Customer Reviews

Mister X Archives (Archive Editions (Graphic Novels))

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I'm not "new" to the graphic novel/comic book world, but I'm no expert either.
That being said, I feel I should say that the Mister X title magazine was published, originally, years before I was born. I never read it in it's original pulp glory, and I probably never will, but I have an affinity for Art Deco and Sci-Fi that made this book stand out to me. I was not disappointed.

I couldn't have asked for better art in a comic of this style, truly magnificent. There are panels in it that I keep going back to, over and over, just appreciating their fantastical simplicity.

But since art is only half of what makes up a comic, I feel I should mention the writing as well. Motter's concept lands hard to a pulp sci-fi fan: an unbelievably enormous city, designed with an attentiveness to a phenomenon Motter calls "Psychetecture" (the buildings' affects on the mind), is driving its dinizens into madness, and one of the architects seeks to correct the mistakes. Mister X is the enigmatic anti-hero architect. He is a man whose identity is, at best, slippery. A significant portion of the comics are devoted to pinning down just who X is (a confusing endeavor at best). The rest is devoted to what seem to be disjointed sub-plots. This was frustrating for me to read, but I appreciated my own confusion as the story built and it became more and more clear just how far Mister X was from sanity. I felt like I was accompanying this nameless individual during his retreat from the wholesome and tangible.

To emphasize this descent, the book closes with a couple of one-shot glimpses back into the city after the events of the story. One of them is a collaboration between Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. McKean is a master of illustrating madness, loneliness, and fear (for the best example of this, see his collaboration with Grant Morrison: Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)). Gaiman's writing in this section is vague and disappointing compared to his other works, but it follows the spirit of Motter's collective work.

From my own point of view, I found the entirety of this archive to be well worth the purchase. It is bound well, the paper is high quality. Between the individual comics, there are posters made by the original concept artist, Rivoche, which are exceptionally captivating. For some, the art itself will justify the purchase, and for others, the strange writing style will make this book a painfully confusing read.

I am new to Mister X. I first browsed the pages and loved the early Hernandez Bros work, but then I was quickly drawn in to this twisty developing story with such a great variety of Artists. I thoroughly recommend this to both lovers of superheroes (not me) and lovers of great art and social drama. Get it while you can.

Mister X tells the story of a mysterious character, bald, wearing dark glasses and a trench coat, haunting the streets and secret passageways of Radiant City. The city, a futuristic metropolis in the vein of, well, Fritz Lang's Metropolis and other 30s and 40s vintage visions of the future, somehow seems to be driving its citizens mad. Mister X claims it is his job to fix things.

But why him? Who is Mister X? This becomes one of the central mysteries of the book, and while the question seems to be finally answered in the new conclusion found here, I think I need to reread it in order to fully process it. It's all so screwy and twisty that when the answers finally come, they aren't straightforward or easy. Which is fine; anything less wouldn't have been satisfying.

When I was a kid, the comic didn't really come out on anything resembling a regular schedule, so this is the first time I've been able to read the whole story at once. It's every bit as enjoyable now as it was then. It's weird, seeing the early work by the Hernandez's here, as well as early work by Seth, who has grown so much between then and the work he's doing in Palookaville these days.

Mister X is regarded as a seminal work, and I think it's as much responsible for the way science fiction setting are done in comics as Blade Runner is for the movies. Certainly for me, Mister X was my introduction to sci fi noir (if not noir altogether). It's tough for me to think of another story that blended imagery from the past with a complicated, contemporary story in quite the same way before this.

Germsn Expessionism? Art Deco? paranoia? insomnia? Master of Disguise? Secret Passage's, Single Minded Self Imposed reconstruction? So Much To Do ....So Little Time?

Are You Interested In These Things? Do These Things Pop In And Out Of Your Life? Or Would You Just Like To See For Yourself How These Things Will Forever Haunt.....Mister X.

.....Radiant City Will Never Be The Same Again.

This Book Is A Must-Have, Brilliant Color From Cover To Cover.

First Time Color Treatment For Most Of This '80 Classic.

Get It Now, Or Forever Succum To The Mystery Of Mister X.