By Alex Ness
I was asked what comics are there that are completely new. Since I don't altogether think new is a possible,
"Ecclesiastes 1:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun."
I absolutely cannot tell you what comic books you might think are new. I can only think about the world we have and new ideas or outlooks. These four books consider different and new paradigms than normally found in the world of comics, and whatever your personal outlook these are all worth reading and buying.
However different, perhaps transgressive, there are works that assume a paradigm that is different than most, that rise above purely speculative, and by doing so, make good and relevant use of the many issues facing humanity.
What are those issues? We live in an era of vast amounts of information. We have choices to make that involve sexual expression, drug use, violence as both sport and lifestyle. But we also have to do all those things in conjunction with a world that tries to limit one's access to those choices. If you pursue almost anything, it is found on the internet, as well as within the world. Should you choose to eat, drink, smoke, inject, or anything, you can find a way to do so, and do so both legally and illegally.
The Filth by Grant Morrison and Chris Weston (DC/Vertigo)
The Filth features a world that is controlled by an over arching society if not necessarily government, and the options that someone has within that world. In the world of The Filth the reader is asked to look at the life of a character who pursues an interest sex and pornography, to a possible exclusion of real relationships. He is a member of a world that is both outside of the normal world, and interested in culture in a manner that asserts an interest in creating by participation in secret societies to create a new society that is postmodern. Drugs, Sex, Violence, are all avenues of creating a new sort of world, with permissions from individuals to allow society, government and personal agency to revalue the world. At the time The Filth was released the worst excesses of the Patriot acts and subversion of individuals in a post war on terror world had yet to be seen. It seems, however vulgar, to be more hopeful that one might have thought possible considering the near future choices Morrison saw as possible in his near future world.
Narcopolis by Jamie Delano and Jeremy Rock (Avatar Press)
The Narcopolis world we are looking into is very much the sort that 1984 by George Orwell or Brave New World by Aldous Huxley would have perceived, and that isn't in any way to say less of it. The protagonist has to explore his world, rights, causes, and eventually rebel from that world. Drugs are used to enhance, to empower citizens and is used to disengage from society. The society in question relies upon certain ways to control citizens, while individuals are able to enhance or "adjust" their existence by pharmaceutical means, by ability to adjust sleep, to receive surgery or the like. The world is one where the individual is forced to transgress against society to be allowed to pursue their own path. This work, even more so than the Filth, looks deeply into our present world, if you consider the world we live in presently. Data mining, predictive text and AI, the ability to intercept personal data and knowledge by government of individual behavior, surgery to enhance the individual abilities or even to achieve a level of beauty, and drug use by the individuals as well by government to alter lives, all exist in ways that are frightening to consider, but have become deep parts of existence. While fiction, Narcopolis imagines a world that isn't that hard to consider.
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson (DC/Vertigo)
The protagonists in the previous two mentioned works, feature both rebels and individuals, but Transmetropolitan features a dystopian world with a reporter who is actually a part of that world, and he looks into it, challenges it, and tries to change it. It seems far more interested in considering the present than the future, that is to say, the world presented is far less futuristic or science fiction, but decayed forms of the presents aspects of life. Government, media, and culture are presented as dystopian, but are recognizable in ways to suggest, something not so far way in time or event than this our present. Perhaps there isn't an agency to change the present, but perhaps to show that the present world has masses of people who do not perceive the politics, media and cultural forces that exist and that there are forces that alter access to democratic, free, individualistic existence. The lead character is much more a personal character who the reader sees through the eyes of.
Tokyo Ghost by Rick Remender and Sean Murphy (Image Comics)
The three previous series all considered worlds that were mostly extension of the present issues, government, culture that by being made extreme came further into focus. Tokyo Ghost was a brilliant deep future consideration where the world becomes addicted to forms of entertainment that stimulate adrenaline and addictions to technology, creating a world that allows few areas with little or no technology. Brilliantly, it suggests that the evolution of tech is something that is self perpetuating, and evolves due to human intervention, but is beyond human perception. It only reached 10 issues of comics, and has a collected version, but it remains open to further chapters.
So, whatever you are looking for, I think that are new books to consider, the dystopias presented are all means to consider the world of the near future.
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