalitarian gender relations and an increased normalisation of sex means that these things will by their nature read a lot differently to Americans ITTL than to us, and will be made in line with these views.

 

[Shevek23]

Do not worry! It was just my point of view! Someone here called me a puritan so do not pay attention ... I saw how I was indignant when I found out that in UASR legalized prostitution (I really had reason to believe that this was over).

Well, I'd be surprised too--not exactly shocked, but confused and not quite approving--if it was in the context of "taking money for sex is just plain OK and normal." Actually even that would not seem too strange--the "bad" part of it, in UASR, would be the "being focused on money" part rather than "OMG sex is sacred the poor girl has degraded her chastity OOONoes!" What I do think would come forward that tended not to in pre-revolutionary ATL and OTL still has a hard time being understood--would be the worry that a prostitute is someone who has had her arms twisted by exploitive people. It is not the chimera of chastity anyone is worried about, but the personal dignity of the prostitute.

Now if sex as such is seen as simply this physical thing people do and as plain fun with no harm in it, that's one thing. But in Janie Got Her Gun Jello makes it pretty clear that Kollontai's vision of sex as nothing more charged than "having a glass of water" which so outraged Lenin OTL, is not the reality, not in 1940 anyway. That's still pretty early, but the protagonist is very sensitive--with reason--of being judged "for what I have between my legs;" she joins the frick'in army over a love affair gone wrong; sexuality is a big deal. I suspect it always will be.

The ideal of UASR society is that people shouldn't be paying money for sex because it is reasonably easy to get it for free, and I would be surprised if their isn't some moral charge to the idea that it ought to be freely given and mutually enjoyed. Good comrades take care of each other; the revolutionary thing is the idea that it should work both ways.

OTL, something that happened with anti-war/anti-racist SDS and Weathermen and so on in the '60s and 70s was that women who joined the movement were pressured to be at the sexual service of any man who asked them to be; if they didn't lie down right away they were accused of having hang-ups, perhaps being racist, and generally uncool. A major stream of the feminist wave of "Women's Lib" came out of that experience; even among revolutionaries the men were pretty conservative about asserting male privilege.

So then--legalizing prostitution is not necessarily the same thing as approving it. It might be like decriminalizing drug use. We don't want you to become a cocaine addict, comrade! We do want to stop reacting like Victorian hypocrites--like Butlers Erehwonites who thought of ethical lapses as a phase they were going through they might get over, but regarded infectious or other physical diseases as a moral scandal and mistreated anyone who let it slip they were feeling physically under the weather--which rationally speaking meant they would be more likely to stay sick, get sicker and perhaps infect someone else despite their outcast status. I honestly did not finish reading that book much beyond that point so it isn't clear to me whether Butler's point was that misbehavior condemned as immoral is a behavior that should be handled intelligently in order to alter it, without malice toward the offender, untangling the roots and causes of their dysfunctional actions just as a doctor will in our societies try to get to the root of a disease and do what they can to correct it or strengthen the patient so their own body can heal them. I would think that in the UASR, a person being a prostitute is a big alarm going off and people are going to want to see the behavior changed--but not to attack the prostitute her or himself! They'd want to help them understand why they are doing this and disentangle their traumas so they stop. But decriminalization also recognizes that the behavior itself might go on a while until it is handled.

Is even that too moralistic? We do know that, at least in the early generations, the UASR government is not trying to abolish money as such. We had Trotsky being quoted as "trying to develop a sound ruble was vital to making socialism work in the USSR and it is very good that UASR has developed a sound dollar!" Hard money is supposed to be important in organizing the socialist economy; workers do expect to be paid money they can use to buy whatever they want. If free food and free shelter and other free things, like medical care, are offered, it is not supposed to be in exclusion of purchased alternatives and supplements! It is OK for comrade workers to want and expect money, and for people to sensibly refuse to give away something for nothing, and demand a full and fair price for it.

