Utopiates [Perfect Paperback]

Josh Finney (Author, Illustrator), Kat Rocha (Illustrator), Salvador Trakal (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2012

In the future, science has formulated a way to distill human personalities into a drug-form. On the street, they are called Utopiates and allow the user to swap personalities with the mental imprints of other people... for a short while. Within these pages you will follow the interconnected lives of individuals who inject the souls of others. Each is a user for their own reasons, but all learn the cost of soul swapping is extremely high.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Comics is a stormy, dangerous coastline, shallow and sharp, but UTOPIATES stands like a lighthouse guiding you to the safe harbor where smart, intense comics still exist... ---Phil Hester (Fringe, Swamp Thing)

It's great a when a new talent can emerge and breathe new life into a genre. Cyber-punk is probably my favorite flavor of science fiction, for these are stories not about aliens or space travel, or the what-ifs beyond time and space, but are stories just one step ahead of our current technology (and in some cases our science has caught up with our fiction). Utopiates is part Strange Days, part A Scanner Darkly , with a touch of The Matrix's sensibilities thrown in for good measure.
In Utopiates we are faced with the possibility of engineered pharmaceuticals, and the lengths to which people will go to acquire the feelings and experiences that life did not offer us. Issue #1 is an excellent introduction into the Dystopian world that Finney and Rocha have created for us, but hang on for issues #2 & #3, because that's when the ride starts to really get good! Noirish, gritty and tragic, Utopiates is like rediscovering something you never knew. ---Previews Magazine, Staff Pick

Admittedly inspired by the works of Gibson, Dick, and Welsh, Utopiates mixes the swirling abyss of addiction with the cyberpunk leanings of drug-obsessed futurist writers. The first-person narration is classic cybernoir, and the digital black and white art lends this dark story a unique flair. Creators Josh Finney and Kat Rocha are to be commended for diving into familiar waters and coming up with something new. It s well worth your time to check out ---Newsarama.com

About the Author

Author, illustrator, old school cyberpunk, Josh Finney creator of the sci-fi war epic, TITANIUM RAIN, and the biotech noir tale, UTOPIATES. He has had several short stories published and is in the process of completing my first prose novel. Josh is also known his work on Batman Giant-Sized #1 title and concept art for Star Trek: Enterprise.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 116 pages
• Publisher: 01 Publishing; first edition (August 21, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0983923000
• ISBN-13: 978-0983923008
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,192,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author, artist, and full-time obsessive-compulsive, Josh has been working as a comics professional since 2004. His first success came with the acclaimed cyberpunk series, UTOPIATES, which was conceived in part with his wife and partner in crime, Kat Rocha. Since then, Josh s writing and art has graced the pages of BATMAN, CATWOMAN and JETTA. As well, Josh wrote and co-rendered a stand-out story in the 2007 AWESOME ANTHOLOGY, dubbed in the press as, a virtual who s who of the best of up-and-coming indie talent.
Outside of comics, Josh has done art and concept designs for numerous games, magazines, album covers and on occasion, even television. In 2003 Josh was commissioned by Star Trek screenwriter, Jimmy Diggs, to design an alien spacecraft which was slated to appear in the ill-fated, fifth season of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE. Other skeletons in Josh s past include time in the music industry (as a journalist and musician), a gunshot wound, his life as a staff artist for England s famed sci-fi magazine INTERZONE, and that time he did graphics for the DORA THE EXPLORER game...but you can ask him about it if you really want to know. Josh looks forward to continuing his career in comics, telling gripping stories and striving to redefine the medium. With brain transplants and robot bodies a distinct possibility in the near future, Josh hopes to be at this comics stuff for quite a long time.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Action vs Talking Ratio (for those who care) August 30, 2012

By Gillsing

Format:Perfect Paperback

The art and the writing makes this comic feel very cold, dark and realistic. The vast majority of the pages focus on dialogue and monologue, but there is some violence in each of the stories, and that violence sort of expands its territory into the other pages as the characters think or talk about it.

