Well I read the comic about a week before the wank went down, and really liked it, so I am sort of a pre-existing fan?
The art is lovely, and Reynir is the cutest thing I've ever seen.
I actually know of no apocalyptic fiction with Native MCs, which is one of the reasons the idea is so awesome to me. It's such an obvious gap--one of my absolute favourite genres of fiction is survivalist fiction (fiction with a lot of problem solving and resourcefulness related to survival is so, so soothing to me. Let me tell you how much I loved the Martian). I even have a particular fondness for North American survivalist fiction works, and Julie of the Wolves is the first I can think of that fits the billing that wasn't completely terrible, but it's not apocalyptic.
I've read plenty of survivalist fiction with first nations side characters, a few with MCs, but never overlapping with apocalypse stuff. When it comes to wilderness survival fic or historical Canadian survivalist works, I've actually read more where the main character was a dog than I have where the main was first nations (this actually speaks more the the surprising quantity of dog-centric Jack London stories than anything else).
Anyway, point is that First Nations characters would be FUCKING AWESOME in apocalyptic fiction. You get the delay of seeing things happen in the outside world, and then watching it disappear! The not knowing something's super wrong until you're almost the last ones left on earth! Isolation, sudden absolute dependence on hunting, fishing, ranching, and farming! If you want to loot, you're going to have to drive into the unknown for at least 2-3 hours! No one's going to come help them regardless, so they have no way of knowing if they're the last people on earth or if no one cares because Canada is horrible! The fact that without annual maintenance, the roads up north would be broken rubble in ten years or less, so even if they maintain their vehicles, transportation outside would be limited to planes, and how long could those really last?
And then you get into the fact that the majority of First Nations groups in the area were nomadic--would they return to that? There were really good reasons to be nomadic in most cases (winter up north is horrible, and basically everything that can be hunted is nomadic). In SSSS the only animal immune to the plague was cats, but there were naturally immune populations of other animals--so could First Nations have horses and dogs? Buffalo? Wild cattle? Caribou? Wolves and coyotes? Because cats would be...uh. Not nearly as useful as hunting dogs. What kind of powers would their shamans and medicine people gain? How would they deal with those creepy, creepy ghosts?
And is it wrong that I would be totally on board with the notion that Indigenous groups in North America had a natural 75-90% immunity rate?
Re: 551
The art is lovely, and Reynir is the cutest thing I've ever seen.
I actually know of no apocalyptic fiction with Native MCs, which is one of the reasons the idea is so awesome to me. It's such an obvious gap--one of my absolute favourite genres of fiction is survivalist fiction (fiction with a lot of problem solving and resourcefulness related to survival is so, so soothing to me. Let me tell you how much I loved the Martian). I even have a particular fondness for North American survivalist fiction works, and Julie of the Wolves is the first I can think of that fits the billing that wasn't completely terrible, but it's not apocalyptic.
I've read plenty of survivalist fiction with first nations side characters, a few with MCs, but never overlapping with apocalypse stuff. When it comes to wilderness survival fic or historical Canadian survivalist works, I've actually read more where the main character was a dog than I have where the main was first nations (this actually speaks more the the surprising quantity of dog-centric Jack London stories than anything else).
Anyway, point is that First Nations characters would be FUCKING AWESOME in apocalyptic fiction. You get the delay of seeing things happen in the outside world, and then watching it disappear! The not knowing something's super wrong until you're almost the last ones left on earth! Isolation, sudden absolute dependence on hunting, fishing, ranching, and farming! If you want to loot, you're going to have to drive into the unknown for at least 2-3 hours! No one's going to come help them regardless, so they have no way of knowing if they're the last people on earth or if no one cares because Canada is horrible! The fact that without annual maintenance, the roads up north would be broken rubble in ten years or less, so even if they maintain their vehicles, transportation outside would be limited to planes, and how long could those really last?
And then you get into the fact that the majority of First Nations groups in the area were nomadic--would they return to that? There were really good reasons to be nomadic in most cases (winter up north is horrible, and basically everything that can be hunted is nomadic). In SSSS the only animal immune to the plague was cats, but there were naturally immune populations of other animals--so could First Nations have horses and dogs? Buffalo? Wild cattle? Caribou? Wolves and coyotes? Because cats would be...uh. Not nearly as useful as hunting dogs. What kind of powers would their shamans and medicine people gain? How would they deal with those creepy, creepy ghosts?
And is it wrong that I would be totally on board with the notion that Indigenous groups in North America had a natural 75-90% immunity rate?