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Topic Started: May 21 2009, 04:41 PM (188 Views)
Tristan da Cunha
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Science and Industry
Avram Kohen The Wandering Jew

The year is 1993. A mysterious incident has seemingly eradicated the earth's population. But Avram Kohen somehow survived, and he wanders the remnants of America in search of other survivors, and in search of the truth of what happened to mankind.

Click to view promotional image:

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/835/promotionalimage.jpg

*****

I'm planning to make my official entry to the oversaturated post-apocalyptic fiction market, entitled: "Shas". It will be a series of short stories about the protagonist, an Orthodox Jew named Avram Kohen, and his adventures in the wasteland. It will explore themes like religion, ethnology, and 20th century Americana.

The religion of the protagonist is relevant to the story, and its significance will be revealed as the plot unfolds. There will also be certain stylistic similarities to the medieval fable of the Wandering Jew though it doesn't share the major conceptual features of that story.

Yes, "Shas" is extremely derivative of existing works (I like to think of it as paying respectful homage to the two great pillars of the postapocalyptic genre, Mad Max and Fallout), but I don't intend for this to simply be "the Jewish Mad Max." If everything works out hopefully my undertaking will reflect some of my own original thoughts, and be edifying and entertaining to the reader. There is a plot and mythology already formulated in broad strokes, though whether it is a coherent plot will ultimately be the reader's opinion. Imo it's a coherent one.

What do you guys think of the concept? What do you guys think of the promotional image I posted? Does it make you want to learn more about "Shas"?

Are you excited about "Shas"? Or extremely bored already?
Edited by Tristan da Cunha, May 21 2009, 04:44 PM.
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Porcu
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"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."

Beyond being confused about where he buys his cigarettes I'm actually interested in this series.

Your drawing, as always, is incredible and I wait with anticipation
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NRE
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Map Tsar and Southern Gentleman

He barters from them of course or kills people for them, who knows ask TC :lol:

I think it'll certainly be an interesting spin on the genre, don't know anything on fallout, but I've always been a fan of the Mad Max movies. Of course as long as you don't involved the thunder dome or greatly altered cars with weapon attachments into the story, I think you'll have yourself pretty separated from that particular work. That is unless you get Tina Turner to be your Villain in the movie adaptation of the story and then you're stepping over the line

But serious I think its an original idea and as long as you stay true to these raw basics you've laid out I think it'll make for an original story. I'd certainly read it ^^
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Eleytheria-Duo
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I am interested, TC.

The synopsis bears some resemblance to a few movies I've heard of. From your own words, would you say there was an inspiration for this story?
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Tristan da Cunha
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If you're thinking of the movie "I Am Legend", then I'd like to distance myself from comparisons to that movie; Shas is not from the zombie-apocalypse genre.

However, Shas is heavily based on Mad Max and the TV show Jericho. It's also influenced by another TV show but I won't at the moment reveal which show I'm referring to, or it might spoil certain elements of the plot. But I think you'll quickly figure out which show I'm referring to, after getting acquainted with Shas.

I would say that unnamed TV show is the chief inspiration for Shas.

Finally, I inject many elements from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 (but not Fallout 3, which is a game I regard suspiciously in the same way that a hardcore Trekkie regards the new Star Trek movie suspiciously).
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Eleytheria-Duo
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I think Q would take great interest in a story like this. You might wanna throw him a tell and give him a heads up.

I'd do it myself, but he doesn't particularly talk to me very much anymore, I think I strike him as being an asshole. :lol:
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Tristan da Cunha
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Yeah, I've discussed the merits of Jericho with Q before.

I'm going to include the word "Quaon" at least once in this series. Just because it's such a great word. (And because Q is such a great man)
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Ulgania
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Very nice. I used to write this stuff in my high school years.

And I agree, it's an oversaturated realm, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea!

Question though - are you taking the Noir angle?
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Tristan da Cunha
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What I'm envisioning is almost the opposite of Noir. From a purely environmental perspective there'll be lots of well lit settings, lots of outdoor, bright sunlit adventures. There will also be very little Noir-style expositions into moral ambiguity. I realize the lack of moral ambiguity will turn off a lot of readers and seem uninteresting to a large segment of the reading audience. But I'm OK with that because this is intended chiefly to be a straight adventure story, with "procedural" elements in the sense that the protagonist is inexorably searching closer to the truth of the mystery of what destroyed the human population.
Edited by Tristan da Cunha, May 21 2009, 06:48 PM.
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Quaon
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A Prince Amoung Men-Shoot First and Ask Questions Later
I like the idea. The only slight hitch is that the Wandering Jew is a bit of a cliche in apocalyptic fiction, but I nonetheless have faith in your ability to render a unique and outstanding piece of writing.

