EXCLUSIVE: The upcoming Black Mirror graphic novels will take their brand of digital dystopia to comic and manga platform InkyPen.
Ahead of the launch of USS Callister, the first of Twisted Comics‘ Black Mirror adaptations, a “long-term” agreement has been struck that will see the graphic novels rolling out on InkyPen, which launched worldwide back in 2018, offering readers access to a huge library of titles. Episodes of the Netflix show are adapted by Twisted Comics’ Neil Gibson and illustrated by Silvano Beltramo.
The first 20 pages of USS Callister will now be offered as a sneak peak, ahead the comics rolling out in physical form later this year. It is available for pre-order and will publish in the fall or winter, followed by an adaptation of another popular episode, San Junipero, in 2026.
Netflix’s equivalent TV episode, written by Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker for the fourth season of the darkly satirical anthology show, starred Jesse Plemons as the reclusive founder of a virtual reality game who steals his co-workers’ DNA to create digital clones that he could control and humiliate as the captain of a Star Trek-style spaceship. Cristina Milioti and Jimmi Simpson also starred. A sequel, USS Callister: Into Infinity, was part of Season 6.
For the UK-based Twisted Comics, the InkyPen deal comes after it struck an agreement with Black Mirror ancillary rights holder Banijay Entertainment. “The InkyPen team have the ability to do things no one else can, with Black Mirror, that’s exactly what we need,” said Gibson, writer and publisher at Twisted Comics.
Twisted Comics is also offering collectible hardback editions of USS Callister as pre-orders on Kickstarter, along with chances to be drawn alongside Captain Daly and his crew, and collector editions with covers by artist Butcher Billy (aka Bill Elliott), whose work was seen in the episode.
“If one person is to write Black Mirror in the comics world, it would have to be Neil Gibson,” said Ronan Huggard, CEO at InkyPen. “I can’t see a better choice. Having the right indie publisher entrusted with a revered brand is a rare treat. We just had to get involved.”
Black Mirror, which Brooker and Annabel Jones initially created for Channel 4 in the UK and is now on Netflix globally, rolled out its seventh season in April. Brooker and Jones exited Broke & Bones, the Netflix-owned production they launched to make the show, earlier this year, but they have intimated they would be willing to continue writing and producing Black Mirror if Netflix chooses to stick with it.
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