Billionaire Island #3: It’s a Dog Eat World

People don’t want freedom or justice or even a world that makes sense. All they want is to feel like someone’s in charge. They want a prison that doesn’t ask too much of them.

That, in a nutshell, is Billionaire Island. Mark Russell and Steve Pugh have crafted a terrifyingly real-feeling world with this allegedly satirical book. When you account for the fact that this issue was actually created in days before “life in the times of COVID”, that creeping eerieness feels even more validated. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is certainly not for the #fakenews crowd. It will make you uncomfortable; it will force you look inward and outward. But most importantly, and a measuring stick I gauge a book’s merit on, this book will stick with you long after reading it.

As critical as the writing for a book of this nature is, the artwork manages to carry more than it’s fair share. Steve Pugh does incredible work conveying feelings through facial expressions in this book. Each character is an archtype in a way of the horrors of the real world but without the caricature work done here by Pugh, that could easily be lost. The two together are a pairing like cheese and wine.

There is so much I want to discuss with this series in general and this issue in particular (how does one even begin a discussion on Business Dog?) but at the same time, I want you– nay, I need you– to experience this book for yourself. With only one issue to go, there is no time like the present to get out there and read Billionaire Island. You’ll either thank me or hate me, and I’m fine with either.