Cyberpunk Graphic Novels
From CyberpunkWiki
Cyberpunk as a genre has spread to most modern media and has brought forth quite a few kick ass graphic novels and related animated movies and shows. Akira and Ghost in the Shell stand as great examples of classical japanese animation and are known and loved by enthusiasts in animation, science fiction and cyberpunk.
A 48 pages long comic book adaption of William Gibson's cyberpunk masterpiece Neuromancer was published by Epic Comics in 1989. Written and Drawn by Tom de Haven and Bruce Jensen the book only covered the first two chapters of the book and was discontinued.
Contents |
[edit] Cyberpunk comics
[edit] Akira
Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk epic had its first release in 1982.It was concluded in 1990, six thick volumes long collecting over 2000 pages.
An animated film adaption was released in 1988. It is distinctly shorter than the drawn version and covers a shorter time span with fewer characters. It's still a masterpiece in animation and a cyberpunk must-see!
[edit] Ashen Victor
A futuristic manga by Yukito Kishiro which is set in the Battle Angel Alita universe. The series takes place before the events of Battle Angel Alita and follows a motorballer named Snev (nicknamed Crash King) who struggles not only to win the highest ranking in the sport of motorball but to overcome his lack of confidance in persuing his goals after he has a traumatic accident on the track six months prior to the opening of the story.
[edit] Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM, Gun Dream)
Created by Yukito Kishiro in 1991, Battle Angel Alita tells the story of a cyborg called Alita. Alita is found as a head and torso by cyborg doctor Ido in a scrapyard under the floating city Tiphares. As Alita is fitted with a new body she sets off to find out about her past with her expertise in deadlyu cyborg martial arts as her only clue to who and what she used to be.
As the story progresses it goes from being a quite action based comic to discussing humanity, social segregation and information control.
[edit] Battle Angel Alita: Last order
Overlaps the ending of the original series which creator Yukito Kishiro thought was rushed and poorly executed.
[edit] BLAME!
Written and drawn by Tsutomu Nihei from 1998 to 2003. The finished series spans over ten manga volumes of dark, dark sci fi, maybe in the future, mayber on earth. The series mostly follows the main character Killy's venture through the "megastructure" as he searches for humans posessing something called net terminal genes. The series has very little dialogue and relies heavily on the incredible art style which shows a marvelous blend of cold steel, hard concrete and organic tissue.
The series is joined by 2 prequels (NOiSE and Biomega) and one official sequel (Net Sphere Engineer)
NOiSE is a one volume manga prequel which shows us the beginnings of Killy as a simple police officer as well as giving the reader some intro into the beginnings of the "megastructure" as well as the origins of "Silicon Life".
Biomega is the story of how the world shown in BLAME! became the world of the "megastructure" and introduces the reader to the characters of Kanoe Zouichi and his AI companion Kanoe Fuyu.
Net Sphere Engineer is the offical sequel and is set presumably many centuries after the ending of BLAME!.The reader is introduced to the character known as Dismantler who takes up the responsiblity for helping humans without net terminal genes survive the Safeguards of the Net Sphere.
[edit] Eden: It's an endless world
Cyberpunk manga by Hiroki Endo set in the near future after a catastrophic epidemic killing off 15 percent of the worlds population and has left many more disfigured, disabled and reliant on cybernetic implants to survive. Cybernetics have advanced a lot being used not only for life support but in weaponry and surveilance tech to a level where whole human bodies are replaced by mechanical ones.
The series focuses on the main character Elija Ballard who gets involved with an organization called Propater, going from a quite naive kid to a hardened warrior as he matures on the run and the battlefield.
The series features a lot of cyberpunk themes like cyborgs, droids, AI, megacorporations and hacking.
