Writer: Jeremy Holt Artist: Felipe Cunha Colorist: Dearbhla Kelly Letterer: Adam Wollet Cover: Rahzzah Additional Art: Elizabeth Beals IN COMIC SHOPS: Wednesday, May 10, 2023 IN BOOKSTORES: Tuesday, May 30, 2023
When middle-class Singaporean student Lu Zhao is invited to spend a summer on Long Island with his rich cousin, Tommy, before attending Columbia University in the fall, his assimilation into the opulent American lifestyle straps him into a collision course fueled by designer drugs, sex, deceit, and murder. Set in present-day Long Island, GATSBY reimagines F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel as an LGBTQ-tinged, multicultural thriller for the Internet age.
Writer: Jeremy Holt Artist: Felipe Cunha Colorist: Dearbhla Kelly Letterer: Adam Wollet Cover: Rahzzah Additional Art: Elizabeth Beals IN COMIC SHOPS: Wednesday, May 10, 2023 IN BOOKSTORES: Tuesday, May 30, 2023
When middle-class Singaporean student Lu Zhao is invited to spend a summer on Long Island with his rich cousin, Tommy, before attending Columbia University in the fall, his assimilation into the opulent American lifestyle straps him into a collision course fueled by designer drugs, sex, deceit, and murder. Set in present-day Long Island, GATSBY reimagines F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel as an LGBTQ-tinged, multicultural thriller for the Internet age.
The story behind the myths of Beartooth‘s album Below is brought to life as Barry awakens corporate drone Lita’s memory of how alive the world once was before the cold forces of the corporate world outlawed rock, reminding her of who she truly was, and who she could be again.
Story: Tony Lee Art: Szymon Kudranski, Armitano Color: Szymon Kudranski, Rantz A. Hoseley Letterer: Adam Wollet
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AWA Studios has announced Gatsby, a reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby through an LGBTQIA-led, racially diverse lens, debuting on November 2. From creator and writer Jeremy Holt and artist Felipe Cunha, the new 8-issue original series reinvents the widely read Great American Novel for a new generation of readers.
Set in the present day, Gatsby is a wholly reimagined version of The Great Gatsby. While the main characters and plot points are familiar to the original novel, Holt’s rendition will be viewed in a new light, recontextualized for the technology, societal norms, and economic striving of the 2020’s as opposed to the 1920’s through teenaged character leads. Though set nearly 100 years in the future, the themes of betrayal, power, greed, and the American Dream ring as true now in GATSBY as they did in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age tale.
Gatsby is set in present-day Long Island. This story turns forward the clock to feature teenage versions of all of the key characters and views the classic dichotomies of the novel through a distinctly 21st century lens that includes the Internet, social media addiction, dark web bootlegging, and the proliferation of online identity creation, deletion, and theft. When middle-class Singaporean student Lu Zhao is invited to spend a summer on Long Island with his rich cousin Tommy, before attending Columbia University in the fall, his assimilation into the opulent American lifestyle straps him into a collision course fueled by designer drugs, sex, deceit, and murder.
Gatsby is created and written by Jeremy Holt, illustrated by Felipe Cunha, colored by Dearbhla Kelly, and lettered by Adam Wollet. Issue #1 will be available November 2, both digitally and in stores wherever comic books are sold, with the following seven issues available on a monthly basis.
Made in Korea, a harrowing SF story and domestic drama, continues as Jeremy Holt and George Schall show Jesse continuing to fall in with a bad crowd at school and move apart from her loving parents. This is while her good-intentioned, yet socially inept “creator” tries to take her away from her family and return to where she was manufactured in South Korea. Made in Korea #3 is a solid middle issue and sets the table for some explosive developments and creates tension in key relationships in Jesse’s life.
Starting with an opening sequence where two of Jesse’s classmates blame the manufacturer of a BB gun instead of their own ineptitude for their lack of skill with it, Holt and Schall explore the connection between white male mediocrity and violence. Naive Jesse thinks that these guys are her friends, but they’re really just using her in a school shooting plot. Jeremy Holt nails these men’s ideology in a well-written monologue where one of them talks about being an outsider and persecuted by society. This draws a parallel to men who appropriate media, pop culture, and even history to justify their insecurities and hatred. As a women of color and artificial intelligence in a predominantly human society, Jesse faces real discrimination and is treated as an “other” by everyone from her parents, “creator, and even the teachers at her school who ask if she’s had any “technical difficulties” when she doesn’t show up for a few days.
Holt and George Schall do an excellent job of exploring racism through sci-fi metaphor and reality while also continuing to probe into the question of what it means to be human. These ideas come out through the strong storytelling of Schall’s art. They show the tension in Jesse’s family through a few powerful images like a slammed door, an angry face, or a car speeding into the night. The pink and red color palette can almost make you hear that asshole revving up his engine in the lane next to you even though it’s a one lane road, and the speed limit is 35. George Schall truly makes Jesse a conduit for the emotions of Made in Korea in bittersweet sequences like her genuinely having a good time with the bad kids from her school and howling like a wolf when her expression is usually neutral. It makes you even feel sadder that she’s being used by the folks around her.
