City of Cards: Blog

City of Cards C3.33: HERE!

First note: Family is in town for early holiday celebrations so that's eating up a fair bit of my drawing time. Things will be back to normal in a few days, and comic will continue as usual.

Am I backing down from the Reno thing? No way. I am taking the Neon Babylon idea to its fruition.

I've mentioned Reno before, but now that I am establishing this idea more in the comic itself I want to go a bit into why I'd choose that as the location for this story.

Reno was a city whose success was built on its decision to legalize divorce. That, combined with gambling, lasted the city a good many years and helped build the economy it has today. While divorce is a fairly common practice in modern society, at the time it was a revolutionary idea that shook the foundation of what was traditional marriage and personal freedom for men and women.

Think about what it meant to be able to choose to not remain in your marriage during the 1930s? Nevada was the only state that allowed this and people flocked to churches and casinos to get unmarried just like they might do today to get "married".

So, the foundation of the city was built on casting aside the past. It redefined love.

Now look at the city's secondary nickname of "Neon Babylon". First off, it just sounds that damn cool. Also, Babylon is a holy city. It is a bedrock of civilization, as well as calling up images of ancient civilizations that are now mounds of dust.

Society is built out of the ashes of the past. The very clay we use to mold our bricks is formed by the burned out remnants of generations past.

And, most importantly, Reno is not the most important city that has ever existed. It's not even Las Vegas. But there are more Renos than Vegases in our own lives. There will always be more not quite the bests, the once greats, the fifteen minutes (at that), than there will ever be New Yorks or Londons or Constantinoples.

Be proud to be Reno, through the good times and bad, and let the river run its course through your once brilliant main-street.