Author Dave Cook is a fellow comics creator and gaming journalist specialist, and perhaps, the only other person I know besides myself who’s sitting at the intersection of where comics meets video gaming. Cook is also a profound author of several video game history books, though where his specialty lies in the comics world is in cyberpunk.
A few years ago, I had the chance to play Cyberpunk 2077. While it’s now considered a fantastic game, it faced significant issues with the PS4 on debut, and my review of the game became one of my most recognized pieces in gaming journalism and, notably, the first to earn me a death threat for my coverage. Despite the controversy, it had solidified my love for the cyberpunk genre. Because in today’s tech-dominated landscape of artificial intelligence and dick rockets headed to Mars—cyberpunk themes feel more poignant than ever before. We need technology, but more importantly, we need its criticism. Satire? Being one of the best forms of that.
So we sat with Dave Cook in this interview to talk about how he tastefully tackles some of these subjects. Particularly with last fall’s anthology KILLTOPIA NANO JAMS.
This article was edited for brevity and clarity.
CHRISTIAN ANGELES: Nano Jams is now on sale! Tell us about what it is and can you give us a big pitch of the KILLTOPIA universe you created?
DAVE COOK: Killtopia is an award-winning cyberpunk comic series set in Neo Tokyo. The five single books are available on my online store now, or you can check out the hardback collected edition from Titan Comics – available in many online and offline stores across the UK and US now.
The series was inspired by some of my favorite media, including Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Battle Royale, Akira, and the No More Heroes video games. It’s set in the cyberpunk city of Neo Tokyo, which was hit by a huge explosion ten years before the first book begins. Following the blast, the streets is suddenly overrun by a horde of killer Mecha, which are quickly walled off and contained in the city’s Sector-K district.
Ten years later, Sector-K has been rebranded as Killtopia. Bounty hunters come to Japan from all around the world to enter Killtopia and hunt the Mechs for money, fame and limitless social influence. Our hero is Shinji, a rookie hunter who secretly enters the Killtopia hunting grounds to pay for his dying sister’s medical care.
One day Shinji runs into Crash, the world’s first sentient Mech, who happens to have the cure to his sister’s disease inside his code. They team up and set off into Neo Tokyo to heal Shinji’s sister while being chased by crazed bounty hunters, Yakuza crime lords, android assassins, and more threats.
Their simple task quickly explodes into a desperate battle to save the entire planet from a larger, hidden threat (which I won’t spoil here!) The series is full of dark, dry British humour, lots of wild cyberpunk tech, and scathing satire on hype culture, healthcare inequality, and many more issues.
Killtopia: Nano Jams is set after the mainline arc, and is our first standalone anthology set in the world of Neo Tokyo. It contains over 20 stories that look at how today’s media technology (video games, social media, virtual reality, movies and more) could evolve in our warped cyberpunk future.
The book was lovingly made by over 50 contributors, including Skylar Patridge, Jason Loo, Liana Kangas, Stipan Morian, Scott Bryan Wilson and Gamespot’s Lucy James. They’ve created many hilarious, horrifying, emotional and thought-provoking stories about our relationship with media, including mind-controlled video games, an Amazon Alexa that develops a god complex and more.
Nano Jams is a great place to start your Killtopia journey if you’re new to the series!
ANGELES: I loved the science fiction tropes and influences. Cyberpunk 2077. Matrix. What else did you pull from and what were some of your favorites?
COOK: The initial idea for Killtopia came from a news report I saw on TV back in 2016. Here in Scotland, all our healthcare is totally free, but the report was about how our Government at the time wanted to tear that system up and make everyone pay for healthcare, like in the US. Thankfully, this never happened.
I have asthma, which I need medication for, but I started to think about what this could mean for people who have chronic conditions that require more expensive, constant care. What lengths would desperate people go to get the help they needed? That’s where the idea of the Rot came from. It’s the nanomachine disease that Shinji’s sister, Omi (and most humans across the planet) have contracted, thanks to the Mech’s terraforming Sector-K.
Breaking Bad was a direct influence, as Shinji hunts Mechs in the Killtopia hunting zone illegally and keeps this secret from his sister. It’s similar to how the desperate Walter White goes to extreme lengths to provide for his family, due to health reasons.
