‘Contraband’ Explores Dark Web Trolling Community This May From Markosia
by James Ferguson
“Cancel culture” is a buzz word thrown around by celebrities and politicians alike when they’re held to task for saying or doing something stupid. The concept is explored to the extreme in Contraband, an original graphic novel due out in May from Markoisa Enterprises. Written by TJ Behe, illustrated by Phil Elliott, inked by Ian Sherman, with tones by Cherie Donovan, the book features a cover by Mike Bogadanovic & Taka.
Mainstream Social is DEAD!
Sick of state censorship, sponsored spam, cancel culture and inciter-banning, everyone who’s anyone is on the dark web.
And no one knows it better than Tucker Scott. Rampant cyberbullying. Fake news trolling. Spying, voyeurism and privacy invasion. This is Contraband, the ruthless entrepreneurs’ digital underground – where profit-hungry mobs prowl city streets filming violent events to satisfy society’s demand for sensational content.
But when activists hack Contraband giving control to any influencer with the most followers, it’s complete chaos as everybody chases the money and fame of being number one!
“We had lots of fun dreaming up twisted outcomes for Contraband characters – but it turns out we also anticipated some of the more unfortunate social media trends,” says Behe. “There seems to be plenty of meaningful public dialogue around issues in the book, stuff like fake news, government spying, data privacy theft, video violence and techno-manipulation by big corporations.“
“I recall the first time this happened. A younger kid — he must have only been about 10 — started swearing at me, ‘Give us some f*cking money!’ I was then aware that there was another girl filming all this on her mobile phone. What was going on here? Were they trying to provoke me? What happened to the video?”
Contraband is set for release on May 10th, 2021 at your local comic shop, bookstore, and Amazon.