So perhaps it is felt, in the early decades anyway, that some comrades, through no deep fault of their own, have a hard time getting the sex they want freely offered to them. Perhaps some are physically repulsive in some ways, others just can't be bothered to offer the kind of social interaction that makes them attractive. If they never attempt to rape anyone, if they stay in the bounds of consent, then it is not necessarily a bad thing if consent is purchased for hard cash, on a case by case basis. (And perhaps actually morally superior to perceptions of bourgeois marriage, where it is perceived that a man is using his wealth, such as it is, and a woman's systematic denial of access to wealth by any legitimate means, to buy her body wholesale and for all time or until he gets tired of her). And for the sex worker? If it is perceived there is an objective need, even in a free worker's society, for some people to have their sexual desires gratified on a paying basis, then the sex worker is fulfilling a social need, and their choice to get by this way rather than say by working in a bicycle factory or serving in the Guards is perfectly reasonable.

How sane that is depends on how carefully self-criticized it all is. Is this just old exploitive male privilege persisting under the radar because people conditioned by the old society have a tin ear? Personally I'd suggest, if this sort of reasoning were widely accepted and prostitutes were open about their actions and choices, that people keep their eyes and ears open for signs of misery. If a prostitutes claims to be happy about it ring hollow, listen to them, watch how they react, and see if perhaps something darker lies beneath, and however you can, yourself or finding someone else more appropriate for this person to trust, get them to open up and examine it. That will tend to unmask any hidden or willfully ignored exploitation going on.

Wotan--the classic thing people said about prostitution under Soviet rule, I don't know if you'd accept the charge being true or false, was that the Party claimed to have abolished all prostitution. It could not exist because it was deviation of behavior caused by capitalist exploitation, and having successfully abolished capitalist exploitation (which, IMHO, the Bolsheviks successfully did--capitalism as such was gone from the USSR) prostitution logically could not happen. QED. Therefore, it was practically difficult to try and get a handle on the blatant and frequent acts of prostitution going on in plain sight, because ideally this was impossible to happen, therefore the law could not consciously come to grips with it on any terms. To acknowledge it happening would be to at the very least admit that eliminating capitalism did not automatically and infallibly abolish all exploitation! It was perfectly clear where that sort of talk would lead a person under Stalin, and under his successors at the most indulgent, it would certainly not earn anyone any useful points.

Clearly I think it is better to accept the evidence before one's eyes about what does exist, and force one's theories to have to deal with it somehow. Legalizing it I think was mainly a means of getting a handle on it, not a green light of approval. Certainly in the UASR, if someone is going to speak up and say, 'you know, legal prostitution is a good thing!' their open mouth puts them in the position of responsibility for the welfare of all those good legal prostitutes. It means the community has an obligation to protect them from disease or the consequences of diseases, it means they can't shut them out of housing or deny them food (they might say, Comrade, please pay since we know you have the money, but not "out sight, Hussy!") Engaging the community in relations with the hookers will start the work of unraveling whatever traumatic pains and compulsions might lie behind the behavior. If it turns out there are no pains, no traumas, and these happy hookers are helping a lot of other reasonably good comrades get through the week--well, maybe then it is time to start thinking about socializing this branch of human service. See how many of the prostitutes are interested in getting training as counselors or other kinds of therapists, and instead of taking cash, get supported as care giver professionals, see if maybe they can train some of their regular clients to enable themselves to get more usual relationships. Step by step, untangle it, and see if the future worker's paradise is a place where detached and transactional sex of this kind is more and more normal, with everyone being taught lessons in how to be good at it, or if in fact behind all these cases lies some sort of exploitive trauma to be healed. One can have opinions in advance but the only way to find out is to get involved in the case.

 

[Bookmark1995]

-snip-

You make an interesting observation about the view of prostitution ITTL: some would see it as degrading to the free love environment, some believe it is a sign of great personal agony, and some just don't really care.