[edit] Gantz
Is a manga and anime series written by Hiroya Oku. It centers on two Japanese boys who are killed by a train and are transported alive and well to a mysterious world that resembles their Tokyo. In this new world (inside an ordinary looking unfurnished condo) they are introduced to Gantz, a huge black sphere that forces them (and others)to play a real life first person shooter game that requires special weapons and skinsuits that amplify the users strength. The game "missions" are very dangerous and many characters die (again) only to be replaced in the same manner as the lead characters. Gantz secures the playfield from player escape by implanting mini-explosives in their brains that are keyed to explode if they leave the play area. Readers find later in the series that the room Gantz exists in is in a dimensional barrier outside of the real Japan and that there are similar rooms in Germany, United States and Israel. The Gantz sphere holds all the weapons, suits and scanners needed for the game missions, as well there is a bald muscle-bound man on life support sitting deep within Gantz. There has been no discovery as to his identity or purpose but it is assumed that he is the monitor and referee for all the games. Surprisingly not only can dead people be brought into the world of Gantz but so can dead animals, the first being a dog known as "Butter Dog" and the second being a panda called "Hoi Hoi".
[edit] Ghost in the Shell
Written and drawn by Masamune Shirow, the first issue released in 1989, GitS is packed with cyberpunk EDGE= Lot's of cyborgs, AI, mind theft, a strong surveillance state and starring a kick ass razorgirl. The manga version has been released in English by Dark Horse and goes far beyond the animated adaption.
Deep into the 21st century the line between machine and man is blurred as men take on machine parts and machines are upgraded with living tissue and given artificial intelligences.
GitS is a real pageturner, and contains some parts that make you check if anyone's reading over your shoulder, either because the scene is an explicitly detailed, full color lesbian threesome on a sailboat, or because the violence can be graphic into the extreme.
Ultra violence and sexyness aside, the collected manga is a great read packed with philosophical and political themes and featuring awesome artwork.
[edit] Singularity 7
Written and drawn by Ben Templesmith, published in 2004. S7 is very similar in set-up as the Matrix, in this case the machines are alien nanites hitching a ride to earth on a meteorite, which then take over a designated "one" or the Singularity, who in turn can now control this nanite army and thereby alter all matter at a molecular level, becoming in effect a god. There is a resistance, natch, and our heroes are a mutant band who somehow managed by sheer probability to develop internal anti-body nanites (with some degeneration in the process), and are immune to the "dissassembly process" by which the nanites may vaporize anything. The few living human scientists invent an anti-virus which our team must deliver in person to the Singularity himself, who is in the process of building a massive City/DockingTower to welcome the original alien ships who sent the nanites. The aliens themselves eventually arrive and give a hearty "WTF!" to the singularity for the insane necropolis he's built, as it turns out their nanites were misused for their planned benign terraforming, and in turn decide they need to wipe the planet for this technical error.
Overall S7 isn't especially philosophical, as it's mainly an action movie in graphic novel format... but it is pure asskicking cyberpunk eyecandy. The visuals are ultra moody, ultra abstract, and ultra violent. Templesmith uses scratchy spidery inkwork (similar to Ralph Steadman who illustrated Hunter S. Thompson's books) and also photoshops a lot of his work adding textured backgrounds, blurred panels, and irradiating his normally dark tones with saturated colors to really capture an industrial post-apocalyptic mood. If you are a fan of the first Matrix, I cannot overemphasize how awesome the artwork is, it does not disappoint.
[edit] Transmetropolitan
[[ Great post-cyberpunk by]] Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson. Think Hunter S. Thompson meets Blade Runner meets Wayne's World. Packed with political satire, attitude and near future weirdness Metropolitan is funny, disturbing and meaningful.
The main character Spider Jerusalem is a gonzo journalist who's feared, loved and hated by the City in a near future. His antagonists are largely the human race, focused largely in the Smiler and the Beast, two opposing politicians with somewhat different agendas, but both out to reap the city for what it's worth. Through trickery, bribery, drug abuse and gunplay, Spider gets to the core of things and reveals whoever he's the most pissed off at at the time's true intentions. The Beast and SMiler use their massive political influence to make life as sore as possible for Spider, in addition to some burdens he's brought upon himself. Luckily he's helped out by a pair of loyal (and filthy) assistants.
