Of the three brothers who founded the Yellow Turban sect, Zhang Bao was the last to fall. In the ROTK novel he had magical powers and was able to summon thunderstorms and phantom warriors, but I left that part out because, well, it’s just too weird. In the novel he was also killed by his own men, but I thought mass suicide might be more in line with the cult-ish nature of the Yellow Turbans.
The Yellow Turbans were treated rather dismissively in the ROTK novel (basically redshirts for our heroes to beat up on), and I’ve largely stuck to the ROTK storyline. But in reality the Yellow Turban rebellion was the largest religious uprising in the history of China, and centuries later they would still inspire peasant revolts against oppressive governments.
In other news, I’ve just joined the SpiderForrest webcomic collective. What that means basically is there’s now a banner up on the top of this site with links to some other awesome comics, so take a look and enjoy some webcomic goodness 
The Yellow Turban rebellion the largest religious uprising in Chinese
history? I suppose it depends on what you call religious. The Taiping Rebellion
too had a very strongly religious element, and that took more than twenty years fully to suppress at the cost of tens of millions of lives.
A very dramatic strip. Art and message work beautifully together. Poor Liu Bei…
The Taiping Rebellion was another big one, and the sheer number of people involved was indeed much larger – 30M vs. around 2M in the Yellow Turban rebellion. However, the Taiping Rebellion was confined to a relatively small geographical area (mainly the southeastern provinces), whereas at their height the Yellow Turbans were active in over 3/4 of the country, if I remember correctly. But yeah, maybe I should’ve said “one of the largest”.
While we’re on the subject, people don’t usually think of the revolt against the Mongols, which ultimately led to the Ming Dynasty, as a religious movement. But that uprising was started by the Mani and White Lotus sects (coincidentally, those early rebels wore red scarves on their heads, and were known as the Red Turbans), and many of the founders of the Ming Dynasty, including the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang himself, have roots in the Mani sect. As the movement grew, their main draw became the anti-Mongolian nationalistic fervor, rather than any religious sentiment, and the rebellion soon became largely secular, so I don’t know if they should count. But if they do then the rebellion that led to the Ming Dynasty would definitely be the largest and most successful religious uprising in Chinese history.
Take note EX-Prez Hozni Mubarak: “No king can sit long on the throne who mistreats his people so”
I’m personally a bit more pessimistic than my character here. I think history is littered with rulers who mistreat their people terribly, yet continue to stay in power. To his credit, Mubarak has so far refrained from Iranian-styled crackdowns. Hopefully the situation in Egypt will work out well in the end.
I think the Ikhwan(muslim brothers) had Hama, Syria, in mind when they
declared themselves out of the running in Egypt…
Rifaat Assad bragged of poison gassing 80,000 of them…
You’d only need a couple of passes with a spray plane over Tahrir square with an organo-phosphates(mosquito killer)
and instead of an ounce an acre, use a pound.
A dictator has to be merciless…
(I did spray the thing in Florida, a drop on your wrist
would have given you instant cancer!)
But seriously, Egypt is an impossibility.
First, the country by the Nile( a very narrow strip)can feed 20 million easily, but 80 millions?
Second, by being neighbor to Saudia, they are right next to 80% of humanity wealth.
But why would Saudis invest there when Egyptian socialist welfare state steal everything in sight that is not bolted down. To start an enterprise in Egypt, you need five years to get the necessary permits(take me five minutes here!).
So, the only Egyptian economy is the black market, which just got killed
when their Keynesian economists went crazy with the money printing presses.
(Print money, spend, to get out of a crisis…try that with your credit card!)
The real reason people are in that square is that they are hungry and cannot buy food due to the socialist robber barons in charge!But these are in charge everywhere, so we have “interesting” times ahead!WHO’S NEXT???
Well, I’m not familiar with the socioeconomic situation in Egypt. But at least things seem to be coming to a peaceful resolution. That’s good news, I think, in a part of the world that could really use some good news once in awhile.
Another great strip! the look on Liu Bei’s face is wonderfully done indeed!
Thanks vonbek! That panel’s another one where I was my own model
The version that Zhang Bao was killed by his own zealots
is even more disturbing.
What could possibly have happened there?
Actually, according to the novel, what happened there was fairly straight-forward. Zhang Bao’s troops were pinned down in their fortress and besieged from all sides. So his men gave up Zhang Bao in hope that their own lives would be spared.
So, no Greek tragedy there…
Remind you of what happened to Salvador Allende…(This was told me by a Chilean Army Officer that was present at his arrest).
It was ordered by you know who that he be returned to his own Red Guard partisans
and that a gold plated Kalashnikov, gift of Fidel Castro, be given back to him,
as “He would certainly need it”…
Allende, who, by trying to be neither flesh or fish, enraged everybody,
knew that this was the cruelest fate possible and turned his gun on himself…
These “Red Guards” where of the sort of the “Sendero Luminoso” and the Pol Pot “Khmer Rouge” of which you did not want to experience the tender mercies!
So I’m just now belatedly catching up on your archive (I’ve been meaning to give it a read through for months, honest!), but I have to pause a moment and really, really commend you on this page.
The way you changed up your art style and arranged the paneling to depict the violence of the otherwise “silent” suicides gives me chills. I hope you’re proud of how the end result came out, because if not… you really should be.
Thanks Clint… I’ve been a big fan of Zombie Ranch for awhile now so this means a lot coming from you