Cyberpunk 2077: Where's Johnny?

Cyberpunk 2077 #LS2

by Bartosz Sztybor, Giannis Milonogiannis (Illustrator), Roman Titov (Illustrator)

Written by Bartosz Sztybor ( Fading Memories, Jim Henson's The Sirens ), art by Giannis Milonogiannis ( Prophet, Ronin Island, Old City Blues, G.I. Joe ), and colors by Roman Titov (Angel) comes a sci-fi pulp noir based on the hit video game Cyberpunk 2077 !

A hardboiled journalist bent on taking down the corrupt corporations of Night City finally gets his chance to do it.

Drunk, cynical, and stubborn journalist Thompson is working hard to wake up the populace--keeping their eyes and ears closed to the filth and corruption of corporate-run Night City is a choice and he's going to blow their self-prescribed diversions to pieces. Somebody nuked the headquarters of a major corporation. Rumor has it, it was the infamous Johnny Silverhands. The streets are buzzing that he's dead and his body remains at the bottom of the nuked tower. His find the body. But is he dead or is it just hearsay? The streets of Night City talk and a corporate downfall is just the beginning.

Genres: Cyberpunk, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fiction, Comics Manga

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 5, 2021

About the author

Bartosz Sztybor - polski dziennikarz, publicysta, krytyk filmowy i komiksowy, scenarzysta komiksowy. Wielokrotny laureat konkursu na krótką formę komiksową na MFK. Publikował m.in. w pismach Ozon, Wprost, Esensja, Chichot, Machina, Cinema, periodykach komiksowych i zinach.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dark Horse, stop trying to make Cyberpunk 2077 happen, it's NOT going to happen..! Well, at least not with books like this one. Because Night City is actually a really interesting place, it's just that the stories written for these comics feel a bit lazy and surface level.

A corporate HQ in the city has been nuked (nope, we don't get to see that), and in their nuclear shelter (corpos come prepared) under the HQ are a lot of dead bodies. Is one of them Johnny Silver..?

It's all not very thrilling, and it ends on a bum note. The art is the definition of practical.

There are much better cyberpunk comics out there. Much, much better, I'm afraid.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof, this was a dud. Poor art. Hard to follow story. Boring as hell. All of the above.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHERE'S JOHNNY is a story about anti-corporate journalist LYLE THOMPSON who plays a minor role in Love Like Fire and Never Fade Away. He is one of the signature characters of Cyberpunk 2013 and Cyberpunk 2020. Here, we find him as a washed up has-been, chasing stories no one cares about in a time when journalism is dead even when it's sensationalist journalism. It's a decent-enough story and one of the better ones of the CDPR franchise but hurts for the fact that its supposed to have happened right after the Night City nuclear bombing. Frankly, this city doesn't act like a nuclear bomb just went off and that seriously hurt my suspension of disbelief. Still, I'd argue this is way better than the others.

[Yunie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flat story, meh art, boring characters. Just very generic. Definitely no where near as good as the Trauma Team comic was.

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

"What the fuck, man, she was a nobo--"

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should probably hover around the 2.5 mark to be honest.

I really like the Cyberpunk setting a lot. I've enjoyed it ever since reading William Gibson's novels and I love the setting of the original tabletop RPG, but for some reason they just haven't been able to do it decent justice with the past few comic books. I was pretty excited for this one, because it looked like this might tie into the game lore a bit more, but it never really achieves that.

"Where's Johnny" is another short one-off story about a journalist who gets hired around the time Johnny blew up the Arasaka tower and is commissioned to investigate where his body is. I think part of the problem with these one shots is the character development has to be rushed, the writers have no choice. So, if you're over-arching story isn't incredible it feels like a bit of a let down. This is similar to the other one shot graphic novel (which I thought was a little better actually) in that it reads more like "a day in the life of a Night City citizen" than some great story. I think part of the problem is that the reveal, when it happens, it utterly unsurprising for a day in the life of a Night City citizen... so it just feels like we get to the end and are like "well, yeah, that's what's expected to happen." There's no truly interesting revelation, so we'd have to fall back on character development in order to be invested in a cliché tale... but there just isn't time for that in such a short amount of pages. If you're really looking for a Cyberpunk fix in comic form I highly recommend checking out what Titan Comics has been publishing with the Blade Runner series. That stuff has been far more awesome and I was really hoping that the Cyberpunk comics would be on par with that given how big the world of Cyberpunk is in the RPG realm. A real shame really, it feels like they're releasing a lot of little products rather than a longer running story of 12 issues which, I think, large RPG type games need more of...

Where's Johnny takes us through a bit of the Night City world where, even though you are hired by one person to do a job, it doesn't mean they're working for someone else. And the Corpo's have their hands in almost everything and it's hard to escape their meddling. The journalist in this story goes on a journey to do a job and along the way sort of resigns himself to the fact that the corporations will always be involved in some shape or form and sometimes, just sometimes, their goals can align.