For the world of Neo Tokyo and the series’ dark comedy tone, Transmetropolitan was a huge influence, although I’m always nervous to admit this after Warren Ellis got cancelled a while back. I read that series back when I was in university, and the darkly comic tone of the city was a huge inspiration for starting the series. It was just mega disappointing to see what happened with Ellis in the years following Killtopia’s release.
Elsewhere, my favourite anime Cowboy Bebop was a huge influence, as seen in all the bounty hunter parallels throughout our series. Then there’s also Akira and Ghost in the Shell, as well as the movie Battle Royale, which helped inspire the bloodsport aspect of the series.
Lastly, the video game series No More Heroes was massively influential. The bounty hunters in Killtopia were inspired by that series’ Assassin League, which is full of killers who have unique, brash personalities and signature technology, gimmicks and weapons.
One of the fun aspects of writing Killtopia is peppering a ton of references and easter eggs to things we love throughout the visuals and dialogue. How many can you spot?
ANGELES: Curating an anthology is such a daunting task, especially for one with 50 collaborators! What was that process like for you and the team?
COOK: I was the sole curator and editor, and I knew it would be a lot of work going into the project. That’s largely why I set a shipping date that was almost a year after the Kickstarter ended. I wanted to give myself and our wonderful creators enough time to create all these incredible stories without stress, and with plenty of time to do it right. I never want my projects to be stressful for others to work on.
Back when I decided to start the project, anthologies had come under scrutiny thanks to the high-profile scam that was Tales from the Quarantine. If you haven’t heard of this, it was a rug-pulled anthology project that was crowdfunded by Red Cabin Comics, also known as Frazer Brown. The book made a lot on Kickstarter and was never released. It’s the textbook definition of a scam, and it left a sour taste in the mouths of comic readers all over.
That’s why I wanted to ensure we delivered on our promise of a quality, enjoyable anthology, full of great stories and art. This was so important to me. Thankfully, the book’s been getting great feedback from readers and reviewers so far, which is wonderful to see!
Ultimately though, while it was a lot of hard work for everyone involved, it was never stressful or regrettable at my side. This is thanks to everyone on the project being incredible to work with, not to mention patient, professional and collaborative. I honestly cannot thank them enough for being so awesome.
ANGELES: Now in Killopia, “Shop till you drop” by Chris Simmonds was probably my favorite story as I do think companies like Amazon harming us over a negative review feels legit. What were some of your favorite stories in this collection?
COOK: I honestly laughed out loud when I first read Chris’s script. It captured the ridiculous satire of the mainline Killtopia series so well. Without sounding like a wuss, I genuinely loved them all (it’s why I curated them, after all!) but I do have a few personal stand-outs.
I really enjoyed Schadenbeast Kill by Nick Bryan, Steve Gregson, and Fabiana Marques, as it’s such a dark and wild spin on Pokemon GO that I wasn’t really expecting. Season 14, Episode 35 by Scott Bryan Wilson, Skylar Patridge and A.H.G lampooned the way we can become so distracted by media in a wonderful way. I could really relate to that one as someone who works on their phone constantly. And I also related to Disc Runner by Oliver Gerlach and Alex Moore, as someone who has a real fondness for old media formats, like retro games.
They’re all amazing stories though. There’s a lot to discover in the book!
ANGELES: Was there ever any restrictions on what kind of Cyberpunk to write about? What’s a key difference between the world of Killtopia that you created and what’s featured in Nano Jams?
COOK: I was keen for Nano Jams to be accessible to anyone who hadn’t read the mainline Killtopia series, so the only real rule was to not include any characters or key plot points from those books. That aside, every team had full control over what they wanted to create – as long as it tapped into the book’s theme of ‘media.’ Some stories relate to the theme directly, while others do it in more subtle, twisty ways, like SMUFF by Matt Adcock, Laura Helsby and JP Jordan, which is a cool story about the dangers of marketing limited-time fast food items to people.
The only time where I rejected a concept was if it was too similar to another story I’d already accepted, or if we had too many stories about a similar theme. Virtual Reality was becoming a bit too frequent at one point, so I had to advise contributors to steer away from that type of media, just to ensure that the book stayed varied.
ANGELES: From the introductory pages to Nano Jams, these collective little distractive shorts, I was immensely hooked. What do you like about the anthology format?
