Comic Comparisons: Secession Problems

We’ve all heard the talks about people wanting to secede from the US; being unable to put up with the constant changes and enforcing politics on people. I’ve read a few comics that actually go into deeper meaning behind one particular strategy. Going off the grid.

Not what I had in mind

Welcome to Comic Comparisons, where two or more comic series are compared in their central theme.

I watched the Family Guy episode where Peter Griffin turns his home into its own micro-nation after making the claim. It shows a hilarious take on how fragile running a micro-nation is; especially when someone as dumb and irresponsible as Peter can use this status as a micro-nation leader to commit crime. But for a more serious look, I found a comic series by Dark Horse called Briggs Land.

As Serious as it Gets

Grace Briggs takes over an antigovernment micro-nation. It only takes 20 years after her overbearing and misogynist husband Jim is given a life sentence. I think he was trying to kill Bill Clinton. The in-title Briggs Land is a secessionist micro-nation in rural New York; after a legal loophole at the end of the Civil War. It is a safe harbor for people wanting to live a quiet life off the grid. Unfortunately, this made it a hotspot for white supremacists (including its former leader), drug dealers, and domestic terrorists. Grace wishes to return Briggs Land to its core values by showing her ability as a leader; attempting to remove Jim’s influence. All the while maneuvering around the feds and her oldest son who plans his own takeover.

Anyone who wants to live off the grid are in one of two categories. Those who want to live off the land for a better chance at life; or people trying to hide from a nation that outright rejects them. Briggs Land is no exception to either case. Jim is a white supremacist who wants to keep the slate clean of everything he doesn’t value. Did Clinton winning the white working class hurt that much? Well he is ultraconservative; banishing the family of a meth lab maker after killing him. The educational system also does not allow for kids with mental disabilities. Things start to change when Grace divorces Jim and takes charge.

Tense Can Be Good

The characters each have their own legitimate reasons for doing what they do and why they came to Briggs Land; even when they disagree with each other. Grace’s oldest son Noah is public a white supremacist, thuggish businessman, and wants Briggs Land for himself. However, despite similarities to his father; Noah hates him as much as the rest of his family. A betrayal will do that to you. Others come to into focus like Noah’s wife; who is by all means a gold digger who married into the family for security after her hard life.

But more importantly it shows that for things to change, they can’t be immediate. Briggs Land for better and worse has support by white supremacist hate crime groups; making it a prime target for the US government. For Grace who has enough problems; she plans on dealing with the drug dealers, earning Briggs Land’s loyalty by the end. The series is popular enough that AMC of Walking Dead fame have the rights to make a show of it.

Teach Your Kids Better

A few other series include Sheltered, where kids seize power by killing the adults to survive a Vesuvius styled volcano from the Yellowstone Caldera. The Safe Haven is a place where people came to escape coming disasters or in some cases, losses. The kids had been trained to survive situations, all except themselves. With the adults dead, a few of the kids are divided on how it was handled. Lucas, the leader, essentially makes all of the decisions for the group no matter how drastic they are. This puts him at odds with relative newcomer Victoria who is not even informed about the plan. Wishing to escape, she starts her fight against Lucas’ cult.

But Lucas finds bigger messes in the form of what his father leaves behind; including a solar panel order Lucas didn’t account for. This lead to investigations from the US government before becoming an all out war. The kids end up dig themselves into a bigger hole. With some of the kids including Lucas ending up dead; the rest are arrested and put into custody while Victoria lives her life with relatives. The worst part is; none of this would have happened if the kids shared the news with the parents or even got more supplies. Lucas and the rest just took their training to the most extreme; all because kids can feel little to no consequences in their lives. I need not say more…

Maybe Go Mobile?

Now there’s Grass Kings by Matt Kindt. Grass Kings much like Briggs Land is a family drama with political stand offs. Three brothers run a trailer park kingdom untouched by the outside. The oldest brother Robert takes a young woman named Maria in, as Robert is grieving for his late daughter. This puts him at odds with his brothers who fear outsiders bring trouble; especially when the sheriff of a neighboring town shows up. Add a serial killer with a bunch of trigger happy civilians ready to turn on each other; and you got the premise of an entire omnibus collection.

The watercolor artwork really brings different moods in. It asks whether Robert is hallucinating about what occurs and highlights the tension with the neighboring town looking like the sky is on fire. With paranoia mounting up, the once freedom seeking community is ready to go to war. When the inevitable betrayal comes up it nearly set things up to be destroyed. At the end of it all, the brothers have to stand together despite all of the spite towards each other but end up losing more than they’ve gained.

How About the Open Road?

Finally the most recent entree, Death or Glory by Rick Remender. Glory has been raised off the grid by a community of truckers a profession and culture that might die out in coming years. Glory’s main caretaker was Red, an obvious southerner at heart who wishes to live outside of society’s confines. Unfortunately for Red, as soon as he gets liver problems, things don’t go quite right. Living off the grid means no social security or documents proving that you exist. To the world at large, humans without safety nets are risks they’re not willing to take. So Glory has to take the risk and get a liver transplant with dirty funds for her adoptive father, and it is by no means cheap. And all the corruption that was outside are in Glory’s way including a clingy ex-husband.

Closing Thoughts

So what does this all mean? Off-the-grid micro-nations are a waste of time and money? Being cut off from the rest of the world will only hinder you? All off-the-grid sights are home to gun-toting rednecks?

They don’t have to be. Going off the grid is a risk for sure, especially since you will sacrifice a form of identification in case of emergencies. Some people get carted off to jail in some circumstances. However, it can be an opportunity to grow for others. I once heard from Seeker Knowledge about a divorced mother who built a house in the woods on her own so that she didn’t have to pay too many bills to raise her kids.

As for communities it doesn’t mean the people who live in those sites are anti-social hate groups, they can just be another neighborhood. But like any community, there are going to be clashes especially whose ideals you attract. The world as a whole is a scary place whether you are a part of it or against it. If you want to live outside the grid, it’s best to compromise where you can and make changes that people can get behind. Otherwise you’re no different than the people you are against. Just be sure you have a fallback in case something ugly rears its head.

But the ink’s not dry yet, so check every so often for updates. And as always, look between the panels.