We long for the sci-fi of the 80's, with it's bleak wastelands, neon cityscapes, and dark vibes. It laughs in the face of Utopias and prefers the grimy streets of high-tech+ low-life. We're talking futuristic worlds where the urban sprawl of densely packed cities is blanketed by dark neon hues of purple, pinks, blues all fogged up by the musty steam from sewers and exhaust fumes from flying cars overhead. Characters walk the streets lit up by towering skyscrapers that house evil tech corporations or factories that employ millions of mindless workers.
You'll see these books match the futuristic science with the realities of what happens when technology replaces humanity. Be ready for androids, cyborgs, and super heroes gone bad. Virtual reality and alternate universes can be places where characters do their darkest deeds.
These graphic novels drop you right into the cyberpunk aesthetic right from the cover.
Motor Crush
BY BABS TARR, BRENDEN FLETCHER, CAMERON STEWARTDomino is one of the best racers on any circuit. By day, she competes for fame and fortune in the WGP. By night she cracks heads of rival gangs in brutal bikes wars to gain possession of a rare, valuable contraband: an engine-boosting machine stimulant know as Crush.
Topside
BY J.N. MONK, HARRY BOGOSIANSixteen-year-old Jo, a maintenance technician in an underground society, makes a massive error during a routine repair and to set things right, must journey above ground, to a dangerous area swarming with alien life.
Paper Girls
BY BRIAN K. VAUGHNIn the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four twelve-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.
Shade: The Changing Girl
BY BRIAN K. VAUGHNLoma Shade may be from another planet, but she's still like every other twentysomething who feels that their life is going nowhere fast. Bored out of her mind, her solution is to drop out of school, dump her boyfriend and leave her homeworld of Meta behind--courtesy of the infamous 'madness coat' of renegade poet Rac Shade, which is not so much a garment as it is a multidimensional gateway. After stealing the coat and astrally projecting herself across space, Loma ends up in the body of Megan Boyer, an Earth girl who seems to have it all: youth, beauty and a conveniently damaged brain. Following her 'miraculous' recovery, however, Loma finds there's just one problem with being Megan: everyone hates her.
Black Bolt
BY AHMED WARDThe King of the Inhumans has been imprisoned! But where? Why has he been jailed? And who could be powerful enough to hold the uncanny Black Bolt? The answers will shock you--and Blackagar Boltagon as well! For if he is to learn the truth, he must first win a fight to the death against a fellow inmate: the Absorbing Man! As a prison revolt begins, Death's Head enters the fray--but is he there to help, or to hunt? And who--or what--is the warden of this strange place? Whatever it is, the Jailer knows only penance and fear. And soon, so will the Silent King.
Cosmoknights
BY HANNAH TEMPLERPan's life used to be very small. Work in her dad's body shop, sneak out with her friend Tara to go dancing, and watch the skies for freighter ships. It didn't even matter that Tara was a princess... until one day it very much did matter, and Pan had to say goodbye forever. Years later, when a charismatic pair of off-world gladiators show up on her doorstep, she finds that life may not be as small as she thought. On the run and off the galactic grid, Pan discovers the astonishing secrets of her neo-medieval world... and the intoxicating possibility of burning it all down.
Kim & Kim
BY VISAGGIO CABRERA, AGUIRRE SAAM REXKim & Kim are 20something besties out to make a name for themselves in the wild world of interdimensional cowboy law enforcement. Blending the punk exuberance of Tank Girl with the buddy adventure wackiness of Superbad (if Michael Cera was a trans woman and Jonah Hill a queer girl partner in crime), this two-time GLAAD-nominated and Eisner-nominated series focuses on the power and meaning of female friendships as engines of validation. A day-glo action adventure that’s bursting with energy and enthusiasm, Kim & Kim puts queer women and trans women front and center in a bright, happy, punk rock sci fi adventure that is queer as all get-out.
Crowded
BY CHRISTOPHER SEBELA, RO STEIN, TED BRANDT, TRIONA FARRELL, CARDINAL RAETen minutes in the future, the world runs on an economy of job shares and apps, while crowdfunding has evolved into Reapr: a platform for assassination that's trickled down from politicians, celebrities and CEOs to everyday life and all its petty resentments. A world where anyone with enough backers and the money they contribute can kill anyone else. Like Charlie Ellison, who up until now has lead a quiet, normal life, until she wakes up to find herself the target of a Reapr campaign with a million dollars on her head.
Hunted by all of Los Angeles, Charlie hires Vita, the lowest rated bodyguard on the Dfend app. As the campaign picks up speed and Vita takes out incompetent civilians and aspirational assassins on their tail, she and Charlie will have to figure out who wants Charlie dead and why before the campaign's 30 days or their lives are over.
Miranda Mercury
BY BRANDON THOMASMiranda Mercury, one of a long family line of heroes, continues to fight the forces of evil despite the fact that one of her enemies has infected her with a slow-acting poison that will kill her in one year.
Skyward
BY JOE HENDERSONOne day, gravity on Earth suddenly became a fraction of what it is now. Twenty years later, humanity has adapted to its new low-gravity reality. And to Willa Fowler, a woman born just before G-day, it's pretty awesome. Who wouldn't want to be able to soar through the air? But there are dangers too--and not just the fact that, with one wrong step, you could go flying of the face of the Earth. Some dangers lurk much closer to home than she knows. . .
Nubia
BY L.L. McKINNEY, ROBYN SMITHNubia has always stood out because of her Amazonian strength, but even though she uses her ability for good she is seen as a threat, so when her best friend Quisha is threatened by a boy who thinks he owns the town, Nubia risks everything to become the hero society tells her she is not.
For more Sci-fi graphic novels, stop by the library!