Tag Archive: future noir


Netflix previews its live-action adaptation of space adventure anime Cowboy Bebop with a wild, cool, retro teaser trailer

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October 20, 2021

Bebop pic

Running for 26 episodes between 1999 and 2001, the future noir anime series Cowboy Bebop arrived as an instant classic for the medium that many have called the greatest anime of all time, a Japanese sci-fi Western three years before Firefly.  Imagine what Firefly would look like if directed by Quentin Tarantino, and you have the new teaser-trailer for Netflix’s 10-episode live-action series Cowboy Bebop, coming in 30 days. 

bEBOP SHIP

It has the style and the throwback vibe of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as well as a cool soundtrack, and comic book-style scene-change pan slides with the characters participating in the movement.  The series stars John Cho (Star Trek) as a Bruce Lee-inspired bounty hunter named Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage) as the show’s larger than life cyborg and former investigator Jet Black, Geoff Stults (Stargirl) as Jet’s former partner Chalmers, and Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Dominion) as bounty hunter Faye Valentine.  And a corgi (his name is Ein).

You don’t want to miss the teaser and opening credits–take a look at both below.

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Live-action adaptation of space adventure anime Cowboy Bebop coming to Netflix–and comics–this year

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September 16, 2021

COWBOYBEB_Unit

Running for 26 episodes between 1999 and 2001, the future noir anime series Cowboy Bebop arrived as an instant classic for the medium, a Japanese sci-fi Western three years before Firefly.  A new Netflix series is on its way this year, starring John Cho (Star Trek) as bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage) as the show’s cyborg, former investigator Jet Black, Geoff Stults (Stargirl) as Jet’s former partner Chalmers, and Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Dominion) as bounty hunter Faye Valentine.  The television series is also coming to comics–writer Dan Watters and artist Lamar Mathurin are creating a monthly comic–and we have a preview of the Issue #1 cover artwork below.

CB#1_Cover_A CB#1_Cover_C

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Smart Girl–Meet the next badass android in Fernando Dagnino’s action-packed futurist graphic novel

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August 26, 2021

SMART GIRL COVER B

Review by C.J. Bunce

Spanish artist Fernando Dagnino (Superman, Resurrection Man, Suicide Squad) has designed the future of Blade Runner in the continuation series of Ridley Scott and Syd Mead’s future world for Titan Comics over the past few years.  Now fans of his artwork can see Dagnino take his work further in his own series.  In Smart Girl, readers will meet Yuki, a multitasking gynoid in the future called a Smart Girl, as in “smart phone” (the male Smartdroids are called Smart Boys)–human-like tools created exactly like the domestic assistant Synths of BBC’s Humans television series.  But like the Emergency Medical Holograms of Star Trek Voyager fame, the time comes when Yuki is no longer the latest, most advanced model, and it’s time for her to be replaced by the new androids and be deactivated.  Yuki becomes self-aware, and like the Replicants of Blade Runner, she decides she has more to offer the world and makes her escape before it’s too late.

Writer and illustrator Dagnino offers a black and white future noir comic that leans into what he does best–those shadows and layouts that feel like the stuff of 1950s pulp novels.  As much as I’d love to see his work in color, the black and white works for this tale of the bleak not-so-distant future.  Yuki is Atomic Blonde and Alita upgraded.  The story is tech-forward like Altered Carbon.  Dagnino’s style is familiar in a good way, mixes of Mike Grell layouts, Phil Noto characters, and the action and appeal of Jackson Herbert–the best of the modern Miss Fury artists.  If you like speculative science fiction, issue-driven narratives wrestling with timeless questions in the manner of the best of Alan Moore and Frank Miller, this should be your next graphic novel.

Check out our sneak preview of Fernando Dagnino’s new graphic novel, Smart Girl:

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SDCC @Home 2021–Futurism and tech noir enter a new era in first trailer for Blade Runner: Black Lotus

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July 24, 2021

Some of the best dystopian futurism in years came to a conclusion this year in the pages of Titan Comics’ Blade Runner 2019, the official comic book sequel to the cult classic 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott.  Co-written by Michael Green, the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Logan, Blade Runner 2049, and Murder on the Orient Express, and prolific comics writer Mike Johnson (Batman, Star Trek, Transformers) with artwork from Andres Guinaldo (Nightwing, Justice League Dark), this year’s Blade Runner 2019 story arc found an ex-Blade Runner named Ash returning from the Off-World colonies to the rain-soaked future Los Angeles.  A new Replicant will lead an animated series from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim this fall, taking Philip K. Dick’s Replicants into the untapped territory of the year 2032 in Blade Runner: Black Lotus.  Check out the very Alita: Battle Angel-evoking series coming this fall in this first trailer, released at San Diego Comic-Con 2021 aka Comic-Con @Home this weekend:

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Blade Runner Origins–Take a first look back before the 1982 movie today as new series begins

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March 10, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Last year Titan Comics took fans of the Blade Runner movie franchise back to the future with the comic book series Blade Runner 2019 (reviewed here at borg).  Both the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and prequel to Blade Runner 2049, the series expanded the franchise based on characters and settings created by Philip K. Dick.  Then the series went back 20 years before the theatrical sequel in Blade Runner 2029.  Now for the first time writers K. Perkins, Mellow Brown, and Mike Johnson, and artists Fernando Dagnino and Marco Lesko are taking the entire franchise–the canon stories and timeline–back before the original Ridley Scott movie in the series Blade Runner Origins.  Dick’s universe is one of borgs called Replicants and those who hunt them, called Blade Runners.  This is the story of the first Blade Runner, and we assume we’ll see another prequel one day about the creation of the first Replicants.