The story isn't generally bad, it's just expect from a Night City tale. The journalists story is supposed to be an agonizing tale of acceptance for things beyond your control, but we never truly have the "agonizing" experience in the way we would with a longer running character, which, I feel, these stories sorely need.

If you're a die hard Cyberpunk fan, give it a read, if not, it's really doesn't have much re-read value anyway, in my opinion. It doesn't take long to crank through, so if you're fiending for a Cyberpunk anything, give this a whirl, it does that at the very least.

[Rhiannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lack of Johnny

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get what they were trying to do with this comic but the execution of it fell flat. The story isn't fleshed out and not nearly as detailed as it should be to make it interesting. Artstyle sadly didn't work too well either for me.

[Oneirosophos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing special. Only the Silverhands brought a laugh to this borefest.

[Stanisław Richardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I can say is “meh”. I enjoy the cyberpunk genre, and the game but this? Could’ve been better.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh

[Kuba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kreska taka, że oczy krwawią. Historia totalnie o niczym.

[Elena Franchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love silly cyberpunk stories

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite taking place in what could otherwise be an interesting time period, zero emphasis was given to showing how the city and populace was impacted by the recent nuclear attack. The investigation angle could have been appealing, but the short page count made it feel rushed and surface level.

[CzasoStrefa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gdzie jest Johnny? to już trzeci tom komiksowej serii w świecie Cyberpunka 2077. Tym razem za scenariusz odpowiada Bartosz Sztybor (który jest również odpowiedzialny za dwa ostatnie tomy komiksowego Wiedźmina), a za stronę graficzną Giannis Milonogiannis. Jest to autonomiczna historia, niemająca nic wspólnego z poprzednimi zeszytami.
Walczący z korporacjami dziennikarz Wallace, zostaje wplątany w śledztwo dotyczące jednej z największych korporacji Night City czyli Arasaki. Ma za zadanie odnaleźć zaginione ciało Johnn’ego Silverhanda, który jakiś czas wcześniej zdetonował ładunek atomowy w wieżowcu należącym do koncernu. Wallace bada kolejne tropy, starając się poskładać kolejne elementy układanki w całość i dowiedzieć się co wydarzyło się w budynku Arasaki.
Niestety muszę przyznać, że o ile fabularnie po lekturze Gdzie jest Johnny? byłem usatysfakcjonowany, tak warstwa graficzna mnie rozczarowała. Ilustracje są nijakie, pozbawione błysku i jakiegoś sznytu, który by je wyróżniał. Są po prostu poprawne, co może być spowodowane tym, że w poprzednim tomie (Twój głos) ilustracje były bardziej artystyczne i malarskie. Tutaj niestety zabrakło mi trochę mroczniejszego klimatu, który wpisywał by się w opowieść garściami czerpiącą z kryminałów noir, kojarzących się z przygnębiającymi, deszczowymi tonami.
Podsumowując Gdzie jest Johnny? to solidna opowieść z poprawną stroną wizualną, która może spodobać się nie tylko fanom gry. Pozostaje czekać na kolejne tomy opowieści o Night City i jego mieszkańcach. Ponieważ kryje się tam jeszcze wiele ciekawych historii do opowiedzenia i zilustrowania.
Więcej na: CzasoStrefa

[mr factos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cyberpunk 2077: Where’s johnny, es un cómic bastante decepcionante como one-shot.

La historia de esta novela gráfica es muy pobre, confusa, seguimos la historia de un reportero que investiga casos de las corporaciones, para luego ser contactado para buscar el cuerpo de Johnny silverhand, la trama en sí suena bien pero el desarrollo es muy flojo, todo apresurado, escenas cortadas que no entiendes que pasó, un enredado entre las historias y conclusiones con muy poco sabor

Los personajes sufren de la carencia del desarrollo y la poca cantidad de páginas de la historia

Respecto al dibujo, también muy flojo, trazos muy bruscos y simplicidad en los fondos y gestos de los personajes.

Esta novela gráfica es una decepción total, y me duele ya que lo compré con entusiasmo y lo llamativo de la portada en tapa dura.

En conclusion, este comic es una idea excelente de una historia, terriblemente mal ejecutada.

La calificación para Cyberpunk 2077: Where’s Johnny

Historia/argumento: 1,2
Personajes: 1,2
Dibujo/arte: 2
Originalidad/impacto: 1

Cyberpunk 2077: Where’s Johnny: 1,4⭐️

[Shadow Steve · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh Cyberpunk 2077. Why CD Projekt Red? Why in the hell did you get players during development then get them mad? WHYYYYYYYY?!

