Overrun Preview – Welcome to the World Inside Your Computer in a London Super Comic Con Exclusive

Welcome to Arcadia Falls, a civilisation with a difference and one that is about to be overrun by a contagion with a chilling origin…

Sometimes the best ideas are the ones that seem so obvious in hindsight. Andi Ewington, Matt Woodley and Paul Green’s Overrun is a project that has been in the works for a couple of years. It’s a journey into the world that exists within your computer and one that introduces the audience to a whole society of characters based on individual file types. If your extension is .xls then you’re a business person, MP3s are the cool musician types, and spam files represent some of the dodgier inhabitants of this virtual environment.

But this city/hard drive is becoming dangerously overcrowded/full, leading to its overseers in the CPU putting a desperate plan into action in order to cut the population. With a virus unleashed on the inhabitants of this digital domain it’s up to a band of forgotten computer game heroes to stop the infection that is turning citizens into zombie-like creatures, and uncover the truth behind this malevolent conspiracy once and for all.

In time for the weekend’s titular convention, the Overrun London Super Comic Con Exclusive Preview gives readers an opportunity to read the first 25 pages of this longer form graphic novel. Overrun is the brainchild of Andi Ewington whose work for Com.x – both BlueSpear and in particular the uniquely structured graphic novel 45 – have had very favourable reviews here at Broken Frontier in the past. Ewington, a creator I once described as “a walking ideas factory”, is joined as Overrun co-writer by Matt Woodley with artistic duties being taken up by the versatile Paul Green.

Superficially, Overrun has a very obvious idea at its core but that elegant simplicity of concept gives Ewington and Woodley a firm storytelling groundwork to build on. One of the immediately noticeable strengths of this book is that its world feels fully realised from the outset. It has its own societal rules and sense of established history; essential for any fictional reality if the reader is to fully invest in it. It’s also replete with witty I.T. references and knowing in-jokes – memory depleted characters begging for kilobytes, for example, or characters with familiar and fitting soubriquets – that give the narrative its own quirky internal logic.

If I were to reduce it to a soundbite then, Overrun is somewhere in the region of Tron meets The Walking Dead. Don’t dismiss the book on the basis that such mash-ups usually border on parody, though, because Ewington and Woodley take full ownership of their cross-genre playfulness here. Overrun is no trite retread lacking in identity.  In this preview the book’s premise is firmly established, its shadowy bad guys lurk with just the right amount of ominous menace, and our engaging cast of protagonists (see some familiar looking faces on the right below!) are introduced just in time to begin their task to rid the city of the “undead” plague that has corrupted it. It’s a solid prologue to the main event.

Paul Green’s visuals are ideal for the subject matter. Given the gaming element that plays such an integral part of the plot, an artist able to place cartoony or exaggerated character designs against a more “realistic” backdrop is particularly fitting. Green brings the book’s high energy vibe to life with a kinetic dynamism that is a vital requisite for a comic that hinges on so many frenetically paced set pieces.

Overrun is sheer escapism – printed page echoing big screen in an action-packed dose of pure, uncomplicated fun. There are times when we all need a distracting piece of good old-fashioned comfort reading where we know exactly who we’re rooting for and why. Overrun succeeds in this regard because it knows its readership and plays unashamedly to them. A strong opening chapter that will no doubt build an audience eager for a later, and I’m sure imminent, full-length release of the book.

Andi Ewington & Matt Woodley (W), Paul Green (A) • Limited Edition Comix, £4.95, 15th March 2014

You can pick up a copy of the Overrun Preview at London Super Comic Convention this weekend at the Limited Comix Edition stand (tables D415 to D428). Andi Ewington and Matt Woodley will be there on the Sunday afternoon. You can also purchase online from Limited Edition Comix here in the UK and from Midtown Comics in the US here priced $8.99.

For more on Overrun check out the official website here.