   

Check out our sneak preview of artwork from Issue #1 of Blade Runner Origins and 18 series variant covers below.

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Preview–Blade Runner lives on in third chapter of award-winning sequel

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January 15, 2021

Some of the best dystopian futurism in years comes to a conclusion in the third volume of Blade Runner 2019, the official sequel to the cult classic 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott.  Co-written by Michael Green, the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Logan, Blade Runner 2049, and Murder on the Orient Express, and prolific comics writer Mike Johnson (Batman, Star Trek, Transformers) with artwork from Andres Guinaldo (Nightwing, Justice League Dark), Blade Runner 2019 Volume 3–Home Again, Home Again finds ex-Blade Runner Ash returning from the Off-World colonies to the rain-soaked future Los Angeles.

Take a look at a preview of this new chapter in the Blade Runner story below courtesy of Titan Comics.

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Blade Runner Artist’s Edition–A great noir take on the spin-off sci-fi series

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December 19, 2020

This year the Blade Runner movie franchise took fans into their past and future with the comic book series Blade Runner 2019 (review here at borg).  Both the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and prequel to Blade Runner 2049, the series introduced a new Blade Runner, a female engineered cyborg named Ashina, or “Ash.”  Earlier this month we previewed here at borg a new series featuring Ash ten years later in the pages of Blade Runner 2029.  Coming next month, readers are in for a visual treat, as Titan Comics is releasing an Artist’s Edition of Blade Runner 2019: Los Angeles–the first volume collecting the first four issues of the series.  Reproducing the pencil artwork of Andres Guinaldo without the overlaid inking and colors, this book provides a different reading experience, creating noir feel from a different angle.  The result is gorgeous.

Check out our sneak preview of artwork from Volume #1 of the Artist’s Edition of Blade Runner 2019, courtesy of Titan Comics:

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Blade Runner 2029–Sequel comics tie-in looks 10 years into the franchise’s future

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December 8, 2020

Just this past Fall, Titan Comics took fans of the Blade Runner movie franchise into their past and future with the comic book series Blade Runner 2019 (review here at borg).  Both the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and prequel to Blade Runner 2049, the series introduced a new Blade Runner, a female engineered cyborg named Ash.  Beginning next week readers will find Ash ten years later in the pages of Blade Runner 2029.  With the ghosts of the Tyrell corporation always in the shadows, Ashina has a new mission, a personal one, and she decides to seek a lost target from her past.

Check out our sneak preview of artwork from Issue #1 of Blade Runner 2029, courtesy of Titan Comics:

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First look–New chapter begins for Blade Runner sequel/prequel

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September 23, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and prequel to Blade Runner 2049, giving fans of either or both a look into the world created by Philip K. Dick in his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  Blade Runner stories continue as Titan Comics looks to the parallel Earth future in Blade Runner 2019.  The first nine issues introduced us to ex-Blade Runner Ash and Cleo, daughter of business magnate Alexander Selwyn.  It’s now 2026.  On returning to Los Angeles, Ash sleuthed out the location of Selwyn, but Selwyn knows Ash is after him, and has created a new Blade Runner.  Of course the ghosts of Tyrell are always in the shadows.

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First look–Blade Runner gets its first movie tie-in series and a perfect first chapter

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July 10, 2019

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s what Blade Runner fans have been waiting for, and if your appetite was whetted by the movie Blade Runner 2049, then you’re going to want to check our the next era of Blade Runner stories as Titan Comics goes back to a parallel Earth future in Blade Runner 2019.  The future is now.  It’s been worth the wait, as the new story looks and feels like we’re back inside Philip K. Dick’s original vision in his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  In the neo-noir city of Los Angeles, 2019, Ash, a veteran Blade Runner, is working the kidnapping of a billionaire’s wife and child.  Is the CEO of the new Canaan Corporation any better than those behind the Tyrell Corporation?  Written by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049), with co-writer Mike Johnson (Supergirl, Star Trek), get ready for Blade Runner to experience the treatment we’ve seen in recent years for franchises like Firefly, Planet of the Apes, and Alien, as another new world of science fiction storytelling opens up.  Green and Johnson have written a perfect first chapter.

This very first original, in-canon story set in the Blade Runner universe is illustrated by Andres Guinaldo (Justice League Dark, Captain America) with brilliant color work by Marco Lesko.   You’re going to see something surprising in Guinaldo’s artwork–not only is this the world of Philip K. Dick, Ridley Scott, and Syd Mead′s neo-noir future, readers will see influences from cyberpunk and tech-noir classics like John Carpenter′s Escape from New York, Luc Besson′s The Fifth Element and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Neill Blomkamp′s Elysium, James Cameron′s The Terminator and Aliens, Robert Rodriguez′s Alita: Battle Angel, and the other futureworlds adapted to film from Philip K. Dick′s stories.  It all probably comes down to the versatility, breadth, and influence of concept artist Syd Mead, but the creators do give due credit to Dick, Scott, Hampton Fancher, David Peoples, Michael Deeley–and Mead–for the look and feel of their new story.

The first issue arrives next Wednesday, and you can pick from four cover options, from Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Andreas Guinaldo, John Royle, and an original concept piece by Syd Mead.

Check out our sneak preview of the first issue of Blade Runner 2019, courtesy of Titan Comics, plus a new trailer for the series released just today:

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