As mentioned earlier, Made in Korea #3 falls squarely in the science fiction genre, but Holt and Schall also play with the superhero genre, especially in how a couple of the students from Jesse’s school treat her. Without mentioning the name of any popular characters, they reveal that she’s basically like Wolverine with unbreakable bones, great strength plus a knack for markmanship. However, these kids also strip the agency away from Jesse and basically play on her loneliness to use it for bad ends like robbing a military base and setting up a school shooting. Jeremy Holt strips away the “badass” from punching and shooting and focuses on the pain and loneliness as Jesse doesn’t want to hurt anyone. (It’s literally in her programming.) George Schall reinforces this by showing no joy when Jesse uses her abilities, and they even add some uncertainty in her facial expressions during the military base heist.
Jesse has great mental and physical skills, but of course, they’re exploited by humans for evil ends in Made in Korea #3 as some kids from her school prey on her loneliness and not fitting in to use her as a pawn in a school shooting. Jeremy Holt and George Schall have spent the previous two issues of Made in Korea crafting Jesse’s family dynamic and this five minutes in the future world, and this third issue starts to overturn it a little bit with the scientist that helped build her lacking the people skills to prevent a catastrophe from happening. The thread that continues to run through the series is that the people around Jesse continue to treat her as a “human in name only”, and this definitely seems like it will backfire in the back end of Made in Korea.
Story: Jeremy Holt, Eunjoo Han Art: George Schall, Eunjoo Han Letters: Adam Wollet Story: 8.4 Art: 8.8 Overall: 8.6 Recommendation: Buy
Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
The breakout hit miniseries Made in Korea by fan-favorite writer Jeremy Holt and artist George Schall has sold out completely at the distributor level. The popular debut issue is being rushed back to print in order to keep up with growing reorder activity and the reprint will feature new cover art by Schall.
In Made in Korea, readers follow Jesse, the world’s first true A.I. system, on an exciting exploration of what it means to be a family in an age when biological parenthood is no longer a reality.
Made in Korea #1, second printing (Diamond Code APR219396) and Made in Korea #2 (Diamond Code APR210312) will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, June 30.
George Schall’s cover for Made in Korea #1 has to be considered one of the best in 2021. It’s what made me stop scrolling through the list of upcoming comics I was scanning, looking for my next fix. Once I sawJeremy Holt was involved, the writer behind Skip to the End and Southern Dog, I knew the quality of the story would match the grotesque wonders of the cover.
Made in Korea centers on a couple that’s debating whether to bring a child into their family. Thing is, the child in question is a kind of ultra-realistic android that’s programmed to behave like a real son or daughter. As is the case with technological innovation, the android kid is expensive and seemingly available only to those privileged enough to have easy access to the required funds.
The title’s manufacturing reference isn’t there for show either. The android children are actually made in Korea, which allows Holt and Schall to add an entirely different but interconnected story thread that, in this case, sees a Korean programmer trying to crack a code that could have an effect in android behavior.
Holt’s script is quite naturalistic, presenting well-rounded characters that feel genuine. Everyone is infused with personality and I appreciated how opinionated they were when commenting on the small but meaningful changes their world has gone through.
Made in Korea #1
Those small details will make any fan of Phillip K. Dickproud as they build up a sci-fi world that thrives on complex subtleties without letting big ideas get too watered down in the process. There’s a delicate balance struck between character moments and big plot events that keeps things moving at a quick but measured pace.
A few pages are also borrowed from the movie Logan in terms of the comic’s worldbuilding, in which the subtle bits of sci-fi that are shown also develop the setting and the characters’ place in it. The near future of Made in Korea is a place that’s taken noticeable steps in technological evolution without making it come off as overwhelming and all-encompassing.
Made in Korea #1
Holt and Schall also find the time to bring up conversations about artificial intelligence, the capacity advanced tech has to adapt and perhaps surpass humanity, and technological co-dependence. There’s even a reference to Dick’s famous novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, thrown in to establish the kind of sci-fi Made in Korea is going for.
Schell’s art perfectly captures the shine that’s often associated with certain idealized versions of the future. It’s crisp, clean, and sleek, as if the future is obsessed with keeping things in their right place, if only for appearances sake. Schell doesn’t go for the dirty, gritty sci-fi look of Blade Runner, Akira, and Brazil, where trash and rundown high-rises color the environment. Instead, he goes for visuals that contain hidden dangers buried deep within suburban standards of life.
Made in Korea #1
Made in Korea packs a lot into its first issue. The six-issue miniseries is ambitious and expansive, worthy of the topic it settled on. There’s something lurking in its pages that looks like it’ll blow up in later issues concerning the questions that come with adopting a child among couples that can’t conceive. Just how much that’ll figure in the story remains to be seen, but what’s here is already enough to make for an exceptional comic.
Made in Korea #1 will be released in comic shops on May 26, 2021.
