3500 copies of the first print went in less than 48 hours. Berg are rush releasing a second print very soon. And at £10 per 40 page comic …. that’s not a bad little return. What’s the betting we’ll see another issue, or maybe another project from BERG very soon?
SVK is written by Warren Ellis and drawn by D’Israeli. Basically it’s a slab of Sci-Fi comic with no thought bubbles, just UV inks that reveal when the “SVK object” (a UV torch) is shone upon the page… sure it may be a gimmick, but it seems it’s a gimmick with the useful addition of a name writer and a great artist. And that always helps.
Berg describe the comic thus:
“This graphic novella is about looking – an investigation into perception, storytelling and optical experimentation that inherits some of the curiosities behind the previous work of BERG. Litho printed on 115gsm silk paper in tones of black and blue, SVK uses a third ink invisible without the SVK object. The object is a UV light source which unlocks hidden layers woven throughout the comic book. Reading SVK becomes a unique and strange experience as you see the story unfold through the eyes of Thomas Woodwind.”
“First and foremost SVK is a modern detective story, one that Ellis describes as “Franz Kafka’s Bourne Identity”.”
“It’s a story about cities, technology and surveillance, mixed with human themes of the power, corruption and lies that lurk in the data-smog of our near-future.”
July 10th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
I bought this in a fit of enthusiasm – found it utterly dull. The example you show above is about as sophisticated as it gets – typical Ellis cynicism. The opportunity to use the UV to reveal story information, or to introduce otherwise unknowable twists in the plot, are wasted on venal thoughts that add nothing to the comic at all. Massive wasted of technology and opportunity.
July 14th, 2011 at 10:11 am
I thought it was rather good.
Different strokes, I suppose…