Billionaire Island to skewer “the cult of power”

Billionaire Island is an upcoming six issue mini-series from the writer of the controversial Jesus comic Second Coming.

The series, which Insights previewed when it was announced, tells the story of a group of billionaires that leave society for Freedom Unlimited (FU) Island, a private resort without laws. A deeply satirical tale, it skewers topics like wealth inequality. Delivering this is Second Coming scribe Mark Russell and artist Steve Pugh.

In a recent interview, Mr Russell told Insights that the series marks a deliberate departure from the kind of material he explored in Second Coming.

“I like to write about different things. It’s like rotating your crops. You can’t just keep planting corn on the same patch of land. You got to plant some clover or you’re going to wear out the land,” Mr Russell said.

“Luckily for me, there’s a lot of things in the world that I’m deeply troubled by, so there’s a lot of different stories and subjects I want to address. I suppose they are connected, if only obliquely: Second Coming being about how the cult of power has become our de facto religion, and Billionaire Island being how that cult of power is going to destroy us all.”

Tonally, Mr Russell said that the work is more similar to his earlier works, including Prez, and Flintstones, “In that it’s more off-the-wall and openly satirical. It’s absurd, but sadly no more so than the truth.”

“I think I write about the things that bother me, which these days, is increasingly the fact that we’re all going to die. And whatever chance we had to avoid that fate is slipping away because we’ve elected to give all the world’s resources to people who think they’re rich enough to survive it. It’s like asking the people in the lifeboats to return and help fix the ship. Knowing this, it becomes hard not to become preoccupied with it.”

Billionaire Island’s release date is still a few months away. Before that date, Second Coming will wrap up its story with its final issue. Insights will have reviews of both comics on their respective release dates.

Billionaire Island releases in March.

Jonathan Foye is Insights’ Editor