Body [quote="M_Northstar"]*Startles awake* OMG, I forgot to post a new recommendation... for a whole year O_o <_< >_> Drat, [url=http://onatable.comicgenesis.com/d/20080929.html]that still doesn't put me in the lead[/url]. Anywho, better late than never, right? Right? Guys? Um... let's just get on with it. [size=16][b][u][comic]903[/comic][/u][/b][/size] [url=http://www.nsta-net.com/][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/M_Northstar/nsta.jpg[/IMG][/url] [b]Synopsis:[/b] Being a futuristic Big Brother style super cop with cool implants and total command over 16 doom's day style laser satellites might sound both oppressive and exciting, but Flashfire and the other field agents of the National Satellite Tracking Agency aren't *like* that. Don't let the comic fool you. Despite what you'll be seeing in these pages, the "nasties" are a pretty laid back bunch, mostly filling their days with routine maintainance and patrols, writing reports, annoying each other and pursuing love. Flashfire himself is a post-grad astrophysicist working at the agency until he can get a real job. It seems counter-intuitive, but working at NSTA is usually boring. It's not everyday that some punk drugs you and carves your special-issue implants out of your head with a rusty knife (what's that? The knife wasn't rusty? Oh... Well, I guess you can explain the difference to Delphi here. I'll be watching from over there. We're rooting for you buddy... um... can I have your MP3-player?). But as you may have deduced, the shit's about to hit the fan, and a veritable deludge of gun-toting thugs hunting for nasties, uncooperative cops, anti-surveillance protesters, and greedy cyberneticists is going to forcefully bear upon Flashfire and his team-mates the importance of the comics motto: Semper Vigilantis, eternal vigilance. [b]About:[/b] If you but look at the horizon, you'll see it coming: the world of Kirstan Norris's NSTA: Semper Vigilantis. The NSTA is an intelligence and law enforcement organisation that, following continued threat of foreign and domestic terrorism on US soil Anno 2035, has replaced and incorporated the FBI, the NSA, and Homeland Security. The struggle between the government's need to monitor an ever more technologically empowered populace, and that population's desire to freely and profitably explore the limits of their new-found power, mirrors to-day's struggle between the music industry and the consumers. Kirsten Norris manages to give her story a warm and realistic feel by keeping her narrative at eye-level and centered on the humans involved. Amidst all the chaos that follows the attack on agent Delphi, the major red thread is Flashfire's budding romance with Ariana the privacy advocate. Will it work out? Will he get the balls to confess to her what he does for a living? Will she forgive him for deceiving her? And most importantly, how many times can she miss seeing him in uniform by the skin of her (or his) teeth? A word about the art of NSTA, it's the kind of not-quite-ironed-out-yet chic that the reader's find a lot more attractive than the artist herself, who can spend inordinate amounts of time pointing out every little flaw that you probably never would have seen or cared about otherwise. I admit to having a definite bias for the style over the (to my mind) over-glossy art of many more sophistacted artists. All I'm saying here is, if this style isn't your cup of tea, give it a chance anyway, as the story is well worth it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all [b]Name:[/b] NSTA: Semper Vigilantis [b]Author/Artist:[/b] Kirstan Norris [b]Status:[/b] ~1 page every 10 days [b]Style:[/b] Manga-influenced [b]Format:[/b] Toned pencil sketch, Full page [b]Content:[/b] Continuous story [b]Genre:[/b] Science Fiction[/quote]
