pencil: José Homs

story: Zidrou

The story begins in the present day, where an English businessman, engaged in the production of anti-personnel mines, suffers an attack.
In the garden of his house, two mines he made explode, killing his pregnant wife and maiming his son.
MI5 reveals that a terrorist organization called SHI, which originated in the late 19th century, carried out the bombing.
Lady Winterfield, daughter of a very prominent retired general, is visiting the London International Exhibition, May 1857.
While she's taking a photograph of a young Japanese girl, she realizes that she is holding a dead baby in her arms.
The organizer of the Exhibition (and builder of the famous Crystal Palace that hosted it) has the Japanese woman interned in an asylum and buries the little body in a flowerbed.
All this to avoid a scandal.
That evening, in the Winterfield palace, the 21st birthday of William, brother of Jennifer, is celebrated.
After dinner William joins his father's friends for an initiation rite into the lodge they belong to.
Meanwhile, Jennifer convinces her uncle, a doctor, to look for the young Japanese girl in a mental hospital.
With a trick they manage to get Kitamakura (whom Jennifer calls Kita) released.
Together the two girls reach the Crystal Palace and recover the body of the newborn, but are surprised by the police.
They manage to escape and return to the Winterfield home, but Jennifer's father surprises them.
The corpse is burned in the stove and Kita ends up in a brothel.
Excellent historical reconstruction, both in the characters and in the mean streets of London.
Homs designs are sensual and distinctive.