History Literature / CrabTown

Inspired by the work of pinup artist Ed Mironiuk, ''Crab Town'' follows criminal organization [[PlayingCardMotifs House of Cards]] as they make one last ploy to save "Crab Town", a slum of Freedom City left irradiated and derelict after a nuclear war. In Crab Town, people do anything to get by, from filming pornography of radiation victims to selling all of their organs to live as sapient balloons. And with everyone from surgeons to policemen caring only about making a buck off them, criminal enterprise [[WeHelpTheHelpless is their only hope.]]

Inspired by the work of pinup artist Ed Mironiuk, ''Crab Town'' follows criminal organization [[PlayingCardMotifs House of Cards]] as they make one last ploy to save "Crab Town", a slum of Freedom City left irradiated and derelict after a nuclear war. In Crab Town, people do anything to get by, from filming pornography of radiation victims to selling all of their organs to live as sapient balloons. And with everyone from surgeons to policemen caring only about make a buck off them, criminal enterprise [[WeHelpTheHelpless is their only hope.]]

[[WretchedHive In this town,]] everyone's a bottom feeder...

Five desperate criminals are robbing one of the last remaining banks in Freedom City, a town devastated by the previous nuclear war. But these are no ordinary criminals. They are members of [[PlayingCardMotifs the House of Cards,]] [[WeHelpTheHelpless an organization designed to help the less fortunate citizens of the city.]] In a place where the poor are separated from the rich, jobs are as scarce as clean water, and even the doctors are as corrupt as the politicians, the House of Cards are a final beacon of hope in an otherwise hopeless world.

Featuring: radiation fetishists, balloon people, mutant crabs, sail-bike road warriors, and a love affair between a woman and an H-Bomb. This is one mean asshole of a city.

Welcome to Crab Town.

''Crab Town'' is a work of BizarroFiction by Creator/CarltonMellickIII.

* OutWithABang: Miss Doomsday accidentally killed her husband by having sex with him, putting so much pressure on his balloon body that it popped.

* FiveManBand: Jack's team.
** TheHero: The Jack of Spades, who put the team together by offering everyone [[HopeBringer a better future.]]
** TheLancer: The Nine of Hearts, Jack's lover, who started out as [[DatingCatwoman his adversary.]]
** TheBigGuy: Sailboat, a.k.a. the Four of Clubs. None too bright, but likes to improve the world by hitting things. Little Sister, a.k.a. the Two of of Diamonds, also fits the trope [[LittleMissBadass in her own way.]]
** TheSmartGuy: Miss Doomsday, who was once the assistant of a great scientist.
** TheSixthRanger: Johnny Balloon, who joins the team pretty much by accident by drawing a gun on a bank teller in frustration at the same time as the others commence their bank robbery.

* FantasticDrug: Crab shit, a mossy green substance that grows on the belly of the black sewer crabs that infest Crab Town and which gives you an euphoric high if you smoke or consume it. It's radiactive and will eventually kill you, but many residents of Crab Town are past caring about such things.

** TheBigGuy: Sailboat, a.k.a. the Four of Spades. None too bright, but likes to improve the world by hitting things. Little Sister, a.k.a. the Two of of Diamonds, also fits the trope [[LittleMissBadass in her own way.]]

** TheLeader: The Jack of Spades, who put the team together by offering everyone [[HopeBringer a better future.]]

** TheSixthRanger: Johnny Balloon, who joins the team pretty much by accident by drawing a gun on a bank teller in frustrating at the same time as the others commence their bank robbery.

* CompanionCube: Miss Doomsday is convinced that the Crab-Bomg contains the gasified soul of her husband and considers herself to be married to it. Everyone else considers her to have gone slightly insane.

** TheLeader: Jack of Spades, who put the team together by offering everyone [[HopeBringer a better future.]]

* PlayingCardMotifs: Each member of the House of Cards is assigned one card from the deck to be used as their alias. A member's colour indicates their specialty: spades have [[TheSmartGuy book smarts,]] hearts have [[TheFace street smarts or people skills,]] clubs are [[TheBigGuy the muscle]] and diamonds are [[GuileHero cunning and agile.]] The mortality rate among the group is high enough that there's never any risk of it having more than 52 members at the same time.

** TheSmartGuy: Ms. Doomsday, a great scientist.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Played with. TheLeader never told the rest of the gang what ThePlan was, only saying that if he told them about it they'd never agree to do it. When [[spoiler: he is killed]] they end up having to ''guess'' what his endgame was supposed to be, and we never do find out whether what they end up doing was what he intended for them to do.

* PlayingCardMotifs: Each member of the House of Cards is assigned one card from the deck to be used as their alias. The mortality rate among the group is high enough that there's never any risk of it having more than 52 members at the same time.