Anticucho & Other Peruvian Cyberpunk Stories 

Created by Gustaffo Vargas

Colour Flats – Laura Dragon, English language adaptation – Fraser Campbell, Proof Readers – Tom Woolnough, Gab Contreras

As I look out of the window the rain drizzles down on a grey Scottish Sunday in June. It feels like summer is a fiction, a concept that belongs to the past. Something stolen from us by climate change or maybe a curse laid on us by one of those witches we liked to burn around here not so long ago. What better time to pick up Anticucho & Other Peruvian Cyberpunk Stories, the latest book from Gustaffo Vargas. 

Travel to the streets of Lima, Peru – or at least a cyberpunk version of that city. In the heat of the city streets you will find bustling markets, food vendors selling their delicious wares and millions of people making their way and surviving from day to day. You will find ramshackle buildings and rooftops with cables hanging from them like jungle vines. And of course you will find the gangs, the heavies and the hustlers, the clenched fist and the nimble fingers. Los Chavines and Pirañas.

The main character of Anticucho and all of the short stories in this volume, is the city of Lima – “you love hating her and hate loving her”. The city is the one presence that can never be beaten, that soaks up the blood on the streets, swallows the trash and is up and ready with the dawn. An eternal presence and more than just a stage for the drama of the other characters. The city is portrayed at all levels from the rooftop vistas to the street level markets and alleyways. I know it is a reviewer cliché to say that the city is a character in the story, but it really is.

Bodies are new continents for conquest, the spreading tech like conquistadors and the ragged street gangs the last resistance. The city, a battleground between rich and poor, old and new, indigenous and European. 

Those characters are designed to fit into the city. Inspired by the culture, mythology and wildlife of the region the character design is outstanding in this world and absolutely central to the story. The swarm of young street kids in the Piraña gang who prowl the rooftops and stalk the markets with their streetwear and skate style armour. The menace of the Los Chavines crew who are inspired by Pre-Columbian culture fused with futuristic cyberpunk technology. Whether traditional textiles or hand me down soccer shirts the look is believable and fitting. You can’t imagine these characters wearing anything else.

Cyberpunk technology is worked into the environment. We see city raptors turned into spy drones, squid with occult bio-tech and neurofish who can bring down the biggest human prey. Mutated bodies of soft organic flesh merge with hard metal and plastic. Bodies are new continents for conquest, the spreading tech like conquistadors and the ragged street gangs the last resistance. Those who come into contact with this invader are changed and will never be the same again. The city, a battleground between rich and poor, old and new, indigenous and European. 

Maybe one thing unites the city though, and that is food. The titular story Anticucho sees the gangs race through the markets of the town. Markets filled with delicious food – arroz con leche, lomo saltado, ceviche. This story is one of the most inventive in the book as multiple angled panels follow our young protagonists as they charge through the streets and rooftops. The richly coloured foods inform the colour palette of the pages. All racing to the final prize, a delicious plate of grilled meat – anticucho.

Looks like the sun is poking out from the clouds, a bit of warmth is spreading around the land. Maybe the bruja has forgiven us. Maybe.

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You can find Anticucho & Other Peruvian Cyberpunk Stories and more at Gustaffo Vargas’ website. Gustaffo also has an upcoming kickstarter for the third volume of his sketchbook. As someone who has several of his pieces, I can highly recommend you check it out!