Arc - a TV show based on the Evil Corp boardgame (and free comic)

The story so far

Evil Corp is a satirical boardgame that lets you romp through the world created by today’s Tech Billionaires. It’s a weird, weird world, and it's only getting weirder.

We've been working on a TV series that draws from the game, tentatively titled ‘Arc’.

When we look at how Tech Billionaires behave today, it’s as if they are building a mechanism to survive a future they imagine is inevitable - a self-fulfilling prophecy, the acceptance of which is part of the cause.

It is as if all the dystopian sci-fi they read as young men - where the aftermath is to be survived at all costs - has set the frame for their worldview. That’s an incredibly dangerous basis when building our shared future.

Why This, and Why Now?

From Altered Carbon to Foundation, Raised by Wolves to Westworld, futurist television describes these distant aftermaths as fait accompli - without showing the choices made in how we got there.

Multiple paradigm-defining technologies are transforming our lives in real time, setting the stage for eras of division, instability, and social turmoil - the changes to come will tear at the fabric of society - and these changes are occurring at a staggering, accelerating pace.

Our show takes the viewer on that journey - from now to then - plausible stepping stones helping to ground a fantastical future in the very real, very frightening present.

Act 1 - In Comic Form

We want to share a sense of where we’re going with the show, so we decided to use the recent wave of graphical AI tools to create a comic that captures act one of the pilot script first draft.

Creating the comic was a really interesting experience: as we’ve worked, the acceleration of AI’s ability to create compelling imagery has been absolutely remarkable. In the space of two months commentary on the category went from ‘that’s fun and interesting’ to ‘Real Artists are Terrified.

As creators, we see these tools as just that - tools, and so we don’t want to dive into the already very deep but very shallow debate about AI generated art in this post (a later post is definitely necessary as it’s super interesting). Instead, we invite you to enjoy the work so far and welcome any comments, ideas, or questions.

A quick preview using Comixology’s guided reading.

Soundtrack By composer Stephen Kilpatrick

Download the comic

You can grab a copy of the comic for free via:

PDF download
CBZ download
Guided reading on GlobalComix

Note: Amazon doesn’t let you upload for free so we’ve set the Kindle/Comixology copy to the minimum it allows for whatever territory you are in - if you’d like to buy a copy here’s the Comixology link (guided reading is very good).



Alfie Dennen4 Comments