COOK: Thank you for that kind feedback! I enjoy the format due to the range of visual styles, narratives and voices you get in on book. Every artist, writer and colourist in any anthology brings their own unique style to the table, so this only adds to the overall appeal of the book for me.
Anthologies are also a great way to discover new talent you might not have encountered before. This is why I was keen to ensure that Nano Jams had a great mix of contributors who were both well-known and regularly published, to first-time creators and self-published authors.
I’m always a fan of helping new creators out, whether it’s with script feedback, advice or even social shares, so if I can help newcomers get another published credit against their name, then that’s a bonus for sure!
ANGELES: Micah Myers on letters all throughout was great and I thought he did a kick-butt job. How long have the two of you collaborated together?
COOK: We’ve been working together since the very first issue of my (sadly defunct) dark fantasy series Vessels. I decided to end the series after both artists who worked on it decided to leave comics completely and change career. I felt that hiring a third artist for the series would be too jarring for readers, so I decided to shelve it. I might bring it back one day as a reboot, as I still love the concept.
But Micah is great to work with. He’s always happy to explore alternative ideas for lettering and almost the only time I ever have edits for him is when I’ve messed something up in the scrip (sorry Micah!) But yeah, please hire Micah, you won’t be disappointed!
ANGELES: What’s next in the Killtopia Universe or for yourself for that matter?
COOK: For Killtopia, I’m currently working on issue #3 of our official sequel. It’s called Killtopia: Phantoms and it’s set five years after the first arc ended. It involves a mostly new cast (aside from some cameo appearances and other surprises) and stars a former Mech hunter called Bloody Mary (who fans of our mainline series will already know)
Mary’s left the Killtopia bloodsport behind and now works for an elite police crew called Phantoms Unit. Their target is a notorious mind hacker who has found a way to jack into peoples’ brain implants. Using their mind-hacking techniques, our villain can make people see their worst fears come to life, prey on their trauma to influence them, or at worst force them to commit murder on their behalf.
Along the way, Mary and the other members of Phantoms Unit are thrown into a dark and violent mystery that involves a Yakuza power struggle, shady Government agencies, and many surprises that I promise you won’t see coming. It’s more of a cyberpunk horror, and we’re really leaning into the trippy nature of the villain’s mind hacks to come up with some really wild and grotesque visuals.
But, it also has the wicked satire and comedy moments of the original series, too. To give you an example, the mind hacker’s control over their victims was inspired by misinformation and the way that influencers, tech bro CEOs, and certain political figures make normal people believe the dumbest shit possible – like the flat Earth theory. So yeah, we’ll be ripping into all of those awful people using Killtopia’s satirical edge.
That said, I have no idea when the first book will come out, but I can confirm that the old team of Clark Bint, Lou Ashworth and Micah Myers are getting back together for this run. We’re keen to take it slow, have fun with it, and make it a worthy successor to the original. Keep an eye on my socials this year for more!
And personally, I’m also taking it slower. Comics are getting more expensive and harder to self-publish as time rolls on, thanks to the economy, new shipping restrictions that have just hit the UK, and more. I’m 41 now (which isn’t old!) but I also don’t want comics to feel like a source of stress anymore, which means more time for myself, my family and to just recharge my mind and give myself space to come up with new ideas.
Ultimately, that means less Kickstarters each year and more publisher pitches. I spent most of 2024 speaking with editors and doing the whole networking things, so feels like now the time is right to focus more on pitching. Will it work? Who knows? But I want to give it a proper shot in a way that feels sustainable.
ANGELES: Finally, I ask this one a lot, do you have any advice for someone who wants to start creating comics today?
COOK: I kind of alluded to it in the last answer, but try and remember that comics aren’t a race. You’re not in direct competition with your peers, and even if it looks like they’re going mega fast and always putting new work out, that’s no reason for you to kill yourself with stress trying to match them.
Write ideas that are personal to you, that you’re passionate about, and don’t burn yourself out making them. Keep in mind that this should be fun, and try to not ruin yourself financially if you’re self-funding. If you can’t afford to put a pitch together without dipping into life savings or taking a loan, just put it on ice for now and save up. Sure, it sucks to wait when you’re itching to get a story out into the world, but it’s not worth ruining yourself over.
Phew! Thanks for having me, and for the awesome questions. It’s very much appreciated!
You can buy Killtopia: Nano Jams and the rest of this Cyberpunk story on Dave’s comic website.
English (US) · 