I'm going to be honest, I haven't read as many comics and graphic novels this year as I have in other years. No particular reason, just not as many have caught my eye lately. This one however, is very different than the usual ones I would pick up, horror or supernatural or superhuman comics. Billionaire Island is a story about what would happen if a massive corporation wanted to control the world's population by not only creating a deadly sterilization virus, but also if they took the world's richest people and stuck them all on a floating man made island away from the chaos. But as they're going to find out, they can't run and hide forever.

I really enjoyed the topic of this comic because I love apocalyptic fiction, and I love violent scenes in comics. The story was amazing and I really didn't want to put it down once I finally got around to reading it. The characters ranged from kind of strange, chaotically neutral, and then just the diabolical richest of the rich. Sometimes I think that rich people really think like this, just without a care for anyone else in the world, and this book really takes it to the absolute extreme. Locking people up at their work station so that they don't kill themselves, putting people that they don't want around in a human sized hamster cage to live out the rest of their lives, and even letting a literal dog run their world. Who knew all of these things could go together so well?

And at the midst of the story, a man who's lost everything he cares about in life, just trying to expose the billionaires for what they really are. And taking down anyone he has to in the process. He's bad ass, and he's ready to get his revenge. I really liked reading this story, and there isn't really anything bad to say about it, at least in my opinion. I would say if you think you'd be into something like this, definitely grab a copy and check it out for yourself! I'd love to have one on my bookshelf.

(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

Welcome to Billionaire Island where anything is possible, if you can afford it. From the writer of Second Coming comes a story about what could happen if the rich decided to create their own playground in the middle of the ocean. Collects issues 1-6

It starts out dark. The rich are doing horrible things to the poor it seems even darker when looking at the real world rich say about the poor. The characters are great, and even Segal and Kid Rock made an appearance. I am super excited to get the trade and loved it the first time I read it on my pull list.

Creative Team:
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Steve Pugh
Colors: Chris Chuckry
Letters: Rob Steen

'Billionaire Island' by Mark Russell with art by Steve Pugh is a satirical graphic novel about the super rich creating a secret island where anything goes.

While the world falls apart, a group of the super rich create a floating island paradise where they can shelter. Money detectors determine who can gain access to the island. Some are content to live in giant hamster cages and be thrown food and money. But not everyone is content with the way things are happening and want to change things.

This graphic novel is aimed solidly at the super rich. Like the author's other works, it feels a bit purposefully grotesque. I would have preferred it to be a bit more subtle, but the point is well made. The art is good and some character design borders on caricature.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Ahoy, Comics, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Mark Russell is one of the best satirists in comics at the moment and has had a string of great comics including Prez, Second Coming, and a modern take on The Flintstones. Teaming up with his The Flintstones collaborator artist Steve Pugh, for Billionaire Island - a striking satire aimed directly at the mega-rich.

Billionaire Island speculates a bleak outlook for society in the decades to come. Due to the greed of the billionaire class, climate change has displaced millions and many more are jobless due to their redundancy creating technology. Seeing all the problems in the world, the world's billionaires decide to hide away from them by creating an artificial island out in international waters where they have the freedom to do what they want. A journalist and an ex-soldier infiltrate the island so they can try and make the inhabitants accountable for their actions.

Steve Pugh is a strong storyteller through his art, which offers a detailed but also clean style. This detail never feels excessive, used for creating depth and form on the page. This allows him to work on the expressiveness of the characters, which is where it really shines. Whether it's a smug look, shock, or delight, Pugh's expressions elevate the dialogue and makes it funnier.

As I have mentioned, this comic is a satire. While everything is exaggerated and a little silly, it also hits hard with its core message - the greed of the ultra-rich cause many of society's problems and have no remorse for it.

If you're looking for biting satire, that's also a lot of fun then definitely read Billionaire Island.

Well, I laughed a lot, which on its own is quite an achievement. This anti-1%, anti-globalist, anti-consumerist satire certainly is not subtle, but it's also not dumb. It harkens back to the 80s school of UK punk comics, dripping with acidic social commentary. It takes a lot of what you know already (the rich are bastards), and mixes it with genuinely funny dialogue and visual jokes. It reminds me of Russell's "Second Coming", which had a similar satirical bent, and also had real heart at the centre of it. It also helps that the art is pretty fantastic.

In the future, when the worlds is set to collapse around us because of lack of food and resources, billionaires hatch a plan to keep themselves safe: first they will sell food products that will sterilize anyone who eats them, and second, they will relocate to a floating island just for billionaires, where the only law is that you have to be worth at least a billion to set foot upon its grounds. Vigilante justice, an intrepid reported and a truly bizarre way to run the stock market follow, in a scathing commentary on humanity and the rich.

I know people have a lot of complaints about the one percenters and how they manage to stay rich. It all looks so absurd, so what happens when all of that surface level absurdity is packed together? You get Billionaire Island... sorry Freedom Unlimited. Every little nitpick that goes around about rich people being able to do whatever they want or hiding from taxes, endorsing or getting endorsements from celebrities, to how they get rich in every convoluted way. While it's best not to take everything on here seriously, it doesn't change from the main narrative. In a world where people are still hunters and gatherers by nature, do we have the power to live with ourselves without screwing ourselves over? Or do we hand everything over to the people who lucked out?

I totally enjoyed this graphic novel/comic.

The characters are well etched and the plot is quite dramatic.

I would say I enjoyed the illustrations more as it's very lively with subtle colours. It gave me the Phantom comic vibes which I totally adore.

The story is quite action packed with the art sequence maintained quite well. I love the sarcastic characters. Oh, their facial expressions though!

The ending turned out quite well.

The only thing I couldn't like much was the font size and the dialogue bubbles placement. It could have been much better and much more prominent. It was a real struggle to read the whole book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Mark Russel has become a must read author for me and his latest just continues his quality track record. Working on a creator owned property allows him to cut lose freely without pulling any punches in this sharp capitalist dystopia.

Thanks for the opportunity to review this book. I thought it was a modern take on socioeconomic elements of political climate. It’s a decent read with some cool illustrations

Yeah it's timely to be critiquing billionaires nowadays but what's the comic actually trying to say - billionaires are evil and shouldn't be? Duh. And it makes this point over and over. The shoddy way they treat people, the air of entitlement they have and so on. Really obvious stuff that's not interesting to read. Besides the satire is the feeble story which is a reporter trying to escape a room to report on this island and Some Guy with a Gun trying to kill an evil billionaire, neither of which were particularly driving storylines. Mark Russell and Steve Pugh did alright with The Flintstones, partly because nobody expected them to do anything half-decent with it, but this follow-up is unremarkable, flat and boring for the most part - a weak, toothless satire that fails to entertain or make anything but the most elementary points anyone with half a brain is already aware of.