The Book: WIRED is a noir science fiction piece with elements of horror, that is loosely based in Scotland.
Set in a world where things ‘are’ usually what they appear to be, two detectives, Briggs and Smith, investigate a case that leads them to a West Lothian industrial estate. Needless to say, they are pulled into a world of subterfuge and mystery, while questioning their own existence and grasp on reality.
WIRED is published by Emancipation Studios, written by James Lundy and the cover has been illustrated by Ibenk Irawan and Apri-K with the internal pencils by Claudio Sepulveda and inked by Ibenk Irawan.
The Review: I have had this comic for a few weeks now and it has been digging away at my brain since before the move.
The comic plot revolves around an unresolved case that the Scottish police are investigating and an assault on a web developer leads them to come into conflict with a quasi-secret organisation called The Order. The Order has governmental backing and has been attempting to develop a nano technology that allows their operatives to operate in stealth mode, but this leads to unexpected side effects where the operatives can become invisible, but they can also slide into alternate realities.
There are elements from a good few science fiction sources such as the multiple dimension theory, the ability to create person-portable stealth technology and the potential to teleport from location to location and James Lundy uses them well and inter-meshes them in an interesting way. After all, the idea that stealth technology can allow you to become a “slider” is certainly a novel configuration of both ideas.
The whole story has a great film noir feel about it and would not have been out of place in 2000AD in years gone by. In fact, you can see the influences from Chinatown, The Long Goodbye and Blade Runner. And like a lot of film noir, there are twists and turns to the plot that get the neurons working to see where James is going to take this.
This is not a comic that you are going to get in one sitting. I’ve read it about four times now myself and there are still bits that I struggle to get my head around, but I do take away a little more each time I read it… and I am still going back to it to read it one more time.
Currently you can pick up copies on the Emancipation Studios website and it will be available to buy at the 2017 Edinburgh Comic Con in April, so if you like your comics hard boiled with a heavy dash of influence by film noir, then this is the comic volume for you to pick up.
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A life-long comic fan, specialising mainly in UK adventure comics, Colin did his very best to support his passion for the comics of his youth, Commandos (still going!) and any small press that interested him. Sadly, Colin passed in March 2021, an invaluable downthetubes team member, much missed by us all
Categories: British Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes News, Reviews