Brain Dead's CyberCon Brings Iggor Cavalera and a Magic: The Gathering Collab to LA

Brain Dead is giving its Los Angeles cinema over to a week of cyberpunk in November. Fantasy Fest: CyberCon runs from November 10 to 15 at Brain Dead Studios, with film screenings, two live anime scores, hands-on tech workshops, a book launch and, to close it, Magic: The Gathering tournaments in Los Angeles and Portland. Brain Dead describes it as a week dedicated to cyberpunk, DIY tech, mech kitbashing and model making, live anime scores and tabletop gaming, and every event is ticketed on its own.

Two live scores

The headline night is Thursday, November 12: Iggor Cavalera, whom Brain Dead bills by way of Sepultura, Cavalera Conspiracy and Soulwax, plays a live score to Mamoru Oshii's 1985 film Angel's Egg, with its concept art by Yoshitaka Amano. Brain Dead's post promises noise, drums and effects pedals.

Brain Dead

On Saturday, November 14, SoSuperSam and Kyle Ng score Interstella 5555 (2003), the anime film made as a visual companion to Daft Punk's Discovery, with Leiji Matsumoto as its visual supervisor.

The rest of the cinema programme: Robot Carnival (1987) on Tuesday, November 10; Telefantasy Studios presenting Neurocrash with Blake Anderson and friends on Wednesday; the launch and exhibition of PEOW's book Nirasawa: Creature Core, with a Zimmerit panel and a screening of Godzilla: Final Wars, on Friday; Rubber's Lover (1996) late on Saturday; and Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 back to back on Sunday afternoon.

Build it yourself

Two nights are workshops. On November 10, the Highland Park game store Garbage Elemental runs a build-your-own handheld session: each ticket comes with the parts for a custom console that plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, plus a game, and no soldering is needed. It is already down to a waitlist. On November 12, Lisa Winter leads Forge Your Node, an hour-long class in which everyone assembles, flashes and sets up a Meshtastic node, an off-grid mesh-network device for sending encrypted messages without cell service or Wi-Fi, and takes it home. Bring a laptop and a USB-C data cable.

Magic: The Gathering, and a new collab

The week ends on Sunday, November 15, with Magic: The Gathering pre-constructed Commander tournaments at noon in two cities: at Homage Brewing on North Main Street in Los Angeles and at Brujos Brewing in northwest Portland. Entry is $60, and Brain Dead's posters promise an MTG and Brain Dead merch collection and prizes. Brain Dead says it will also release its latest collaboration with Magic alongside other CyberCon merch, and that you don't need a ticket to shop it. It hasn't shown the pieces or prices yet.

Brain Dead

"Latest" is the word to note. In 2024 the two released Secret Lair x Brain Dead: three drops of cards, Creatures, Lands and Staples, at $29.99 each or $39.99 in foil, sold from July 29 to August 18 as part of the Inside an Elevator Superdrop, with a Brain Dead merch collection launched the next day.

The read

For a clothing label, this is a week with almost no clothing in it, and that's the point. Brain Dead has spent years building a world around the brand, a cinema included, and CyberCon puts that world on the calendar for six days: the anime, the creature design, the noise and the card games the brand keeps coming back to. The new Magic collaboration is the only collaboration named, and the open question is what it is: cards, as in 2024, or apparel and accessories. Brain Dead hasn't said, and the tournaments are on November 15.