More Psychedelic Action

We here at Tripwire have always been keen to support comic crowdfunding campaigns and Fraser Campbell has just launched a campaign to fund issues 4 and 5 of his Alex Automatic series…

Story

The Award-Winning Alex Automatic Returns in a Brand New Adventure!

Alex Automatic #4 & #5 is a 60 page double sized flip-book comic coming this July wrapping up the opening arc of the award-winning Alex Automatic series. It’s a psychedelic super-spy adventure story written by Fraser Campbell, with art by James Corcoran, colour art by David B. Cooper and lettering/design by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Alex Automatic theme by Allan J Swan. 

New to Alex Automatic? 

If you’re just hearing about Alex Automatic for the first time, don’t worry! We have a deluxe digital catch up package providing all issues so far plus some rarely seen special extras! In fact, here’s our double sized first issue for free!  Read #1 in full here

The story so far…

Alex Anderson is a Government agent who has been subjected to experiments to enhance his abilities by a shadowy agency known only as PRISM. However the process has gone horribly wrong, leaving Alex frequently trapped inside the delusion that he is the indestructible cyborg super-spy hero of 1970’s TV show, ALEX AUTOMATIC. A TV show that exists entirely inside Alex’s own head.

Issue #1 sees a couple of well-meaning journalists break Alex out of secure stasis. However it soon becomes clear they have unleashed a dangerous man with a tenuous grip on reality. As they try to help Alex burn out the mechanism that controls him, they soon find they are being hunted by various agencies, determined to get their hands on Alex’s unique brain. 

Following these events, issue #2 sees Alex lying low having achieved some success in controlling his delusions. However when he is ambushed on a routine provisions run, the ensuing panic triggers an outlandish jungle adventure delusion, where Alex Automatic must battle the evil scientist Bokeh, for a machine that can control the very fabric of reality.

In #3, Alex is captured and examined by covert anti-Prism resistance group, The Academi. Meanwhile inside his own head, Alex experiences a delusionary “Kitchen Sink” 60s reality where he is the mild-mannered author of ALEX AUTOMATIC, Britain’s most popular comic strip. As The Academi strive to define what makes their new guest tick, “Kitchen Sink” Alex starts to realise he is being stalked by something that can’t possibly be real… a fictional character he killed off years before!

In this issue…

Now, in a spectacular double issue featuring 52 story pages, we use an ambitious array of styles and techniques to tell a story where the secrets and unanswered questions of the mystery so far are brought into sharp focus. We delve into Alex’s past, find out who he cares about the most and unravel Alex’s greatest secret…the mysterious sequence of events that turned him into Alex Automatic!

Missed out on the previous issues? Don’t despair! We have a digital deluxe catch up (£7.00) that offers all issues so far, spin-off adventure Prefect 63 and all the digital extras from previous campaigns featuring rarely seen strips and short stories! 

Alex Automatic is inspired by the Gerry Anderson TV Century 21 shows like Thunderbirds and Joe 90 along with ITC shows like The Prisoner, Danger Man and Department S. We liked the idea of combining the innocent fun and cool production design of these shows with a modern story about alienation, disassociation and the overwhelming mania of modern reality. A story about a broken, dangerous man whose ability to handle the complexities of real life is so damaged, he escapes to a delusionary World of unambiguous good and evil, battling a rogue’s gallery of outlandish super-spies, creatures and villains. But reality is always waiting in the wings…

If you enjoy stuff like The Prisoner, Steed & Mrs Peel and The Saint but also love comics like Miracleman, Casanova and The Invisibles, this should be right up your alley.

Critical Response

The response to Alex Automatic so far from readers and press alike has been amazing, so much so that Issue #1 was named Best UK Single Issue at Edinburgh Comic Con in 2017 and we even ending up getting a small feature in the Guardian.

Variant Covers

We are delighted to have Warwick Johnson Cadwell (Our Encounters With Evil, Mr. Higgins Comes Home, Helena Crash) and Victor Santos (Polar) on board with variant covers for this issue! Can’t choose between the covers? No problem, we’ve added an option where you’ll be able to buy them all!

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