STORY NOTES:

Background:

Ioastra is based on three comics that I drew from 1996 to early 2001. The first was called "Pure Violence" (later renamed "Astraina Heights" at issue #3). It is here that the reputation as a "city of evil" was established. This moon based colony used to be a penal establishment, but with the advent of a devastating war on Earth, and the ensuing exodus of political refugees landing on Astraina, it became a city. The so-called 'degeneration' of Astraina is generally blamed on the mega-corporations, which took advantage of the city's meagre laws. "Pure Violence/Astraina Heights" detailed the life and times of young cop, Hasaki Kabuki as he tries to survive life in Astraina; and his partner, Sohina Lynn who seems to have a death wish.

The second was unnamed but had two chapters, it detailed Martian cop, Maeve Bostich's fight against the corruptive influences of her police department in the wake of her partner's murder. Her story takes place on Mars in a city called Etsuko. Greer's general character design comes from Maeve.

The third was called "Babylon Star". It carried much of the the same formulae as the previous two comics except that it takes place on the planet of Eiyala and it starred a Maeve Bostich clone, Aruna Mackenzie and her partner, gun crazy, Yasmine Blake-Matthews and their investigation into a seemingly political murder.

In all three stories, all of the countries of planet Earth have united into one governing body called the Earth United Alliance (the E.U.A or Earth Gov).

Greer's story takes place on Mars in the city of Io-Astraina, and it details her fight against (once again...) the corruptive influence of not only her police department, but also every authoritative body.

The notes below are for those who've already read the comics and have no idea what the numbers on inside some of the text balloons mean:

Io-Astraina: Exile

1) "Recruits"- As in "Police Recruits". As far as the Earth Government is concerned, reckless/incompetent/corrupt & just plain unlucky cops from all countries were banished from Earth and sent to the off-world colonies. The police lived in fear of being banished, but the ultimate punishment was to be sent to Io-Astraina, the famous "city of evil". For police serving less than two years, they were demoted into recruits and trained to deal with crime in the colonies.

2) "Salvage drifters"- Space Salvagers, colloquially called "Drifters". Drifters go about space, salvaging bit and pieces of metal, plastic and other such recyclables dropped from various spacecraft. There are large bands of drifter families operating out of tiny cramped and generally unsafe "Drifter stations".

Io-Astraina: Sunday

1) “Mining colony”- In this version, Io-Astraina was originally a mining colony, and then afterwards a prison was erected.