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SVK
From the publisher:
"...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."
"...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."
Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
70 people want to read
About the author
Warren Ellis
1,972 books5,771 followersWarren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 30, 2015
SVK is an alternate future-history noir depicting a Great Britain on the verge of a state-sanctioned technological panopticon for which today's NSA, or GCHQ, could only salivate and dream. Barely longer than a single comic issue and of limited printing, SVK is not as widely known as many of Warren Ellis's other works, and that is a shame, for it is both an example of some of what Ellis does best and a remarkably cool concept piece that plays with the functionality of printed comics itself.
Ellis is perhaps best known for Transmetropolitan, his satiric, dystopic saga of Minority-Report-meets-All-The-President's-Men-meets-Fear-and-Loathing, drawn by Darick Robertson. But earlier in his career, Ellis penned a shorter series that seemed to presage much of what he did in Transmet. Termed 'decadent SF' by Ellis, Lazarus Churchyard featured outlandish transhumanism, Gibson-esque realms of cyberspace, and catastrophic climate disruption. Drawn by a pre-Sandman/Judge Dredd D'Israeli, Laz played fast and loose with cyberpunk tropes (see my review here).
Twenty years later, Ellis and D'Israeli teamed up again for SVK. The intervening decades saw enormous growth in the crafts of both. The conceptual ink splatter of Ellis' Laz stories has been refined here into a focused and studied tale of cyberdystopianism, and D'Israeli's art has similarly matured from the loose, almost expressionist cartooning of Laz to a mature and detailed form well suited for the slick London of tomorrow.
What's most notable about SVK is the comic's use of invisible ink. The book comes with a small black light allowing the reader to illuminate each page to find additional information. While this could have been a simple gimmick used for laughs by the likes of MAD, it is, in the hands of Ellis, conceptually tied into the story itself. It presents some fascinating storytelling possibilities. The bare book works perfectly fine on its own, with the black light ink adding greater detail and context; it comes off like an experiment that, while successful, has room for a great deal more development and finesse.
The only real drawback I find here is that the protagonist, another of Ellis's sci-fi badasses, is rather static; he achieves some cool feats but doesn't really grow or change much by the end. The focus is on the brisk plot, a Crichton-esque technological warning with a final twist.
Ellis is perhaps best known for Transmetropolitan, his satiric, dystopic saga of Minority-Report-meets-All-The-President's-Men-meets-Fear-and-Loathing, drawn by Darick Robertson. But earlier in his career, Ellis penned a shorter series that seemed to presage much of what he did in Transmet. Termed 'decadent SF' by Ellis, Lazarus Churchyard featured outlandish transhumanism, Gibson-esque realms of cyberspace, and catastrophic climate disruption. Drawn by a pre-Sandman/Judge Dredd D'Israeli, Laz played fast and loose with cyberpunk tropes (see my review here).
Twenty years later, Ellis and D'Israeli teamed up again for SVK. The intervening decades saw enormous growth in the crafts of both. The conceptual ink splatter of Ellis' Laz stories has been refined here into a focused and studied tale of cyberdystopianism, and D'Israeli's art has similarly matured from the loose, almost expressionist cartooning of Laz to a mature and detailed form well suited for the slick London of tomorrow.
What's most notable about SVK is the comic's use of invisible ink. The book comes with a small black light allowing the reader to illuminate each page to find additional information. While this could have been a simple gimmick used for laughs by the likes of MAD, it is, in the hands of Ellis, conceptually tied into the story itself. It presents some fascinating storytelling possibilities. The bare book works perfectly fine on its own, with the black light ink adding greater detail and context; it comes off like an experiment that, while successful, has room for a great deal more development and finesse.
The only real drawback I find here is that the protagonist, another of Ellis's sci-fi badasses, is rather static; he achieves some cool feats but doesn't really grow or change much by the end. The focus is on the brisk plot, a Crichton-esque technological warning with a final twist.
August 11, 2011
SVK es un comic experimental escrito por Warren Ellis, dibujado por D'Israeli (no es su nombre real) y diseñado (supongo) por BERG una agencia de comunicaciones creativa de Londres.
Y cuando digo a experimental es que SVK cuenta con un gimmick apropiado, dentro del paquete hay una pequeña linterna de dos leds que emiten "luz UV" (llamado el objeto SVK) que se usa a lo largo de la revista para ver mensajes escritos en una tinta invisible a la luz normal. Y debo admitir que es bastante divertido pasar la lamparita por las 40 páginas del libro (incluso los anuncios incluidos cuentan con mensajes secretos), se siente como el regreso de los anillos decodificadores de los cereales.
