I haven't done a cast picture for any of my stories in a million years, so I guess it's time I did one. Digital coloring over inked drawings. I realize a most people don't know the back story so a lot of the character descriptions won't make sense, but what can I say? I'm not going to write a 20 page synopsis. This is already long enough.

There seems to be some confusion about The City of Ice, the multi-part comic I’ve been working on (forever it seems) and whether it’s related to the Jack Salem stories. It does take place in the same world, but 50 years before Jack’s time, so he does not appear in these stories. However, the events that take place in them have a direct influence on what happens both in Escape to New York and (especially) Blacklight, as well as having a profound effect on the society Jack lives in.

The entire plot and why things are the way they are would take too long to explain, but I can try to give a brief overview of some key points. Fifty years before Jack’s time the City of Ice is still whole and inhabited by millions of humans, along with a lesser population of nonhuman s that are kept as pets or slave labor. The entire population lives on a razor’s edge of starvation, the climate making it impossible to produce crops outside the protection of the city. This has led to draconian population control measures as well as periodic episodes of civil unrest. The city is ruled by an elected council of representatives from different districts, all answering ultimately to Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Scott, two of the scientists who helped create the matter-transformation computer (referred to as the Dream machine by the general population) that reshaped both the earth and the terraformed Mars the City of Ice is located on.

Into this mix comes Jet and Reezon, sent by two of the other creator-scientists from Earth to discover what had become of Maxwell, Scott and the people they took with them over a century ago.

1. Governor Reezon: The only real “furry” character in the story. He rules over part of the fractured United States, and possesses a level of ambition and intelligence that is very rare in nonhumans of his time. Realizing the both the population and technology possessed by the humans would give him an overwhelming advantage over his neighbors back on Earth, he manages to ingratiate himself into coming along with Jet on the Creator’s investigation trip. This time, however, his ambition might have over reached his ability, because trying to take on Maxwell and Scott is far more difficult than anything he’s ever had to do before, and the consequences of failure are very dire. Despite a superficial resemblance, he's in no way related to Salem, even distantly.

2. Jet: (his main backstory is covered in the Jet,2350 graphic novel, which I am not going to summarize here!) Stuck with the ambitious Governor Reezon, Jet is completely out of his element in the City of Ice. Not particularly bright or well-educated, he is confused by the city’s complicated social structure and dismayed at how brutally the human population treats the nonhumans living there. Fear of Maxwell and Scott keeps Jet reluctantly aiding the Governor, despite the knowledge that Reezon would betray him in an instant if he felt it necessary. One of his few pleasures is verbally tormenting Markus Hall, whom he considers a prissy snob. In the picture Jet is holding a prized possession—a sword that is made out of an artificial hyper-dense material that can cut through anything. (guns are forbidden in the city, and possession of one is death, so the general population kills each other with edged weapons.) He’s not smoking a cigarette, but instead a mild drug that delivered by the same means. (usually a stimulant, sometimes a tranquilizer)

3. Markus Scott Hall: The oldest son of Mr. Scott, Markus is very smart but timid. He has a high-power job on the city council—overseeing the distribution of resources, which he does with dutiful diligence, but he lacks the ambition to do more. His chance meeting with the Governor and Jet gives him the push to do what he never dared to do before—get rid of his hated half-brother Victor and his terrible father. While he’s made the leap in accepting the nonhuman Reezon as an equal, he remains at odds with Jet. Having lived his whole life in the upper strata of the city’s society, it rankles him to have to deal with someone he considers an uneducated thug. Jet’s constant baiting doesn’t help things, either.

4. A-Ron Weise: A powerful member of the ruling council, Mr.Weise is the wealthiest person in the city. He controls all the main media outlets and entertainment production facilities, as well as being an acclaimed director himself. Think of him as sort of a combination of Stephen Spielberg, Rupert Murdock and Donald Trump, but with more life-or-death power over his underlings. He’s taken the risky step of having his brain digitally augmented, which gives him a perfect memory and a continual access to the city computer net, among many other things. Because of a high failure rate, resulting in brain damage, insanity or death, few people dare do this, and it is that risk-taking behavior that leads Markus Hall and the Governor to approach Mr. Weise for help. While he agrees to help them, with the incentive that Reezon will turn over control of all the Earth media outlets to him, both the Governor and Markus know that Weise would turn on them the moment he felt things were going against them. He’s shown smoking a real cigarette, a vice only the extremely wealthy can afford.

