Attaboy is a graphic novel disguised as a retro video game manual

(Image credit: Mad Cave Studios)

Tony McMillen, the writer/artist behind coming-of-age horror comedy Serious Creatures is back with an innovative new graphic novel. Attaboy is a science fiction adventure comic cunningly disguised as the instruction booklet for a video game.

Attaboy started life as a successfully funded Kickstarter a few years back before being picked up by Mad Cave Studios. The story follows a "byte-sized" (we see what they did there) hero as he attempts to avenge the loss of his father, Dr. Atta, in what is described as a "colorful and personal allegory of grief."

Here's McMillen's own cover art for the book.

The cover for Attaboy — (Image credit: Mad Cave Studios)

Mad Cave Studio's official description of the new book reads:

"Attaboy, the "byte"-sized hero, is forced to avenge the destruction of his father and creator, Dr. Atta, by the sinister rebellious mechazoid Motherboard. However, the turn of each page unravels a much deeper story of pixelated thoughts, real-world references, and heartbreaking truths."

"Comics are a lonely pursuit in a lot of ways. Especially self-publishing comics," said Tony McMillen of creating the project. "After posting Attaboy on Kickstarter four years ago, I'm tremendously happy that the book has found a new home with Mad Cave Studios. Having a group of savvy people who are as excited as I am about this makes me confident that the large audience we both feel is waiting for a book like this will sit up and take notice…and that makes my toes tap!"

Attaboy is published by Mad Cave Studios on May 7, 2024.

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Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.