En cuanto al contenido, también es difícil de calificar, el platillo principal es un comic a tres tintas acerca de un tecno-detective llamado Thomas Woodwind al que le encargan buscar SVK, realmente la trama es muy sencilla pero lo que me gusta de Warren Ellis es que todos los cabos sueltos (en especial ¿cómo diablos funciona SVK?) se resuelven de manera satisfactoria, la trama es atrapante pero todo termina muy rápido. Aún así si quieres sacarle jugo a tu inversión SVK viene con una introducción escrita por William Gibson, dos artículos uno por Paul Gravett y otro por Jamais Cascio.
SVK se siente más como un objeto de colección que un comic per se (y asi es como fue marketeado, mismo BERG y Warren Ellis hablan de él como si fuera un experimento de distribución), en verdad no te sentirás desilusionado por este experimento, es como si tu infancia se hubiera mezclado por la tecnología. Ante mis ojos son cinco estrellas, pero entendería que para otros fueran tres o menos.
Y cuando digo a experimental es que SVK cuenta con un gimmick apropiado, dentro del paquete hay una pequeña linterna de dos leds que emiten "luz UV" (llamado el objeto SVK) que se usa a lo largo de la revista para ver mensajes escritos en una tinta invisible a la luz normal. Y debo admitir que es bastante divertido pasar la lamparita por las 40 páginas del libro (incluso los anuncios incluidos cuentan con mensajes secretos), se siente como el regreso de los anillos decodificadores de los cereales.
En cuanto al contenido, también es difícil de calificar, el platillo principal es un comic a tres tintas acerca de un tecno-detective llamado Thomas Woodwind al que le encargan buscar SVK, realmente la trama es muy sencilla pero lo que me gusta de Warren Ellis es que todos los cabos sueltos (en especial ¿cómo diablos funciona SVK?) se resuelven de manera satisfactoria, la trama es atrapante pero todo termina muy rápido. Aún así si quieres sacarle jugo a tu inversión SVK viene con una introducción escrita por William Gibson, dos artículos uno por Paul Gravett y otro por Jamais Cascio.
SVK se siente más como un objeto de colección que un comic per se (y asi es como fue marketeado, mismo BERG y Warren Ellis hablan de él como si fuera un experimento de distribución), en verdad no te sentirás desilusionado por este experimento, es como si tu infancia se hubiera mezclado por la tecnología. Ante mis ojos son cinco estrellas, pero entendería que para otros fueran tres o menos.
December 18, 2018
A gimmicky one-shot in a tech world that William Gibson would masturbate to. It's a really brisk comic (coming from an advertising agency as a laugh)
A while back, I had a thesis that many of Warren Ellis' comics could just take place in a different city within the Transmetropolitan world, and this holds true.
It's similar to one of his Apparat one offs or Wildstorm miniseries.
A while back, I had a thesis that many of Warren Ellis' comics could just take place in a different city within the Transmetropolitan world, and this holds true.
It's similar to one of his Apparat one offs or Wildstorm miniseries.
July 15, 2011
Maverick hero investigates the strange scheme of a previous partner. With UV torch gimmick so you can only see everything in the comic by shining the light on the pages.
It's a good story, as you'd expect from Warren Ellis, and masterfully illustrated by Matt D'Israeli Brooker. Interesting use of gadgets, glossing over the hard part of the technology to keep the story going, and a good twist/reveal at the end.
Worth a look if you get a chance, especially if you like Ellis' other work. As far as I know currently it's only available from getsvk.com
It's a good story, as you'd expect from Warren Ellis, and masterfully illustrated by Matt D'Israeli Brooker. Interesting use of gadgets, glossing over the hard part of the technology to keep the story going, and a good twist/reveal at the end.
Worth a look if you get a chance, especially if you like Ellis' other work. As far as I know currently it's only available from getsvk.com
February 20, 2012
what a great little story - the added bonus being that this is the first comic/graphic novel to use a special invisible ink that you can only see with the little blacklight pen that the book comes with. seeing the parts of the book that are normally invisible to the naked eye, along with how Ellis works the idea of the device into the story itself, are totally worth the read. I think I paid $25-30 to import this small "graphic novella" or "thick comic issue" from the UK to the US, and it was worth every goddamn penny.
October 2, 2011
SVK is a glimpse into the possible future of media. Ultraviolet ink augments the story and explains a lot of subtext. The book could have been longer, though.
May 8, 2012
Black lit for additionally sneaky passages. Great detective-crime-noir type of story. The use of the black light made it like treasure hunting. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews