Utopiates, Vol. One
Written by Josh Finney
Art by Josh Finney and Kat Rocha
Cover by Salvador Trakal
01 Publishing
Release Date: August 21, 2012
Cover Price: $12.80

In the 1970s, during the Vietnam War, there were many US soldiers who became dependent on opiates, specifically heroin. There were many stories and conspiracy theories surrounding possible CIA involvement in providing the addicted troops with the drug, but whatever the case, many of them came home as addicts. It was a further complication added to their return home from the war, and was an issue that inspired the great Geezer Butler of the band Black Sabbath to write the song “Hand of Doom“.

In Utopiates, we have a tale that mirrors these elements of combatants returning home as addicts. Set in an unclear timeframe in the future, though presumably not too distant, the War on Terror continues against elements in the Middle East. A mass casualty nuclear explosion in Detroit set off by a terrorist named Abu Rahman, spurs the nation into further fighting in Syria, Iraq, and other nations in the region.