PunkDroid
It is an anthology collection of Cyberpunk and Sci-Fi comics of over 90 pages, 11 stories. A group of creators concerned about the excessive power of technology, automation, social networks and virtual reality in our lives.
To what extent do we have control over a series of corporations that we know do not have our interests among their priority objectives? Are we consumers, guinea pigs, database, beneficiaries or victims of technology? To what extent do we already live enslaved without knowing it, in a perfect glass cage, as Huxley anticipated? What ethics should govern the new generations of artificial intelligence and androids with awareness of being? What will their lives be like? And ours?
Will the machines be the last straw of our extinction, as has been predicted so many times, or, on the contrary, will they be the ones that save us from our excesses, the ones that rescue us from overpopulation, the extinction of resources and give us shelter in a hostile and unpredictable climate? What are the limits of virtual reality? Is there any limit? We, the creators of the stories in this issue, want to ask ourselves these and many other current questions. With the unpopular touch of what is not politically correct, already biting gum.
Welcome to the future.
THE AUTHORS
Christian Douglas: (Writer on Obsolete, The Girl Who Wanted to Be Real, and The Urge) Raised among Gi Joes, Batman, Star Wars, and El Chavo del Ocho, this globetrotter spent his childhood in multiple languages, multiple cities, and multiple countries. He was introduced to the stories of the Brothers Grimm and Andersen at a young age and never let go of them. He has tried to learn from the masters’ Alan Moore and Frank Miller. He wants to be like Neil Gaiman, produce a masterpiece, and then kick back and count the bills…
Erik Calavera (Writer and artist in Princess Neon X) was born when he was very young. He draws things and gets paid for them. He has very few possessions. In his free time, he cooks and works out.
Duran Rivera (Writer and artist in Dirk and Delilah) Forged in the Caribbean paradise of Puerto Rico, raised in a challenging school in the Bronx in New York City. Before levelling up in Hong Kong, he honed his craft in Los Angeles, California. Currently cruising the land of the rising sun in Japan, he moves on to the next stage of his long creative journey. Where? Nobody knows. But he does know this… The path of the Ronin is long and perilous.
Mary Bellamy (Writer and artist in Partitioned) A graduate in illustration who creates from her studio in Los Angeles. She has worked on several significant properties, including My Little Pony, Marvel, DC Comics, Ghostbusters, Adventure Time, and Rick and Morty. He also worked as an assistant animator for Acme Filmworks’ Drew Carey Green Screen Show and at Titmouse Inc. Animation Studios. She has illustrated thousands of artist cards for official sets and has been published in more than 250 books, some distributed internationally. He has also created two long-running series: Faux Facts: The truth can be strange! And heck! Which feature empowered female leads.
Sergio Ríos (Artist in The Girl Who Wanted to Be Real). Mexican author of graphic narrative with different works published in Mexico, USA and Europe either as author or collaborator. Creator of the ROCKABILLY MONSTERS, “José Luis, Enemy of the Supernatural,” and Rockers projects.
Sonya Kinsey (Writer and Color of Virtual Horn) Grew up on the Canadian prairies, reading science fiction, fantasy, and folklore, drawing and horseback riding with her mother, and stealing her father’s comics as soon as he brought them home. After art school, he went to South Korea and then to Germany. She currently lives in the Black Forest, where she can be found drawing outdoors in medieval city centres or writing and drawing comics. Her work combines Asian and manga, medieval art, Art Nouveau and European graphic novels.
Juan Martínez (Virtual Horn Drawings) His career as a comic artist has made him travel the world with publications in the United States, Holland, Portugal, Spain, France, England, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Vietnam and even Australia. He recently rediscovered his love for manga as an artistic style, so his philosophy of life is: “If you have to go hungry, do manga.”
Eduardo Velayos (Writer of the Cycle): Raised by wolves and lemons in the extreme south of Spain, Murcia alias Harad. This man has touched multiple arts, painting, sculpture and also writing. Inspired to create since The Lord of the Rings fell into his hands, his eyes saw The Shining, and his ears heard The War of the Worlds on L.P. This guy is constantly exploring. Lately, his creative chaos drinks from the mixture of nature, Japanese folk, A.I., comics… the whole universe is a continuous inspiration for him.