 

[WotanArgead]

In fact the legalization of prostitution would probably was-a breakthrough for UASR (well, probably so they think), but definitely not in the UK and Russia. Why? There it was legalized. Do you Read Dostoevsky - "Crime and Punishment"? One of the characters - Sonia Marmeladova - works "on a yellow ticket." I'll pay tribute to the writer - it turned out a nice and interesting character.
By the way - As far as I remember, Kollontay herself was not a supporter of the "glass theory", she really advocated for a more free sex relationship, but above all, so that the girl did not ruffle into the bosom of the unsuccessful novel, but moved forward. And I think that Vladimir Ilyich was right - you can not just drink anything, and from where it got. Do not forget that people have a need for serious relationships, and the "glass" will not make a person happy ... By the way, it also works well under capitalism, so I do not think that it is useful for capitalism.

 

[Redshank Galloglass]

In fact the legalization of prostitution would probably was-a breakthrough for UASR (well, probably so they think), but definitely not in the UK and Russia. Why? There it was legalized. Do you Read Dostoevsky - "Crime and Punishment"? One of the characters - Sonia Marmeladova - works "on a yellow ticket." I'll pay tribute to the writer - it turned out a nice and interesting character.
By the way - As far as I remember, Kollontay herself was not a supporter of the "glass theory", she really advocated for a more free sex relationship, but above all, so that the girl did not ruffle into the bosom of the unsuccessful novel, but moved forward. And I think that Vladimir Ilyich was right - you can not just drink anything, and from where it got. Do not forget that people have a need for serious relationships, and the "glass" will not make a person happy ... By the way, it also works well under capitalism, so I do not think that it is useful for capitalism.

Actually, I agree with you. I feel that serious, healthy relationships is something every person should aspire to. Probably the bourg in me talking, but simply being "independent" and fucking anyone who is willing to have sex with you sounds like a very lonely and sad life, at least in my opinion.

I mean, if you're into free love/being a sex worker or something, I'm certainly not going to hold it against you nor try to stop you from doing what you want to do, but that life certainly isn't for me.

 

[WotanArgead]

Even so: I'm not sure I should use the term pornographic, largely because though they would be sexually explicit and erotic, I'm not sure about the degree red Americans would put it in the same category as OTL porn or even porn from the FBU. At the very least, the more egalitarian gender relations and an increased normalisation of sex means that these things will by their nature read a lot differently to Americans ITTL than to us, and will be made in line with these views.

By the way - we must also take into account that there are three directions in this issue. The first is a naturalistic, simple expression of the sexual act or the naked body. The goal of likelihood is to the detriment of beauty or excitement. The second - eroticism, aimed at satisfying the aesthetic needs of human, is often not associated with lust. The third - pornographic, above the likelihood and beauty (and often in conflict with them) rises - the "dare". The goal is to arouse the consumer.

 

[The_Red_Star_Rising]

Let's not have another long tangential derail.

 

[Miss Teri]

Let's not have another long tangential derail.

Please.

 

[WotanArgead]

Actually, I agree with you. I feel that serious, healthy relationships is something every person should aspire to. Probably the bourg in me talking, but simply being "independent" and fucking anyone who is willing to have sex with you sounds like a very lonely and sad life, at least in my opinion.

I mean, if you're into free love/being a sex worker or something, I'm certainly not going to hold it against you nor try to stop you from doing what you want to do, but that life certainly isn't for me.

Probably this will be the main difference between the culture of the USSR and UASR. Attitude to the norm - if you behave somehow wrong, then you will be actively reclaim. Although given the increased collectivism in America .... in any case it will be softer.

 

[Bookmark1995]

Probably this will be the main difference between the culture of the USSR and UASR. Attitude to the norm - if you behave somehow wrong, then you will be actively reclaim. Although given the increased collectivism in America .... in any case it will be softer.

ITTL Soviet citizens will probably think of America the same way OTL Americans think of Las Vegas: a place of guilty pleasures.

 

[WotanArgead]

ITTL Soviet citizens will probably think of America the same way OTL Americans think of Las Vegas: a place of guilty pleasures.

