‘Silicon Valley’ gets a fitting graphic novel treatment in new Season 4 poster

HBO just unveiled the official trailer for the new season of “Silicon Valley” as well as a poster created by artist Daniel Clowes. With the fourth season of the comedy series, we find Richard (Thomas Middleditch) ready to jump ship at Pied Piper and venture out on his own, with the always loyal Jared (Zach Woods) in tow.

While his future is vague, Richard does hint at a couple of potential passion projects — does he really want to disrupt the internet? Is he taking on VR? Whatever he ends up doing, his posse of tech misfits will be there to make sure things go up in flames eventually work out…

While it’s initially frustrating that Pied Piper may be abandoned after three seasons of hard work, this notion that there’s always a shinier project to work on is part of the show’s brilliance. Remember when Pied Piper was compression software? Then potentially a video streaming service. And now a chat app? It highlights the notion that our ragtag band of programmers is seemingly adrift in the world of tech, a common trait in the real Silicon Valley the show so easily skewers.

Fitting then, that the Season 4 poster would get the Daniel Clowes illustration treatment. Famed for his surreal take on reality — his early work featuring a blend of kitsch and the grotesque, his later style a bit more grounded in real life — Clowes’ graphic novels often explore themes of human isolation and societal decay.

His biggest commercial success, “Ghost World,” follows two teenage girls, Enid and Rebecca, who wander around their unnamed town criticizing pop culture while wondering what to do with their lives after graduation high school. Like the boys of Silicon Valley, Enid and Rebecca are easily disparaging of the world around them, only begrudgingly examining their own lives and motivations.

In his “Silicon Valley” poster, Clowes features the Pied Piper gang in full color, front and center, with a familiar mix of bewilderment, uncertainty, and irritation on their faces. In the background, matted in a gray blue, are all the opposing forces they face: Monica (Amanda Crew) and Laurie (Suzanne Cryer), who are always ready to support the group’s genius; Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) who’s always ready to profit it from them, regardless of how; and Big Head (Josh Brener), who’s always ready to just go along for the ride.

Some other gems from the trailer, below:

• Dinesh (Dinesh Chugtai) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) are seen willingly wearing matching silk pajamas in the last scene. Are they finally BFF’s??
• Erlich (T.J. Miller) mansplaining “mansplaining” to Laurie and Monica — so clearly nothing’s changed with him.
• Jared‘s version of a drumroll is PITCH PERFECT.

Season 4 of “Silicon Valley” premieres Sunday, April 23rd at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.

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