Story: Jeremy Holt Art: George Schall Letters: Adam Wollet Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy and make sure your robotic appliances aren’t becoming sentient
George Schall’s cover for Made in Korea #1 has to be considered one of the best in 2021. It’s what made me stop scrolling through the list of upcoming comics I was scanning, looking for my next fix. Once I sawJeremy Holt was involved, the writer behind Skip to the End and Southern Dog, I knew the quality of the story would match the grotesque wonders of the cover.
Made in Korea centers on a couple that’s debating whether to bring a child into their family. Thing is, the child in question is a kind of ultra-realistic android that’s programmed to behave like a real son or daughter. As is the case with technological innovation, the android kid is expensive and seemingly available only to those privileged enough to have easy access to the required funds.
The title’s manufacturing reference isn’t there for show either. The android children are actually made in Korea, which allows Holt and Schall to add an entirely different but interconnected story thread that, in this case, sees a Korean programmer trying to crack a code that could have an effect in android behavior.
Holt’s script is quite naturalistic, presenting well-rounded characters that feel genuine. Everyone is infused with personality and I appreciated how opinionated they were when commenting on the small but meaningful changes their world has gone through.
Made in Korea #1
Those small details will make any fan of Phillip K. Dickproud as they build up a sci-fi world that thrives on complex subtleties without letting big ideas get too watered down in the process. There’s a delicate balance struck between character moments and big plot events that keeps things moving at a quick but measured pace.
A few pages are also borrowed from the movie Logan in terms of the comic’s worldbuilding, in which the subtle bits of sci-fi that are shown also develop the setting and the characters’ place in it. The near future of Made in Korea is a place that’s taken noticeable steps in technological evolution without making it come off as overwhelming and all-encompassing.
Made in Korea #1
Holt and Schall also find the time to bring up conversations about artificial intelligence, the capacity advanced tech has to adapt and perhaps surpass humanity, and technological co-dependence. There’s even a reference to Dick’s famous novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, thrown in to establish the kind of sci-fi Made in Korea is going for.
Schell’s art perfectly captures the shine that’s often associated with certain idealized versions of the future. It’s crisp, clean, and sleek, as if the future is obsessed with keeping things in their right place, if only for appearances sake. Schell doesn’t go for the dirty, gritty sci-fi look of Blade Runner, Akira, and Brazil, where trash and rundown high-rises color the environment. Instead, he goes for visuals that contain hidden dangers buried deep within suburban standards of life.
Made in Korea #1
Made in Korea packs a lot into its first issue. The six-issue miniseries is ambitious and expansive, worthy of the topic it settled on. There’s something lurking in its pages that looks like it’ll blow up in later issues concerning the questions that come with adopting a child among couples that can’t conceive. Just how much that’ll figure in the story remains to be seen, but what’s here is already enough to make for an exceptional comic.
Made in Korea #1 will be released in comic shops on May 26, 2021.
Story: Jeremy Holt Art: George Schall Letters: Adam Wollet Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy and make sure your robotic appliances aren’t becoming sentient
Are you, as the saying goes, looking for love in all the wrong places?
Arriving July 14th, Virtually Yours is a 100 page, full-color graphic novel from the duo of writer Jeremy Holt and artist Elizabeth Beals, with lettering by Adam Wollet. It’s the latest creator-owned release from the comiXology Originals program.
In Virtually Yours, career-minded Eva Estrella is tired of her family asking when she’s going to settle down. Why won’t they stop nagging her? New York City is a big place! Sure it’s easy to meet people, but you try finding “the one” in a city of 8 million! Besides, Eva doesn’t want a distraction from her goal of finding a dream job in journalism. So Eva joins Virtually Yours, a virtual dating app that provides all the proof of being in a relationship — without actually being in one.
And then there’s Max Kittridge. He might be a former child star, but right now he’s in the middle of a divorce and going through the motions. Max takes a gig at Virtually Yours creating, what becomes, a highly sought-after profile, making him a top performer at the company. As they navigate their current circumstances, both Eva and Max find that sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you.
Part of the comiXology Originals line of exclusive content, Virtually Yours will be available upon release, at no additional cost, for members of Amazon Prime, Kindle Unlimited, and comiXology Unlimited, and for purchase on Kindle and comiXology. Prime Reading offers all Amazon Prime members a rotating selection of over a thousand top Kindle books, magazines, short works, comic books, children’s books, and more – all at no additional cost. Kindle Unlimited offers over 1 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and select current issues of popular magazines for just $9.99 a month with a 30-day free trial. ComiXology Unlimited now offers over 25,000 comics, graphic novels, and manga for just $5.99 a month with a 60-day free trial.
Writer(s): Chad Cicconi Artist Name(s): Chad Cicconi (pencils, inks), Federico Sioc, Jr. (colors), Adam Wollet (letters) Cover Artist(s): Sorah Suhng 184 pgs./ T+ / FC $14.99
Our tale begins with Ionantha Hesperis, a faerie felled by a cursed blade and stripped of her powers. But when the queen’s pixie dust shipment is hijacked, Ionantha is called in to solve the case of the century! This deluxe collection includes the complete first story of the Null Faeries. Featuring a mature, intelligent female protagonist, this story will resonate with fans of high fantasy, sword and sorcery, faerie tales, and action adventure.