Well they say that in the USSR after the 78th year the situation has changed, although I think that at least in the first years (or even so far) you can hear what it is like - "Kryachkin! You can not do it like that!" And you see how Kryachkina is guided by lectures, by the Houses of Culture, and forced to read classical literature.
In general, there is no freedom without responsibility. The phrase "do what you want" is the slogan of naked individualism, and socialism presupposes some kind of collectivism. I think the topic of fencing in America should be thought through ....

 

[migolito]

Okay, so this was originally going to be part of the "American Romance Comics and the FBU" post, specifically dealing with gay romance comics. However, it ended up becoming its own weird little thing. Call it a semi-sequel if you like. I don't think it's nsfw, but if your worried about it just say and I'll edit a warning in.

Sweet Dreams and Electric Nights

Extract from the script of Sweet Dreams and Electric Nights #5, written and drawn by Thomas LeDou* (1960) [1]

Page 20 [the page is a traditional 6 page layout. Due to taking place at night and lit only by moonlight, the parts we can see of the panels are tinted blue and fade into black. We can, however, see the faces of British immigrant Arthur and Cajun marine Jacque and we can see the fact that they are sharing a bed. We don't see much else, but we get enough of an impression of the pair's upper bodies to see that they are sitting up in bed. The previous page was five textless panels of Arthur kissing Jacque with the sixth panel showing night outside of Arthur's housing to indicate the time shift, something which given Jacque having been suspicious of Arthur in the previous issues was something of a surprise for the reader.]

Panel 1: [broad view of the whole bedroom from above, looking toward the bed]
Jacque: That...

Panel 2: [closer view of the couple, with the bodies facing towards the reader with their heads slightly inclined towards each other]
Jacque: That explains why you left England.

Panel 3: [same view as panel 2, but Arthur has curled up a little more]
Arthur: There's a little more than that.

Panel 4: [close up of the side of Arthur's face- his face is now a little melancholy]
Arthur: My father, he volunteered to fight the Nazis, back when the government thought they'd be joining them. He died on the Eastern front. And I knew that, once I grew up that... I just couldn't belong in Britain anymore... You know?

Panel 5: [Back to the same view as panel 3, but with Arthur more curled up and Jacque now looking directly at him. Jacque is surprised, even a little ashamed of how he thought of Arthur before. We have a better impression of his upper body now: arms reaching around Arthur]

Panel 6: [Jacque has pulled Arthur into a cuddle]

Extract from the Red Archive: Sweet Dreams and Electric Nights (2008) [2]

The Red Archive is a series of novella length books started by Red Stone Comics Publishing in 2007. These books, sold both in Comintern countries and in the FBU [3], were dedicated to analysing specific Comintern comic series that due to their influence, complex themes or symbolism, experimental nature or unusually powerful writing merit a lengthier analysis than is normally given.

You hear stories, from the days before detente, of people picking up a little red book or two only to discover that the most perverse thing the communists had to offer were love stories of uniformed women learning to aggressively pursue slightly clueless men, guilty of cheesiness and perhaps kitsch but not much else. This is because the imported romance comics were either from the UASR of the 1940s and 1950s, or were translations of romance comics from elsewhere in Comintern that were influenced by these comics [4].

After the 1950s? These romance comics were considered too "deviant" to risk importing in any large quantity. Even with the relaxing of relations with Comintern, very few of these comics have been republished in the FBU. Sweet Dreams and Electric Nights is one of these [5]. It is a complicated comic: sitting in a sort of transitional state between the 1950s romance comics and the post second cultural revolution comics. Though free of sexual content when compared to those romance comics that came after it, it nevertheless mostly concerns the gay American marine Jacque and his many lovers.

Set in late 1940s and early 1950s New Orleans, the comic was written for several perhaps conflicting reasons. On the one hand, it was trying to recall the idealism and optimistic atmosphere of the UASR before the war in East Africa, both in its setting and tone and even in its art: which largely drew from the cheesecake and beefcake art of the 1940s. On the other hand, it was also trying to depict the trouble the artist's various lovers had in adapting to life in the UASR.