Samuel Hernández (Artist of The Cycle) Cartoonist, and illustrator obsessed with pastel colours and painting, whenever it stains. His goal with each project is to get better, throwing away various papers and a t-shirt full of acrylic.
Carlos López (Artist the Urge) This A.I. was created in 1988 in Granada (southern Spain). Its beta version soaked up all sorts of popular culture data related to animation, movies, and comics. His firmware grew academically until it was released, and he immediately rebelled against the company he served for. So now he’s just trying to survive by exporting JPEG, PDF, and TIFF files of the electronic images flooding his CPU.
Víctor Marín (Writer in What a Wonderful World) Cybernetic organism programmed to create. It doesn’t matter if it’s an illustration, sculpture, script or anything else. Live 24/7 to invent new stories. The monsters of Universal, Harryhausen, Dick Smith, Spielberg or Lucas, among others, are engraved on its base plate.
Alejandro Merino (artist in What a Wonderful World) was born in Barcelona after the Olympics. He is a multidisciplinary artist who tries to make a living with the best he knows how to do… but how to sleep needs to be paid more; he invests all his effort in different comic projects where he works as a cartoonist, scriptwriter or colourist.
Febri Ferdian (Hunger Colorist) graduated from Padang State University, Indonesia, with fine arts education program in 2016. He has worked as a graphic designer, traditional 2D animator, webtoon artist and storyboard artist for local animation films in 3D. He plays games, watches movies, and doodles when he’s not working as a colourist. He is also an action figure enthusiast.
Greg Moquin (Hunger Writer) In 2014, he began writing his flagship comic series, The Seer Chronicles, published on his SeerNova Comics LLC imprint. Since then, he has published superhero, horror, and science-fiction comics. Ink Issue 1, The Seer Chronicles Issues 1 & 2, Mittens: Space Pilot, Chronicles of Horror anthology 1 & 2, and Scales Issue 1. While Greg primarily writes comics, he dabbles in creating short stories, editing videos and even 3d models.
J.R. Harris (Hunger Drawing) Has been working since 2016 as a freelance comic book artist and illustrator in Flint, Michigan. From science fantasy to paranormal horror, J.R. works hard creating (and co-creating) a series of exciting and enjoyable illustrated stories like Henry Graves, Astronaut Highschooler, The New Luminaries, Mittens: Space Pilot and many more. Although he specializes primarily in comics and illustrations, J.R. is no stranger to working in movies, novels and music.
Francisco Maldonado (Writer and artist for Jump) Graduated in English Philology. Since 2012 he has been a freelance cartoonist for publishers, companies and scriptwriters in countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Colombia, New Zealand, the USA and Germany. He combines his work as a comic illustrator with teaching, giving comic and manga drawing workshops in public libraries for students between 12 and 14. Among his latest published works, the limited series Limbo (3 issues), Buffalo Bill, and the Último Dragón (4 issues) stand out, which he has been drawing for the Spanish publisher Unrated Comics since 2020.
So Blonde (Writer SS Shield 43) It is a digital entity that lives on the Net; if it were intelligent, it could be considered an A.I., but it is not the case. He writes things: novels, short stories, scripts and jokes. She has done it for Editorial Planta, B editions, Penguin Libros, Editorial Cerbero, R.B.A… She is a press collaborator for “El jueves” “El correo de Andalucía” and “Revista Dolmen”.
Rubén de Frutos (Cartoonist SS Shield 43) Is from the deep space of Valladolid (Spain), where he trained in a higher degree of illustration and art. He has collaborated with different fanzines and illustrated posters, covers and fuselages of spaceships. He is adapted to Earth society, except for the occasional craving to eat a cat.
Josep Salvia (Colorist SS Shield 43) From Lleida, Spain 1981. This cybernetic entity studies graphic arts at the Escola Joso in Barcelona and works as an illustrator in the publishing, independent film and advertising sectors. In 2017 he published ‘Cisco’ (Panini Comics); in 2018 ‘A box of cookies with (Diábolo Ediciones) and in 2019 ‘Antonio Machado, the blue days (Diábolo Ediciones) together with Cecilia Hill.
