Last month, the fourth season of the twisted anthology series Black Mirror debuted on Netflix and gave us more than enough to dwell on for the foreseeable future. Charlie Brooker and his collaborators seem to have an innate ability to get under our collective skin while dropping us into dark reflections of our world. Now, Brazilian artist Butcher Billy is taking that a step further by reimagining all six episodes as old school comic book covers under the banner “Tales of the Unexpected Black Mirrors.”
Via Laughing Squid, Butcher Billy has posted his latest Black Mirror covers in his Behance gallery, and they are absolutely brilliant. They not only capture the flavor of the pre-Comics Code comic book covers, they also manage to distill the episodes into a single powerful image. There isn’t a Black Mirror comic book series, but he certainly makes us wish that there was.
The first cover has a particularly chilling moment from “USS Callister,” in which Nanette Cole was briefly stripped of her facial features when she refuses to go along with Robert Daly’s game.
Butcher Billy’s “Arkangel” cover makes its angelic symbol into an imposing figure, which is fitting for an episode about the new technology used by parents to watch over and control their children.
“Crocodile” captures a very dark moment by enshrouding its leading character, Mia, completely in shadow with an innocent child.
Butcher Billy also goes for the minimalist approach with “Hang the DJ,” which simply focuses on the intertwined hands of Frank and Amy during their limited time together.
“Metal Head” has a cover that seems to invoke classic animators Max Fleischer and Tex Avery as Bella attempts to survive a pack of robot dogs.
Finally, “Black Museum” leaves us with a striking image of a stuffed monkey that has very good reasons to cry. Trust us, it’s pretty bleak!
You can find more of Butcher Billy’s artwork and prints for sale at his RedBubble shop.
What did you think about these Black Mirror comic book covers? Let us know in the comment section below!
Images: Butcher Billy
Get weird with more Black Mirror!
- All of Black Mirror‘s season four easter eggs.
- Karl Pilkington predicted an episode of Black Mirror.
- Ross Geller did that, too.