It mostly failed at the first task. Jacque's older lover Martin "Spartacus" Gordon, who fought both in a black socialist militia in the revolution and in WW2, comes across as more sad, poignant and melancholy than anything else: his happiness at some kind of world peace being achieved and finally being able to put down his rifle being particularly tragic. Meanwhile, the fact that the comic ends on Jacque being called up again to fight in East Africa speaks for itself. That said, if anything the comic was improved by this, the feeling of exploring something that has been lost was one of the aspects of it that garnered critical acclaim.

At the second task however, LeDou succeeded. Jacque's lovers all have a remarkable degree of depth and their problems are treated with respect: whether it be Arthur's alienation from wider American society, Fidel's guilt at leaving his parents and siblings behind in Cuba or Hans' insecurities and his need to both distance himself from and demonstrate himself as better than his Nazi father...

*Denotes a fictional character

[1] Sweet Dreams and Electric Nights actually has a very complicated publishing history, with a number of early issues originally being published in the mid and late 1950s by various underground comics/magazines or even self published and sold in various clubs and establishments with the permission of the workers there. That said, Sweet Dreams and Electric Nights managed to get a mainstream publisher in 1960 and was one of the first romance comics depicting gay and polyamorous relationships to do so.

[2] The name Red Archive is taken from an OTL book series called the Black Archive, which is basically the same except dedicated to Doctor Who episodes instead of Comintern comics.

[3] A project like this is made possible both because of the more laid back political atmosphere and because of Red Stone Comics Publishing reforming into a co-operative in 2005, which allows a lot less problems in sending series published with them to Comintern countries. Though Red Stone Comics Publishing is based in the FBU, people writing for the series actually come from countries on both sides of the Cold War.

[4] Due to the UASR being proudly multilingual, many of the original 40s and 50s comics are also published in languages other than English. As a result, they were exported to Comintern Japan, China and Europe with relative ease, usually as surplus cargo to be sold to newsagents there. These comics would influence and inspire romance comics across Comintern.

[5] Sweet Dreams and Electric Nights was actually republished by Red Stone Comics 2 years before this Red Archive book.

 

[The_Red_Star_Rising]

Well they say that in the USSR after the 78th year the situation has changed, although I think that at least in the first years (or even so far) you can hear what it is like - "Kryachkin! You can not do it like that!" And you see how Kryachkina is guided by lectures, by the Houses of Culture, and forced to read classical literature.
In general, there is no freedom without responsibility. The phrase "do what you want" is the slogan of naked individualism, and socialism presupposes some kind of collectivism. I think the topic of fencing in America should be thought through ....

I asked you to stop so please stop.

I don't want to have to bring in the mods to stop this particular derail so that it doesn't happen again for what feels like the thousandth time.

No arguments, no buts, no questions, this conversation is done; find something else to talk about or else.

I'm going to sleep now and I really do not want to wake up to find that you have either A. protested this warning or B. started the argument again because I'm more than a bit tired of checking this thread to find that yet another argument we've had a dozen times already has been started and finding that you're the one driving yet another derail of the thread. So please, stop it.

That goes for the rest of you. No more thread derrailing arguments. I'll make a discord for you guys if you want to argue about the fineries of your particular perceptions of communism but this is not the thread for it. This is a thread for talking about creative contributions to the Reds setting, not for ceaseless round about bickering about the same half dozen topics over and over and over again.

 

[WotanArgead]

I asked you to stop so please stop.

I don't want to have to bring in the mods to stop this particular derail so that it doesn't happen again for what feels like the thousandth time.

No arguments, no buts, no questions, this conversation is done; find something else to talk about or else.

I'm going to sleep now and I really do not want to wake up to find that you have either A. protested this warning or B. started the argument again because I'm more than a bit tired of checking this thread to find that yet another argument we've had a dozen times already has been started and finding that you're the one driving yet another derail of the thread. So please, stop it.

That goes for the rest of you. No more thread derrailing arguments. I'll make a discord for you guys if you want to argue about the fineries of your particular perceptions of communism but this is not the thread for it. This is a thread for talking about creative contributions to the Reds setting, not for ceaseless round about bickering about the same half dozen topics over and over and over again.

What have I done? This time....