Edit: Also, ED, that's not true at all. The reason that I don't talk to you as much is because I rarely have time to be online anymore.
Edited by Quaon, May 21 2009, 07:18 PM.
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Tristan da Cunha
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Q I will try to not disappoint you.
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Ulgania
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A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse
Tristan da Cunha
May 21 2009, 06:47 PM
What I'm envisioning is almost the opposite of Noir. From a purely environmental perspective there'll be lots of well lit settings, lots of outdoor, bright sunlit adventures. There will also be very little Noir-style expositions into moral ambiguity. I realize the lack of moral ambiguity will turn off a lot of readers and seem uninteresting to a large segment of the reading audience. But I'm OK with that because this is intended chiefly to be a straight adventure story, with "procedural" elements in the sense that the protagonist is inexorably searching closer to the truth of the mystery of what destroyed the human population.
That makes me strangely aroused and happy.

While the noir genre can tell a great story, I'm glad you're taking the story in a different direction with it being more adventure oriented
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New Harumf
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Noir can be really bad if not done perfectly. I like the direction you are going, and it sounds like the outdoor settings will be more like "A boy and his Dog" which is cool.

I have absolutely no problem with the "Wondering Jew" aspect of the story either, especially because it is always the Christians babbling on about the Apocolypse, never Jews.

I liked Jericho, and I'll wager I could guess the other show, but I will put that off till I know more.

You know I love your artwork, and yes, my interest is piqued.

Now, you say he is "orthodox"?? How's he gonna keep kosher in this world???
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Tristan da Cunha
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Supplies - including canned Kosher foods - are plentiful in the Shas world; humans are not. That is Avram's modus operandi: he fastidiously keeps to the ancient rituals even though humanity is extinct and no one but "Hashem" is around to watch him. Perhaps he's crazy :lol:
Edited by Tristan da Cunha, May 22 2009, 09:37 AM.
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Nag Ehgoeg
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The Devil's Advocate

Tristan da Cunha
May 22 2009, 09:09 AM
Supplies - including canned Kosher foods - are plentiful in the Shas world; humans are not. That is Avram's modus operandi: he fastidiously keeps to the ancient rituals even though humanity is extinct and no one but "Hashem" is around to watch him. Perhaps he's crazy :lol:
I was excited. Then I was bored. This post rekindled my excitement.

It seems like a great project... would you consider releasing this to us as you write it? 'Cause I'm not sure if I can wait until it's finished. Sounds great.
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Tristan da Cunha
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Nag, I'm debating whether to make this in prose or webcomic format. I might do a mixture of both. Either way I'll try to post as I go along.

If you're interested here is a rough poor-resolution comic-style storyboard. It's an excerpt from a more extensive story about how Avram Kohen finds a wife.

Since he was deprived of female companionship (and any sort of human companionship) for so long, he promptly marries the first female he meets. He found her living alone in a bomb shelter. She is a 14- year old (you know my views about age differences :lol: ) Gentile, so Avram has to first convert her to orthodox Judaism.

This story board reflects Avram's strict adherence to illusory religious laws, even in a situation where no one is alive to give a damn. Also he is completely addicted to tobbacco smoking.

Posted Image

In case you were wondering what were all the random Jewish accoutrements- The little black box that Avram wears on his forehead as a headband is an obscure commandment that is apparently found in the Bible and is kept by extremely pious Jews. Same with the coils of black goatskin leather on his forearm. He put them on for his wife's conversion and marriage.

The setting is supposed to be a giant field of tall grass in Ohio, so all the backgrounds are repetitive. You can see Avram getting supplies from his 1992 Ford Bronco SUV, which is his method of transportation at the moment. (Cars, gasoline, food, and supplies are extremely abundant in the world due to the cataclysmic dying off of billions)

The girl's "brother" that is mentioned used to live with the girl in the bomb shelter where Avram found her, but is now missing or dead.

In the final panel, having not seen a live woman's face for so long, Avram is overcome by lust and utters an oath, "Elohe Tzevaot" which is Hebrew for "Lord of Hosts", in the same way that a Christian might utter an oath like Jesus Christ or Mother of God. That would be clearer with the context of the complete storyboard; the next panel would theoretically show Avram having sex with his wife in the tall grass :lol:
Edited by Tristan da Cunha, May 22 2009, 12:40 PM.
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Tristan da Cunha
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Some background information to a webcomic format of Shas I should be working on this summer.

Biography: Avram Kohen

Chiseled, handsome WASPy jawline and countenance as befitting a mainstream action protagonist in the mold of Indiana Jones, but like Harrison Ford, is Jewish, surprisingly. His nose is Semitically enlarged but not excessively so. Eyes are brown. Eyebrows darker than his wavy medium-brown hair. Perhaps only the ridge of his nose and the subtly "off" texture of his eyebrows give hint to his Dirty White heritage.

He is right-handed for most tasks, and left-handed for a few tasks. He bats and pitches right-handed.

