In Review: Trujillø by Gustaffo Vargas

By John Freeman on June 9, 2018

I’m hugely grateful to artist Russell Mark Olson for introducing me to artist, animator and designer Gustaffo Vargas, who then sent me a copy of his short but perfectly demented self-published SF adventure title Trujillø.

Quite honestly, I wouldn’t be very surprised if you see much more of this incredible talent soon. Trujillø is an assured adventure grabs your eyeballs from the opening page, throwing you straight into tale of gang lords, drugs and betrayal, set in a dystopian future that screams its Mad Max homage right at you while being utterly new at the same time.

I mean it, though. As Russell noted to me in an email, Gustaffo is red hot. Just check out this spread from the book…

While there were some rough edges to the script – being thrown into the deep end of an adventure is great, and Gustaffo quickly introduces key characters, but there were a couple of points where the plot lost a beat – the art on Trujillø positively zings, with stunning character design and superb storytelling.

It’s demented – in a good way!

I’d strongly urged you to track down a copy of this terrific comic – Gustaffo is at several comic events in the UK, or order a copy of direct from his web site.

• Gustaffo is also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.