Book Review: Killtopia #1 by Dave Cook and Craig Paton

What do you get when you mix Battle Royale with Philip K. Dick with a hint of Asimov and Big Hero 6 into a nice 80’s style feel and colour scheme? Right, you get Killtopia.

Killtopia has a nice feel of a Neo-Tokyo-esque city where our hero tries to make ends meet in a very unforgiving state of affairs.

Every year a bloodfest is organized for all wreckers (those that kill mechs to salvage parts) to come out on top as the only survivor and claim the title in a Battle Royale, which is hyped up like they do in The hunger games.

The comic opens with nice stylized panels and dives straight into the story. I won’t go to much into detail otherwise I might spoil things and I rather not spoil your reading of this piece.

It has an original premise and sets itself apart from the obvious inspiration points. It takes them together and blends them nicely into something different. You can view it as an homage to their inspiration.

Everybody whom loves cyberpunk should read this and will obviously love this.

The fun thing that I loved about reading the comic is the nods it gives to predecessors in the genre and obvious nods (in the form of tatoos) to characters we all know and love of videogames.

If I compare this to other comics/graphic novels I have read (for example the killing joke, V for Vendetta and The crow), I think a certain originality is lacking. It takes from the sources and brings a homage to it, but the sources are easily seen in how it presents itself and how the story plays. I love the aesthetic and I love the artwork. If I had to give it a number out of 10 I would give it an 8.

I would like to thank Card Shark Comics for sending me a review-copy (22 pages) of their full comic (48 pages) that is now available from their site or other retailers, like Amazon.com