Archaia Entertainment Presents: Alyssa Milano’s ‘Hacktivist’

This January, Archaia Entertainment/BOOM! Studios will be launching HACKTIVIST, a new miniseries created by actress, philanthropist, and activist Alyssa Milano. HACKTIVIST -- hacker + activist -- centers on two friends with a powerful social network, and explores the consequences of making information open to the world. Joining Milano for the four-issue series are writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and artist Marcus To (HACKTIVIST also features colors by Ian Herring and letters by Deron Bennett).

Today at Stan Lee's Comikaze, Milano, Lanzing, and Kelly took to the stage to talk about the series, their inspiration, and their target message. HACKTIVIST explores, in sequential format, how technology can be used to effect social change -- Milano had come across the concept of hacking for good, and extended the idea into a setting that might not be too unrealistic. Inspiration for the miniseries is taken directly from current events in tech and activism, but at its core, it's a story about people and how they interact with each other.

The HACKTIVIST team did extensive research during the series' creation, reaching out to experts from all angles of the story. On the "hacktivist" side, the creators spoke with software developers and self-styled "hackers" to get a feel for what's really happening in terms of coding for change, and on the "authority" side, they ran scripts by acquaintances with government security gigs. The idea, as Lanzing mentioned, was not to vilify groups like Anonymous, nor to turn them into heroes, but instead to use their space as a setting for a compelling story.

A 12-page preview of the series can be found on -- what else but -- a secret site. If you'd like some hints about cracking into sve_Urs3lf, check out Alyssa's -- or her hacker's -- tweets:

HACKTIVIST is available in January 2014, and will be collected in hardcover in Summer 2014.

Cool idea. But if they expect me to figure out some code. They can forget it.

@allstarsuperman: If you want a cheat, someone rather nicely posted a video clip from today's panel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opkOHBHVTi4&sns=tw :)

cool

@missj: thanks

Looks interesting, I will definitely check it out.

Fake twitter hacking, how very trite

@ptigrusmagus: Cheer up, it's not the end of the world. Check out the preview.

"Open your eyes. Rethink impossible."

If that's the code, it wasn't very difficult.

Don't get it

Yup, pretty easy to guess - it's openyoureyes/rethinkimpossible btw.

The preview's pretty cool and definitely worth hacking the site.

Oh, another cover...

Think I'll pass

I want to see what Alyssa Milano can do. I will check it out =)

Pretty cool concept. Especially with marketing. You had me at To.

I'm ashamed my crappy comment incited a response, apologies as it does reflect anything about the comic itself.

Did you check out Cyborg 009? To's work is phenomenal there.

Woah! =O Alyssa Milano is creating this? Cannot wait! I love her!

Can't wait to check this out!

Can't wait.