40 yrs old. Born Benjamin Cohen, raised in a Jewish suburb of Cleveland, Ohio descended from a long line of orthodox Jewish rabbis that was somehow (but legitimately) heavily insinuated with European Gentile blood explaining his WASPish appearance. His grandfather was a rabbi but his father was a classified government scientist. Drafted, fought bravely in the Vietnam War, but in the final year of that war was court-martialled for desertion. Circumstances of his alleged betrayal are murky thus far.

He escaped his judicial fate, changed his name to "Avram Kohen" and retooled his identity with forged papers, and moved to California where he kept a low profile attending a large, anonymous state university. Later he attended Stanford Medical School to train as a surgeon, but there he was tracked down by authorities. Receiving notice that Military Police were waiting at his apartment, he escaped to Mexico where he completed his education and apprenticeship at an illegal organ transplant clinic in Oaxaca state. He returned to California where he made a living providing illegal medical services in Chinatowns and Mexican vegetable-pickers' camps. His most profitable services were late-term abortions and illegal organ transplants for which the organ supplies were of questionable origin.

In his old life he married a Spanish-Mexican vegetable picker woman named Maria, whom he renamed Rachel upon converting her to Judaism. Rachel was barren but pitying her, he did not turn her out and she travelled with him until she died in the Incident.

He once accepted a commission from a prominent Mexican drug lord to assassinate a rival drug lord using surreptitious medical means, but after the job was completed he almost committed suicide experiencing a moral crisis in which he compared himself to be a Nazi doctor. After that, he foreswore all assassinations and deviations from the Hippocratic Oath, and curbed his questionable organ transplant activities, but nonetheless continued to perform late-term abortions.

In addition to Midwestern English, speaks liturgical Hebrew, erudite, superb Spanish, decent Yiddish, and halting Vietnamese and Cantonese. His intelligence is above average for an Ashkenazi Jew which makes his intelligence much above the average of the general population. Hobbies included copious reading on diverse subjects, especially on Jewish topics. Though for most of his life separated from Jewry, or any sort of permanent social group, due to his fugitive status, he privately memorized much of the Tanakh and other Jewish religious literature as would be standard for a rabbi highly esteemed in one's community.


After the Incident

He reunited with his old family in Ohio in 1993 which was a moment of great joy and sadness, since he could not stay long. Nonetheless his spirits were lifted, but then the Incident happened. His old family died, as did his wife Rachel, and billions of people all across the world. He has since then wandered the remnants of America searching for fellow survivors and searching for the truth of what happened to mankind.

In his wanderings, his physical appearance usually is immaculately washed and groomed. His hair is always combed in place and his shirt perfectly pressed. He shaves frequently. He almost alway wears a shirt (with cufflinks), tie, dress pants, and dress shoes. This excessive sartorial sense is because he conceives that he should make a good impression on the next person he meets in the wastelands.

He always wears a yarmulke or other headgear per the Jewish commandments. His preferred weapons are a .45 Colt pistol and sawed off double-barrel 12 ga. shotgun though he tries to collect any additional weapons and ammunition he comes across. He wears a leather suspender belt modified with pockets for storing shotgun shells.

******

The Incident

In Spring 1992, a mysterious plague broke out in the United States, soon spreading to Mexico and Canada and then to the rest of the world. Symptoms of infection were astonishingly variable and opaque to scientific medical inquiry, and included nearly every conceivable disorder and malaise known or heretofore unknown to mankind. For example, some people suffered gruesome and graphic deaths, others were struck down by rapidly-metastasizing cancers, and yet others were completely healthy even after they dropped dead suddenly with no symptoms or discernible cause of death in autopsy. US President George H.W. Bush suspended the upcoming 1992 presidential election, to deal with the crisis.

Infection rates were 60% or higher in the human population, and fatality rates were virtually 100%. The U.S. accused disgruntled ex-Soviet operatives of deploying ultra-advanced bioweapons which got out of hand; indeed, infection and fatality rates were curiously low in the Russian Federation, and the plague became known worldwide as the "Red Death".

Russia vehemently denied that any Russian individuals were involved in an alleged bioweapons strike, but in an apocalyptic panic, President Bush launched nuclear ICBMs against Russian cities. Russia retaliated by sending nuclear warheads to American targets.

Between the mushroom clouds, nuclear fallout, and the Red Death plague, 99.9% of the world's human population was wiped out by January 1993.

It is now Summer 1993. Survivors are scarce and scattered all over the world, and Avram Kohen has so far met less than a dozen, most of whom he had to kill in self-defense. Yet mysteriously, those who survived to today are seemingly immune to the toxic effects of nuclear fallout, and immune to the Red Death. Avram Kohen has his own theories as to why, and he is determined to find out the truth.
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Quaon
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While obviously post-apocalyptia changes things substantially, Orthodox Jews do not generally try and convert gentiles. They will pester non-Orthodox Jews, but they generally avoid initiating Gentiles.
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Tristan da Cunha
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Q that's a very good point, and I may need revise the history based on that.

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