Contraband Feature & Interview at HDVideoPro

A few weeks ago in Los Angeles, I sat down with HDVideoPro Chief Editor Simon Wakelin to discuss the development of Contraband, working with Phil Elliott and some of my thoughts that went into creating the graphic novel.


Check out an early preview of the three-page feature in the upcoming August Issue, by clicking on the images that follow:

"Q - Do you think snuff videos are the wave of the future “Tyrell Corporations” to foster to a public lobotomized by overt Americana big-dick-look-at-my-gun tv/movie violence?

A - There will always be market for sensationalized violence. People love a buzz – and having the sh*t scared out of them - so this type of content’s qualtity and quality levels will vary according to the number of people paying for it. When creating this story, I imagined this sort of “urban theatre”, where youths prowl city streets secretly film strangers then post these sensational, erotic and violent mobile videos. Men can no longer shower in gyms. Women in dresses avoid seats on trains. Teens run daily exhibitionist mobile blogs featuring candid clips of close friends and family members. But no matter how cool/weird/radical the videos are, Contraband only becomes big business because society demands more and more."

Contraband Review at Comics Bulletin

A big fan of Phil's art work, Steven Bari throws a few cooler phrases to describe the script of Contraband at Comics Bulletin.


"Comic artist since 1981, Elliot has incredible skill at capturing placid humanity--the vulnerable, common person--which works very well given the subject matter of Contraband. Elliot’s previous works are similarly humanistic, such as Illegal Alien for Dark Horse Comics. He has a clean line work that is defined by thick inking--giving the page a sketchy look. It’s his storytelling, the intricate detail of a scene and fluidity of the panels that hold this book together. As Tucker, Plugger, and Toby drive across a London intersection, Elliot captures the readers’ interest with elaborate rows of homes that line the thoroughfare--showcasing ordinary life juxtaposed to the three turgid characters whose lives are consumed by mobile video sharing...."

Contraband Reviewed in Financial Times

We're quite pleased to see that Contraband has been given a short but favourable review by James Lovegrove in this weekend's edition of the London Financial Times. You can read the review at FT.com


Contraband is now in the shops and available to order online from the likes of Amazon, Play, Tesco and Slg's own online store.

Contraband Review at Newsarama

Here are a few words from Michael May regarding the comic...


"There are rewards for those willing to stick with the book. For one thing, Behe has a great voice in all that text. People in Contraband don’t talk the way real people do, but that’s just fine. They talk better than real people do. They tend to go on and on (Tucker especially loves to speechify and given that he’s usually threatening people at the same time, there were several instances when I wondered why someone didn’t just jump him mid-lecture), but they sure are entertaining as they’re doing it."

Contraband Review from Oakland Tribune

Randy Myers from the Oakland Tribune threw a few fine words our way in his monthly comics column:



“Cautionary tales about our insatiable appetite to download the misery and humiliation of others have turned into a telling genre unto itself. Behe's twisty take stands out because it's laden with surprises and has an urgent immediacy to it.”

Contraband Review at The Crack

Very cool to see Contraband picked up a recommendation from Newcastle indie mag the Crack this week.


"There aren’t too many graphic novels around that successfully engage with modern anxieties but Contraband is one such work...the real focus - the foreground white noise of a society raised on cheap thrills."

Graphic Novel Review at The Pulse

Jen Contino at The Pulse dropped us a line a few weeks back regarding Contraband.

Contraband Podcast Interview at CGS

Last week, the guys at ComicGeekSpeak touched base to discuss Contraband's themes, background and general stuff about how it all came together.



A bit of background into Contraband's dialogue development:

"TB - I wanted the dialogue to mimic the behaviour of youths posting bits of conversation on mobile social networking channels. Looking through these mobile forums, I’m amazed how many users kind of “step up onto their soapbox” - offering up rather raw and lengthy opinions on how they feel about a specific topic. These meaty (and often passionate) digressions are accompanied with personal signatures, banners - perhaps some sort of animated icon or other digital representation of themselves. The characters in Contraband (active, ambitious, mobile savvy) fit into this category of forum users so it seemed appropriate to bring this across into the comic narrative.”

Graphic Novel Featured at Wired.com

Just had an email letting us know Contraband picked up a recommendaton in the latest issue of Wired online:


"Cell phone geeks will want to pick up Thomas Behe’s new graphic novel Contraband, in which a band of mercenaries return home from war only to get entangled in an underground mobile video network that pays out jackpot-sized fees to sabotage-minded citizen journalists who capture and upload the most twisted, violent footage. The sci-fi thriller unfolds amidst vengeful relationships, insatiable desire, public outrage and mobiles that pack 1,000-volt electric nodes, pepper spray capability and best of all a fully functioning pistol with detachable silencer. Steve Jobs: take note." Todd Jatras

Contraband Preview at The First Post

Here's another short review of Contraband at The First Post...


This is an extract from Danny Graydon's review:

"Eschewing the dark, moody artwork that typically accompanies such stories, Elliott adopts an engaging clear-line style which slickly captures the fast-paced netherworld of phone-video..."

Gutter Geek Reviews Contraband

Contraband will officially be hitting the streets in a matter of days but we are starting to get some advance reviews and here's one that has appeared on guttergeek.com



We're pleased that the reviewer has really got to the heart of our book... here's a little bit of what he's said...

"(Contraband) actually takes us into some murky ethical territory, refusing the easy glamorization of the rawest energies of internet culture. Downloading pirated music isn’t ethically suspect here because of the infringement on record company property rights, but because of the off-shore sites that have set up troubling partnerships with mercenary forces and despotic governments. At its most daring, the book even draws some sharp lines between the Blackwaters of W’s “new” wars and the exploitation of violence and spectacle for entertainment and profit. “People,” folk-hero Jarvis declares to a teaming rally, “we can now confirm that a number of these hired guns are directly responsible for the surge in mobile abuse we are seeing today.” Like the best works in the genre of speculative fiction, Contraband is less interested in the “What If” that frames its narrative, than in approaching the present at an acute angle. And whichever side of the new culture wars shaping up in this 21st century you might find yourself, Behe will provide you little comfort."

Contraband Interview at Comixology

Peter Jaffe from the comics news and review site Comixology has an interview with us HERE.


Here's is an extract from the interview:

Comixology: In reading Contraband, one of the first comparisons that comes to mind is "A Clockwork Orange". It's a world where kids have taken to committing random acts of violence in order to entertain themselves. Could you tell us about the influences that went into Contraband? And, what inspired you to tell this story?

Thomas: The idea came about while working on a user-generated project at a UK mobile operator. Some sneaky kid had upskirting a woman on an underground train and posted the clip on our network. So while top management were blowing their nut and the tech team began implementing an age-verification layer, I was thinking how some nasty bloke could probably offer a good revenue share to motivate sh*t-disturbing kids to send in more.
I thought up this violent channel called Contraband, a sort of "urban theatre", where youths prowl city streets secretly film strangers then post sensational, erotic and violent mobile videos. So men can no longer shower in gyms. Women in dresses avoid seats on trains. Teens run daily exhibitionist mobile blogs featuring candid clips of close friends and family members. User-generated mobile spy-cam content becomes big business as society demands increasingly radical videos.
But it's also tough to police corrupt individuals like Tucker because it's not in the mobile operator's best interest to do so. They've beaten the government (ID card), internet community portals and banks in the race to create robust personal profile to track people, sell them products, invade their privacy for commercial gain. So it all kind of spirals out of control...