I’d wager even story creator Philip K. Dick would be impressed with the futurism and dark beauty of Adult Swim and Crunchyroll’s new Japanese and American half-hour animated series Blade Runner: Black Lotus. Is the mysterious drifter Elle a young woman with amnesia or a new type of replicant that can fool the Voight-Kampff test? What does it mean to be an android or cyborg with feelings and memories? Those are the questions asked in the first five episodes of the excellent new series, now streaming on Adult Swim and the Adult Swim app.
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:
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 2019story 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:
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 toBlade 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.
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 Againfinds 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.
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:
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:
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 Runnerstories 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.
If you’ve finally caught up with the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard, now would be a good time to go back and check out IDW Publishing’s three-part prequel comic book series, which is scheduled to be released in trade paperback form this summer. Star Trek Picard: Countdown is IDW’s latest Star Trek prequel series, following series like the stellarStar Trek: Countdown, where comic book readers first (and last) saw retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek canon, andStar Trek Discovery: The Light of Kahless, the lead-in to the Star Trek: Discovery TV series.
Fans of CBS All Access’s Star Trek Discovery have a new series interlude to check out, and it follows the continuing exploits of a fan-favorite character. IDW Publishing launches the new comic book mini-series Star Trek Discovery: Aftermath this Wednesday. The series follows the ongoing exploits of Captain Christopher Pike. The “aftermath” of the title? The story looks into the crew of the Enterprise in the aftermath of the season two finale, featuring other series regulars including young Spock and Number One.
The three-part story is written by Star Trek Voyager novelist Kirsten Beyer and IDW’s longest-running Star Trek writer, Mike Johnson, with artwork by one of IDW’s top Star Trek artists, Tony Shasteen (his likenesses of Rebecca Romijn as Number One in particular are excellent) and colors by JD Mettler. Old Federation rivals the Klingons take center stage in a bit of an homage and callback (call forward?) to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “A Matter of Honor.” The art of Angel Hernandez is featured on the standard covers for the series, with an alternate cover for the first issue by George Caltsoudas, plus a photo cover.
