Here you will find links and reviews to a host of brilliant comic books, along with interviews from our very own Bex@TristaBytes with the creators, and importantly, where you can buy their books online. Whether you’re into cyberpunk fantasy, nefarious air pirates, or just want the sweet story of a lonely AI, you’ll find them all below!
Subversive Comics – Super Robot Mayhem, Metal Made Flesh, Bearlands
We’ve been fans of Subversive, and their amazing collection of comic books for a number of years. At comic-cons, their stand usually draws you in due to the amazing collection of zombie teddy bears, but you stay for the brilliant cyberpunk books too. They have a great collection of titles including:
Bearlands – Described as “The Walking Dead meets the Care Bears”, this book is as much a loving homage to franchises like Mad Max, The Terminator, George Romero’s “…of the Dead” series and other 1980’s genre films as it is to Saturday morning action cartoons like Thundercats, but with enough of a fresh spin to take it beyond it’s “high concept” premise.
Metal Made Flesh – This book is a cyberpunk space opera that has been likened to “Bladerunner meets Game of Thrones.” Chased to the brink of extinction, Humanity is forced to take refuge in Tuaoni, a sprawling city on the black market trading hub Equan Yas. Reduced to extreme poverty, and treated as second class citizens by the planet’s inhabitants, humans must fight to survive.
Super Robot Mayhem – Raiden Nakamura is infected by a virus that causes him to bond with the mysterious mecha MAYHEM. Together they are the only thing that stands in the way of the invading Demon Imperial Alliance…
To find out more about Subversive Comic and their book you can visit their website, or go like them on Facebook.
A few years ago, Bex interviewed Metal Made Flesh artist Simeon Aston about their brilliant cyberpunk book, which you can see below.
Mythopoeia – Skies Of Fire
the guys from Mythopoeia create incredibly detailed alternative world comics including Skies Of Fire! Set in a universe where the skies are rules by airships and one captain must hunt down a nefarious air pirate. These guys go above and beyond just making a comic by making a whole world with fully realised airship technology, geography and history.
Find out more at their website – mythopoeia.us
BHP Comics – Killtopia
Killtopia is a cyberpunk graphic novel series set in a mega-city in future Japan, where heavily-armed Wreckers are paid to hunt rogue mechs for money, fame and glory. Rookie Wrecker Shinji and Crash, the world’s first sentient mech, as they are hunted as fugitives across the neon-soaked metropolis by Wreckers, android killers and Yakuza gangs.
Find out more at their website here.
Blue Fox Comics – Gone, Robyn, Sinners, & Much More!
Super talented writer Simon from Blue Fox Comics has a huge stack of various comics which have all come from his wonderfully twisted mind. These include
Robyn – An ongoing comic series about a young, intelligent and skilful girl called Robyn, who just happens to be an outlaw, surviving on her own in Sherwood Forest!
Gone – About the AssistA robot, who wakes on board a vessel that should be home to thousands of crew, but is, in fact, desolate. Confused and alone, the AssistA sets off to find out where everyone has gone to.
Sinners – Which follows Hope Martinez, who woke up dead this morning in a derelict apartment. She found her on/off boyfriend murdered in the hallway outside. And to cap it all she was given a limousine and told she had to drive across America gathering sinners.
For these books and many more, go visit their website at bluefoxcomics.com
Milmo Comics – NPC Tea
Artist & writer Sarah Millman came up with this brilliantly odd idea for a comic book, which sees a group of fantasy/DnD characters who decided they would rather be NPCs and run a small tea shop in Cardiff! NPC Tea is about Cardiff’s least popular tea shop, Y Ddraig, run by a perfectionist elf and a disgruntled fire summon. When a magicless human discovers Y Ddraig’s secret and a type of banned magic rears it’s ugly head, caddies upon caddies of rotting tea become the least of their worries as the entire city of Cardiff is threatened with destruction!
You can buy NPC Tea, along with Sarah’s other lovely artwork over at her Esty shop here.
Big Punch Studios – Cat And Meringue, Extraversal, Afterlife Inc.
Cat And Meringue is the story of a cat… and a meringue… who sail around in a catamaran! The daft duo’s adventures started life as a daily webcomic drawn by Big Punch’s Nich Angell. He drew four panels of pun-tacular silliness every day, and the two characters grew way beyond their humble beginnings.
Afterlife Inc. When corporate con-artist Jack Fortune’s life comes to an abrupt and brutal end, he discovers a business opportunity on a previously unimaginable scale. A mysterious Calamity has struck the afterlife, wiping the ruling body from existence and plunging the Empyrean – the great golden city of the dead – into chaos. The time is ripe for modernisation…
Big Punch also produces Extraversal, a muti-world anthology series with 4 interwoven universes… If you want to know more, I’ll let Bex explain in the video below!
You can find more on all the books from Big Punch Studios on their website at bigpunchstudios.com
Hellbound Media – Mandy The Monster Hunter
She is the whisper on the playground. She is the thing that the Things in the dark are afraid… until now. When kids draw the monster that lurks under their bed, Mandy the monster hunter will be there… Mandy, self-prescribed monster hunter and saviour to the children who can see them.
Find out more at hellboundmedia.co.uk
Beyond The Bunker – Moon
Moon… The most ridiculous premise for a comic book, from two of the most wonderfully ridiculous people you will ever meet, Steve Penfold and Dan Thompson.
What if I was to tell you that the Moon has dropped out of the sky early hours of every morning for the last 2000 years and most recently puts on a suit, takes out a gun and fights ridiculous crime? Ever since a botched, drunken Celtic ceremony in 12ad, the Moon has been doomed to plummet out of the sky, hit the ground, brush himself off and fight the forces of the ridiculous on behalf of the British government. He was supposed to be a beautiful, blue Moon goddess who could sweep entire armies into the ocean but they messed it up and we ended up with a skinny guy with a Moon for a head.
There is a video for this book with Steve and Bex from around 3yrs ago. I can tell you, the footage exists of an interview with Steve and Dan from last year, but it was so stupidly chaotic (thanks to the duo’s hilarious antics), Bex has never worked out how to edit it into a useable format! We adore Steve and Dan, and Moon, so if you want to know more, head over to beyondthebunker.com.
Bex’s Comic Village Walk Tour
Lastly, for those of you missing MCM’s Comic Village, back in 2018, Bex did a tour around the entire area at MCM London, pointing out all the art and comics that she loves from the show.