The dark and surreal comic, Upgrade Soul, by Ezra Claytan Daniels expands with an original vinyl soundtrack and innovative app. For a mesmerizing reading experience, get ready to put your headphones on and start swiping through the panels.
An elderly couple who volunteer themselves for an experimental scientific procedure intended to rejuvenate their aging bodies. When the procedure goes horribly wrong, creating physically disfigured but intellectually superior clones of the couple, the scientists, the couple, and their clones must grapple with existential questions of morality—with very real consequences.
Here are 5 reasons why we’re excited for Upgrade Soul:
5) The History!
Originally conceived as a digital graphic novel, Daniels spent a decade writing and drawing Upgrade Soul before being published by Lion Forge. Now the graphic novel will be published as an interactive iOS comic app,
4) The App!
With the app designed by Erik Loyer, the two-time Webby Awards Official Honoree states, “Now technology has caught up and enabled us to finish the project as we originally intended, with the rich interactive score, 3D picture-box effects, and seamless navigation that makes the experience so immersive. There’s a reason why we put it on the App Store in the ‘Entertainment’ category—it’s not an ‘enhanced’ version of a print graphic novel, it’s its own unique thing.”
3) Goblin & John Carpenter!
Hip hop producer Alexis Gideon created the music for Upgrade Soul and adds, “I tried to draw out some of the unsettling and cinematic sci-fi/horror undertones of the book with Goblin and John Carpenter-esque compositions. The inquisitive and philosophical nature of Upgrade Soul’s story encouraged me to experiment with searching and soundscape compositions.”
2) The Limited Edition!
Chicago’s FPE Records will release the soundtrack in two formats. There will be a regular black vinyl edition and a limited deluxe edition; a translucent orange vinyl, with red markings, and a signed print by Daniels. Make sure to get your hands on the deluxe edition because only 100 copies will be released.
1) Did Somebody Say Free?!?
The app will include the first story’s chapter as a free download. Throughout the month of October, the entire story of Upgrade Soul can be unlocked for $6.99. Beginning November 1st, the entire book can be unlocked for $7.99.
The Upgrade Soul app and the soundtrack will be available October 25th, 2019.