Reviews
"…riveting." – The Huffington Post
Previews Magazine, "Staff Pick"
It's great a when a new talent can emerge and breathe new life into a genre. Cyber-punk is probably my favorite flavor of science fiction, for these are stories not about aliens or space travel, or the what-ifs beyond time and space, but are stories just one step ahead of our current technology (and in some cases our science has caught up with our fiction). Utopiates is part Strange Days, part A Scanner Darkly , with a touch of The Matrix's sensibilities thrown in for good measure.
In Utopiates we are faced with the possibility of engineered pharmaceuticals, and the lengths to which people will go to acquire the feelings and experiences that life did not offer us. Issue #1 is an excellent introduction into the Dystopian world that Finney and Rocha have created for us, but hang on for issues #2 & #3, because that's when the ride starts to really get good! Noirish, gritty and tragic, Utopiates is like rediscovering something you never knew.
Diamond Distribution Rep.
"It was sweet! I can't wait to see where it goes next."
Creator of Wet Moon and The Abandoned.
Comics is a stormy, dangerous coastline, shallow and sharp, but UTOPIATES stands like a lighthouse guiding you to the safe harbor where smart, intense comics still exist.
-Phil Hester
The Coffin, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing
"I like the story and the artwork a lot. The combination of high-contrast drawn and photo-sourced elements is very compelling."
-Micheal Manning
Creator of The Spider Garden and Tranceptor.
Utopiates has a distinctive art style that’s perfectly tailored for its story and characters. Panels are integrated on the page with a free-form graphic arts sensibility. Figures and backgrounds have a photographic quality. Text boxes are few and far between. And color has no place in the world that artists Kat Rocha and Josh Finney have created, their skillful use of black and white providing almost super-realist textures. I’m thoroughly impressed by their bag of tricks. They shuffle angles and perspectives like cards, layer images from one panel on top of another, insert quick-cut images of RNA strands, and use shadow, silhouette, and reflections to make
narrative points—the effect of it all unlike anything I’m seeing in comics right now. Page 8, for its power, subtlety, and technique, is amazing, and I can’t wait to see more like it as this miniseries continues.
Utopiates #1 reads as if Finney and Rocha have been letting this one simmer for a long time. That’s a good thing, because this is the way indy comics should be done—with an execution that matches the passion.
-Dexter K. Flowers, Broken Frontier
"UTOPIATES #1 is a fantastic cross of all the best alternate reality elements of THE MATRIX and the near- future noir aspects of BLADE RUNNER. Josh Finney and Kat Rocha do a fine job of capturing modern society's growing addiction to artificial gratification in this gritty and disturbing tale. A great debut issue… I'm definitely looking forward to more."
-Tom Waltz
Creator of Children of the Grave.
"Admittedly inspired by the works of Gibson, Dick, and Welsh, Utopiates mixes the swirling abyss of addiction with the cyberpunk leanings of drug-obsessed futurist writers. The first-person narration is classic cybernoir, and the “digital black and white” art lends this dark story a unique flair. Creators Josh Finney and Kat Rocha are to be commended for diving into familiar waters and coming up with something new. It’s well worth your time to check out; find out more at www.glitchwerk.com."
"…I like this comic book because it reinterpreted the theme of drugs using current science fiction and technological breakthroughs. In essence, this drug finally does what all aspires to. It makes you into a different person and allows you to live the life you want."
-Hervé St.Louis, The Comic Book Bin
"This book over all comes off nice has a great edgy fee to it's narrative and makes the reader feel like he is living in this black world. The untie style gives it tool atmosphere. BloodFire Studios is Putting out a book that caters the futuristic fan boys out there. So, check this book out when it comes to your local shop and see if you get hooked on the drug known as UTOPIATES."
2/12/2012