Kill or Be Killed

by Peter Tieryas

A thrilling illustrated tale in this oversized prose novella! Your phone buzzes. A message awaits. Someone you love — your spouse, your parents, your child — is in mortal danger, and the only way you can save them is to kill a complete stranger and livestream the murder so everyone can see what you’ve done. You have just become the latest victim of the Friendship Killer. When one victim decides to fight back and expose the twisted serial killer, he embarks on a harrowing tour of the dark underbelly of the tech industry, social media and artificial intelligence that suggests there might be much more to the Friendship Killer than ever imagined. Find out the identity and motive of the killer in this oversized illustrated prose novella from acclaimed novelist Peter Tieryas (Mecha Samurai Empire) and visionary painted artist Mike Choi (X-Men, Moths, U & I).

Genres: Graphic Novels

Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2025

About the author

Peter Tieryas is the award-winning internationally best-selling writer of the Mecha Samurai Empire series (Penguin Random House), which has received praise from places like the Financial Times, Amazon, Verge, Gizmodo, Wired, and more. The series has been translated into multiple foreign languages, won two Seiun Awards, and the Mandarin version was one of the Douban's Top 10 Science Fiction Books of 2018. He's had hundreds of publications from places like New Letters, Subaru, ZYZZYVA, Indiana Review, and more. His game essays have been published at sites like IGN, Kotaku, and Entropy. He was also a technical writer for Lucasfilm

Reviews

[Peter Tieryas]

My new illustrated novella! A bit about its background with this interview at Fanbase Press.

https://fanbasepress.com/press/interv...

[Matt Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second graphic novella that AWA has put out. This one was not scary to me but it did have an interesting premise and definitely gives the reader something to think about in regard to AI and social media.

The mystery was solid and had good pacing. And the ending took a turn I didn’t see coming. Can’t wait to read more of the Fear of the Future one-shots.

[vk chompooming · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was something I was not expecting. Kill or be Killed is a novella with a few pictures. Unfortunately, it is not even written well. If AWA (publisher) had taken the time to flesh out an actual comic this book might have been worthy of 5 stars. The artwork, what little there was, was beautiful. The character development was weak, but could have been great. I expected more from AWA. Most of their other works have been incredible.

[Wm · Rating 1 out of 5]

The genAI-assisted Polis turned me off, despite the involvement of a favourite writer – Mark Russell. That was my last AWA-affiliated Protopias purchase, b/c I have zero tolerance for genAI.

This is my last AWA purchase. Comics is my favourite storytelling medium. I want comics. If AWA wants to sell novellas, fine, but don't market them to me alongside my beloved comic books.

And now they won't. I'm immune. I just don't believe AWA has my best interests at heart anymore.

To the story, I suppose I empathize with trying to write futurism; trying to immerse the reader in a somewhat fantastical world that's still current enough to feel just round the corner. And so we're treated to the line "she jokes the studying was pointless since AI does most of the coding."

Uh-huh. I mean, it was expected to. But it doesn't, b/c AI is useless at practical things. It lies too much. Lawyers haven't (yet) been censured or lost their licenses, but they've been strongly chastised for letting AI "hallucinate" (read: be a used-car salesman for legal precedent) in court.

But at the same time, a tech-head had no idea that the human voice could be emulated? C'mon.

[Josh Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very different book from Watering Heaven and United States of Japan. The themes about social media and AI are terrifying. A good mystery overall. I look forward to more from the author.

[Grady Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good mystery. Very in-depth with the times of 2025 to present. A.I. is evil. I liked the ending as well!