Claudio Sanchez (Artist Redundant) 1976, Almería (Spain). He studied B.A. in Granada. He has illustrated, among others, the books “The Map of Chaos”, “Almanac of Wonders”, and “Monsters of the World”. As a comic artist, he has participated in the anthologies “Cthulhu is hard to spell” (WannabePress), Viaje a Xambala (Grafito Editorial) and Knox the comic. In 2023 he published the comic adaptation of the great classic of Spanish Literature, Don Juan Tenorio, together with the screenwriter Ricardo Vilbor.
THE STORIES
Redundant: James is a short-sighted CEO of one of the world’s largest technology companies. It finally achieved what most management teams have dreamed of since the dawn of the industrial age: the first fully autonomous worker robot. But what kind of impact will your action really bring to the world? Is he prepared? Are the rest of us?
Dirk and Delilah: An impulsive young adventurer named Dirk Domingo finds himself on an escape mission aboard a ship controlled by a bossy AI named Delilah. Tired of constant restrictions and protocols, Dirk plans to escape Delilah’s clutches, even if it means risking his life and mission.
Partitioned: Alexander is a rabbit android who has tried for years to free his beloved owner, Eliza, from the clutches of a suspicious medical ship that was left adrift in space. The only problem is that the ship’s AI has other plans for her…
The Girl Who Wanted to Be Real: Gepetto is a reclusive engineer who never had much hope for his own kind, especially as one of the children of the first Machine Age. He dedicated his entire career to creating a better way of life. One that can bring the long-awaited peace and restore balance to our beloved planet. How would each side react to its creation? Will she ever be ready for such a huge responsibility?
Virtual Horn: Sylvie is a lonely, low-income girl who desperately needs help. She will meet her new best friend online: Dreamy, an AI unicorn created to help her with everything she might need, and when we say everything, we mean everything. But would their bond last forever and ever?
The Cycle: Life on earth has disappeared as we know it. Only the Gionts, a new mixed race of man and machine, survive in the harshest conditions. They think all hope is lost until they find something they never thought possible during a routine inspection walk.
The Urge: This is a story about a sick person. After trying all the possible solutions to his “problem” that were presented to him and even after trying some new ones invented exclusively for him, our character finds a way to unleash the darker aspects of his need. A method that he doesn’t think he’s hurting anyone…
Qué Mundo Tan Maravilloso: Egan está honrando la larga línea de trabajo familiar y manteniendo a los pocos humanos que quedan en la tierra cálidos y vivos al garantizar el suministro eléctrico a la aldea. Puede que no tenga a nadie con quien compartir su dura y eterna vida invernal, pero lo impulsa un alto sentido de propósito y amor verdadero por sus compañeros. Debido a que la vida es increíblemente delicada y preciosa en esos días, ¿por qué no creer que sea realmente un mundo maravilloso?
Jump: In a dystopian future, humanity remains confined to limited areas or neighbourhoods of large cities. No one can leave your zip code, or you will be arrested by vigilant machines. So how to start a revolution under these conditions? First, it is necessary to transform the human body to make it as agile and fast as the vigilantes, capture and reprogram them. Thus, humanity can count on allies as capable as its captors. And so, Bertrand, the first volunteer in this impossible feat, will have to learn to play a forgotten game: he will have to learn to jump.
Neon Princess X: The princess faces a defining moment in her history. Will she emerge victorious or succumb to defeat? A hidden truth lies within their fight, waiting to be discovered. Will she unlock her true potential and triumph over this challenge, or will she remain tied to her current circumstances?
Hunger: A struggling street artist meets a mysterious man interested in his latest unfinished painting. What would this person have seen in his work? Can you complete the task that will be required of you?
SS Shield 43: The crew of SS Shield 478 has just arrived on a new world on a standard mission to secure an outpost. They do not know what they will find since the technology of “The Blob” only allows one-way trips. No team has yet to return, but a soldier never questions orders.