When I 1st saw some Cyberpunk posts on Insta back in 2019 I thought "Hmm looks interesting" so I picked it up from a local EB Games store back in 2020 I started playing on PS4 buuuuuuuuut... I couldn't finished playing coz of the.... bugs

Well at least the gameplay seems ok... well a little. It's no wonder it's the worst PS4 & Xbox One game of 2020. Hopefully they'll update properly especially whenever it gets released on PS5 & Xbox Series X/S. Good thing the PC version went well

I just recently picked up the Where's Johnny graphic novel. The character design looks kinda odd but the story is kinda boring and it's not that fun

I don't hate Cyberpunk coz I know the team at CD Projekt Red would do whatever they can to get Cyberpunk right

Dunno why I brought the graphic novel for $30 at QBD (prices may vary) so it's avoidable

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 2 out of 5]

En verdad creo que había un buen potencial en esta nueva propuesta comiquera de Cyberpunk 2077. Desde el protagonista que logra sobresalir del esquemático arquetipo con patas de "matón" de Night City tratando de resolver a la desesperada una intriga de las sempiternas corpos a un estilo de dibujo que, aunque aparentemente disruptivo a lo esperable en una de estas historias. Presenta una envidiable "limpieza" gráfica que se enfoca más en los personajes que en la acción o escenarios... Pero realmente en esta ocasión, no sé qué pretendía Bartosz Sztybor. Su guion parece a ratos "sencillo", a otros de un apremio argumental mayor que en otras de sus obras afincadas a este universo. Todo lo cual acaba por quedar en evidencia en la acotada extensión de 3 números para los que el gran reclamo del título y parte del argumento de ese archiconocido personaje con el look de Keanu Reeves. Tan solo juega en su contra.

[Martijn Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first Cyberpunk 2077 comic i've read. I played the game for about 10 hours and watched the really good anima Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix. The things those two have in common is a sense of despair in a techno filled city where big corporations are the law. This comic has non of that. The corpo's are there but never really form a threat, the city in the comic is empty and lifeless and the overall storie could've been much more fleshed out instead of a regular 'alcoholic journalist in search of mcguffin'.

[Greg Fazekas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the artwork, but the story was… flat. I kinda get what the point was, and overall I could even like the way they grabbed onto the deceptive and hopeless nature of life in NC. But it just didn’t “click” together.

This noir approach would lend itself well to CP RED (that’s another thing: I get that CP2077 is a more recognizable brand, but can we please stop putting it on RED stories?) just needs a bit more intent.

A fun read nonetheless. I don’t regret buying it.

[Zachary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much positive to say about the this one. Some of the art was okay? The coloring was kinda cool.

Most of the art felt lazy and rushed, though. The story was an extremely rote plot about the corporate coverup, the same kind of thing we've seen a thousand times before.

Trauma Team wasn't perfect, but it was fantastic compared to this. Seems like each successive book in this series is decreasing in quality, both in story and art.

[Adriano Tiegs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Li outras hqs no universo de Cyberpunk 2077, e a experiência foi muito boa. Dessa vez, infelizmente, não posso dizer o mesmo. A arte é somente razoável, e ainda que o início pareça bem promissor, a história não avança e termina sem oferecer nenhum momento instigante ao longo do caminho.
Se esse fosse um volume inicial de uma série, minha opinião seria diferente. Como um volume único, me parece bastante sem propósito.

[Martti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphic novel, part of the latest HumbleBundle of Witcher/Cyberpunk Dark Horse comics. Story of an anti-corpo investigator that ends in the middle like there was a miscommunication somewhere at Dark Horse. Like the solution-half of the novel is missing. Art's a bit better than "Your voice" or "XOXO", but still highly variable.

[skoob]

Underwhelming i wont lie to you, lots of loose ends, which included the ending. Characters weren’t memorable or well-written enough for me to care, which is ironic considering what the protagonist is fighting for. If i was a character from this comic, i would be the guy telling the bartender to change the channel to the soccer instead of watching the protagonists dumb ad.

[Rose Prescott-Voorhees · Rating 1 out of 5]

...What even was this? I don't even know what the story was. I couldn't tell you. Judging from other reviews, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who had a hard time following the story. The art was passable, and it was short, but...

Man, I wish I trusted reviews and didn't bother to read this. Lmao.

[Trike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’d say this was style over substance except there’s no style here. This makes a giant city feel lifeless and deserted. It wants to be all hard boiled but it’s just not. This is a soft boiled egg with a limp piece of bacon on the side. No verve, no snap, no edge, no ending.

[melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very meh. Disclosure: I'm not familiar with the game so not sure if that made a difference, but this didn't really grab me and make me wanna play it either.
*Downloaded via Hoopla's Bonus Reads for May*

[Librarian Jessie (BibliophileRoses) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this would’ve profited from more pages, but it’s an enjoyable plot line. The art doesn’t quite fit the story style, but it’s not bad either. Ultimately the graphic novel feels like a mod podge project.

[Isaias McAllus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Creo que este es el último que me pilló de Cyberpunk, en general, salvo el de Trauma Team, todos han sido muy flojos... Los pillé por si servían para convertirlos en aventuras de rol pero es que el guión es tan flojillo que ni para eso vale.