So that was the action vs talking ratio as I remember it. For anything else, I'd like to refer to the "Editorial Reviews" section, since those reviews seem to do a good job of describing and praising Utopiates.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cyberpunk Returns in a Big Bad Way September 12, 2012

By Nick Almand

Format:Perfect Paperback

Hmm, how to explain the Utopiates without spoiling plot details?

Cyberpunk is back.

If you were a fan of Bladerunner or Ghost in the Shell, then Utopiates is going to resonate with you. It's one of the few examples of cyberpunk I've read in recent memory that embraces the "punk" side of "cyberpunk". It's got the ethos down pat, railing against authority and embracing the strength of people working together more than going with a "hey look at all this cool tech" approach.

Check it out if you're a fan of cyberpunk in any respect. You will have a blast.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars In "Utopiates" you will be treated to a clever and stylish cyberpunk story. April 17, 2013

By Michelle S. Duffy

Format:Perfect Paperback

We follow a nameless hood trying to hussle up a score in the first story, "A Moment of Clarity". Once you meet The Dealer, a mysterious woman in black, she seems to creep around the edges of the story, suffocating the characters and the setting. The imperfect inhabitants of this world seem to taint the slickly designed world of "Utopiates". This contrast might clue you into the insidious nature of the world and the potential motivations of all the characters involved.

"Utopiates" harkens back to film noir in it's lighting of the characters against an almost entirely black field. As a reader you become the detective investigating, interviewing suspicious characters and drawn in by a mysterious beauty. Even if the comic seems to use the language of film noir it is not one of those crass "graphic novels" put together to woo a movie deal. No, this is a comic book first and foremost by creators with an obvious love of the medium.

There are several nods toward "alternative" subculture depicted by some the hairstyles and band t-shirts which give a certain anti-authoritarian flavor to the story. However, further along in the book this is turned on it's head as we follow a characters who are perhaps complicit with the oppressors. This sharp departure and dichotomy serves to expand the world and breathe life into the characters. "Utopiates" is a satisfying and fresh cyberpunk story that is a gorgeous and compelling read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If Raymond Chandler Created Graphic Novels September 13, 2012

By William Lee Finney

Format:Perfect Paperback

I read the four black and white floppies when they were released several years ago and was impressed with the literary quality of the writing and the imaginative creativity of the art and layout. However, the colorized book gives the story to a whole new dimension. This is what you'd expect if Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick were still working and collaborated on a graphic novel. If you're a fan of Noir, this book is highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can I score some Family? September 12, 2012

By Clone K

Format:Perfect Paperback

Utopiates is a interesting book. It's a gorgeous graphic novel. A trippy science fiction yarn. And possibly a tome sent back in time so we can see twenty years into our future. Maybe less. Every day I seem to run into a piece of scientific discovery that was, dare I say prophesied by Josh Finney in this novel years earlier. If you know Josh and Kat's work, the art is visual bliss. It's just incredible. Josh writes stories that make you ask questions. Hard ones. About your beliefs, fears, hopes, and dreams. How much of your soul would you sell to be happy, even if it's a temporary happiness? This is but one of the questions put forth to you in this novel. I always love that quality in his writing. The stories are tense and gripping, but its the fact that he made me think that has made me a willing slave. This work will not disappoint you. It's poignant and beautiful to look at. Lovingly crafted. A masterpiece. Only time will tell if it remains a work of fiction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Like Bladerunner meets Trainspotting in a Mamoru Oshii Blender. September 12, 2012

By Dylan Cassard

Format:Perfect Paperback

For a first major graphic fiction collaboration, this book exceeds expectations. Originally published in black and white in 2004, Kat Rocha and Josh Finney have gone back to the work that got them started and recolored it using the tools they've refined while working on Titanium Rain Volume 1 HC. What results is a work that isn't simply bright, but adds even more layers of subtext to the original well composed photo references.
The four interconnected stories contained in this short volume are densely layered. It seeks to provoke questions instead of giving answers. Kat & Josh examine the necessity for war against the dream of peace, and the prevalence of a corporatocracy within a meritocracy. If Philip K. Dick and Robert A. Heinlein ever did jam pieces, this is the kind of work they would produce.
Great work you guys!