5. Dieter Vet: An officer in the Securidoze (secret police), Vet is considered a hard-assed, humorless fanatic. He shoulders most of the day-to-day running of the agency, and is bitterly resentful that the incompetent Victor was given the top post instead of him.

6. Councilman Anderson: The senior council member—the third most powerful person in the city. A life-long bureaucrat, he’s responsible for the nuts and bolts running of the city. While respected for his competence, he’s not well liked. He’s a nasty, old, cynical man, and will speak his mind without hesitation . Most people on the council consider him a necessary evil .

7. Brinda Hall: Markus Hall’s wife. Her job is professional social butterfly. Childhood friends with Markus, their marriage was partially political, but they are both very happy with each other. They have a 5 year old daughter, Brittainy.

8. The Wasps: Constructs created by Maxwell and Scott, the wasps serve as shock troops and agents of terror. Nearly impossible to kill, they’re used as security and ruthless killing machines to be sent out whenever the city population gets restless. The wasps have three genders—blue males, green neuters and giant blue-violet females. They reproduce by laying eggs inside a human victim, who is then eaten alive from the inside out. This is a used as a particularly horrible form of capital punishment.

9. Nemo: An ageless, genderless construct made by Mr. Scott many years ago. Nemo is an extraordinarily powerful telepath, used as a living lie-detector to root out traitors in the government. Kept as a prisoner for years, Nemo is eventually kidnapped by Reezon and Markus in order to keep their plot from being discovered. But Nemo’s sanity is questionable, and keeping it with them may be as dangerous as leaving it with the government.

10. Commander Banks: Head of City Security (police/military). Very serious and duty-bound, both towards her post and the people under her, Banks is one of the few people on the council to have almost universal respect. Like Mr. Weise, she also has a digitally augmented brain to help her keep up with the demands of the job. The security forces are completely loyal to her, and will follow her lead without question.

11. Artie Wyndam: An ambitious, wealthy industrialist and member of the council, Wyndam is notorious for both the cruel treatment of his workers (human and nonhuman) and his preference for underage girls. He lost his right arm in a worker revolt some years ago, a revolt that also killed his father and enabled Artie to inherit the company. His fellow industrialists don’t like him personally, but realize he can get any legislation passed they want and so keep him elected to the council. He is very close to Mr. Scott and Victor, and there’s rumors he may be angling to have Victor moved out of the Securidoze so he can take it over. The thought of Artie Wyndam in control of the city’s secret police terrifies anyone who considers it.

12. Victor Scott Astenburg: Mr. Scott’s younger son, Victor is head of the Securidoze. He’s not very smart, and is more interested in using his post to get laid or perpetrate petty thuggery. He doesn’t seem to realize he was given the position precisely because he’s incompetent and would never become a threat. He resents the fact that Brinda chose to marry Markus over him, and never passes up an opportunity to ridicule or put down his older half-brother. Unfortunately for him, years of tormenting Markus would eventually drive him to do something Victor would never suspect…

13. Mr. Maxwell: One of the 5 people that made the Dream Machine hundreds of years ago, a couple hundred years of being linked to his creation has left Maxwell emotionally detatched from what’s going on around him, content to leave the business of running the city to others. But that doesn’t mean he won’t take swift and ruthless action if he thinks anyone is working against him.

14. Mr. Scott: While being linked to the Dream machine has left Maxwell emotionally empty, it has left Scott completely insane and paranoid. Most of the time Maxwell doesn’t bother to reign in Scott’s behavior, with the result that everyone who has any contact with Scott lives in constant fear of him. Considering he controls enough power to destroy buildings or kill thousands of people, there’s very good reason to be afraid. The only advantage Markus and Reezon have is that it would never occur to Maxwell and Scott that a nonhuman and Scott’s nervous son could possibly pose a threat.