Complemented by a special eight-page color feature, this entry in the cult classic series follows the enigmatic megalopolic master planner known as Mr. X, whose obsessive quest to build the ultimate city is transformed into a horrific nightmare. Original.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
In 1983, designer Motter invented a visually striking, enigmatic figure with a bald head, dark glasses, and black trenchcoat. Fleshing out the concept, he turned the character into Mister X, a brilliant architect responsible for Radiant City. Inspired by Le Corbusier's utopian vertical metropolis, the project boasted "psychetecture" designed to positively alter its residents' mental states. But the developer cut corners, and the city instead has a deleterious, dehumanizing effect. After suffering a breakdown caused by the drug he takes to avoid sleep, Mister X returns to try to reverse the deterioration. More fun than its ponderous premise sounds, the tale is enlivened by gangsters, glamour gals, and romantic intrigue. Rather than writing and drawing it himself, Motter enlisted alternative and mainstream comics talents, including Love and Rockets' Hernandez brothers, Sandman-cover-artist Dave McKean (this was his first published comics work), and a pre-Palookaville Seth, who all followed Motter's general story line and visual approach. The rotating hands hinder continuity some, but the grand design, equal parts Metropolis and film noir, carries the day. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
missing critical pages!,
By
This review is from: Mr. X: The Definitive Collection, Vol. 1 (Paperback)
I read the series near the end of the initial run, and caught up with the original hardcover "The Return of Mr. X" which included only the first 4 issues, the Hernandez Bros. issues. First, the quality of this, at least the copy I got, is terrible. The color is a mess, the registration is a mess, it's dark and muddy. Second, as mentioned below, in at least 2 or 3 places, there are complete pages totally missing. It's obvious as instead, they repeat an earlier page. And I'd say if not in both, in least one instance, the page is completely critical to following the story and seeing how it unfolds.
It's also a shame that this book doesn't include the 3 Tales from Somnopolis back-up stories Gilbert and Mario created for the hardcover Return Of... collection. If you want, Gilbert's stuff was recently published by Fantagraphics in a one-off called Tales from Shock City or something. Finally, I think the intros were pretty off-base in their complete dismissal of the efforts of the Hernandez Brothers. Yes, I'm a big Love and Rockets fan, but I was also a fan of Motter's story, of Rivoche's illustrations, Seth's work, etc. But Motter saying Jaime's illustrations don't capture the art-deco look of their intended aesthethic? That just seems odd. There are any number of beautiful examples of Jaime drawing Radiant City in the same manner as Motter and Rivoche had created it. If you want the complete story, the easiest thing is to buy both volumes of this collection, but I'd really suggest you look for The Return of Mr. X trade paperback. The hardcover costs a bit of money now, but I think there was a softcover edition as well, so you'll at least get the proper pages, not to mention much higher quality reproduction. Of course if you can find the hardcover, go for it, it's a beautiful collection including the aforementioned Gilbert/Mario stories and even more background material, including some beautiful Paul Rivoche pages from the original proposed Mr. X.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Avoid this reissue!,
By Greg (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mr. X: The Definitive Collection, Vol. 1 (Paperback)
Don't get this version - it's full of mistakes. Pages are missing, others are duplicated or out-of-order. Really sad, because Mr. X is a great work. But iBooks really screwed this reissue up. I don't know about volume 2, because why get it if this one is so badly printed?
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
WHO-- IS-- "Mister X" ?????,
By
This review is from: Mr. X: The Definitive Collection, Vol. 1 (Paperback)
Designers Dean Motter & Paul Rivoche concocted the premise of a detective working in "Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS". Cool idea. A slew of promotional posters set the comics world on fire anticipating the series. But before the 1st issue was ever drawn, Motter got bored with the concept, and creative disagreements saw Rivoche walk without pencilling a single issue. Sheesh. DESPITE this, a dense, FASCINATING, sometimes stunning, if often flawed work emerged.
Under a dazzling series of covers by Rivoche & Motter, The Hernandez Bros. (LOVE & ROCKETS) supplied the art for the initial episodes, which introduce the locale and the characters. We have Arnie Zamora, a gangster-gone-(not quite) straight, his faithful goons and his irresponsible moll, Patrice; Mercedes, the sweet-hearted waitress (my favorite character in the series); and the mysterious title character, who seems to be known by different names to quite a few people. "X" gets in Zamora's way, Patrice plays a joke on her man, and by the end of part 2 things take a VERY abrupt, surprising turn for "poor" Arnie. Parts 3 & 4 find "X" hospitalized due to an accident. While there, he hallucinates about his past... but is it really HIS past we see? A picture begins to take shape about who this guy Mercedes calls "Santos" really is, and one might mistakenly get comfortable by the end of episode 4. But then things go REALLY strange in Ep.5, "The Bizarre Death Of Walter Eichmann"-- when the man we've been led to believe "X" really is turns up, fills us in on a completely DIFFERENT view of events, only to get murdered before we're sure one way or the other. Klaus Schonefeld's pencils this episode, and his architecture seems to capture Rivoche's original intent better than the Hernandez boys; but I prefer their people to his. Ty Templeton's inks are sharp & refined. Sadly, the new team lasted only ONE episode. Schonefeld began his own "sister book", KELVIN MACE, a comedy (?) about a halfwit, excessively-violent detective who appears to operate in the same town as Mister X; while Templeton did the genuinely funny STIG'S INFERNO. Ty went on to do a lot of work at DC Comics (JUSTICE LEAGUE, etc.) while tragically, Klaus was killed in a biking accident after only completing 2 issues of his own series. Newcomer Seth picked up the ball for the rest of the long initial storyline. Frankly, his art is too "loose" for my tastes-- not just "cartoony" but like someone still learning how to draw people. Also, the "storytelling" is a bit more distant, dense and hard to figure out. It's been said one should either tell simple stories in a complex fashion, or complex stories in a SIMPLE fashion. When you have a complex mystery and the storytelling makes it VERY difficult to figure out what you're looking at, it can be a problem. At any rate, ep. 6, "The Revenge Of Zamora", sees a maddened Arnie, escaped from jail, out to get the people who did him wrong. As it unfolds, it becomes more and more confusing... Is "Mister X" THIS guy-- THIS guy-- or THAT guy??? Only Arnie seems to have REALLY figured it out-- but his growing brutality and violence finally catches up with him before it can do him any good, OR he can tell anyone what he knows!! Like the climax of ep.2, ep.6 ends ABRUPTLY, shockingly, but SATISFYINGLY. Except... WE still don't know for sure who "X" is! "THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION Volume One" is not without flaws. In ep.2, pages 9 & 10 are reversed, and page 17 is missing, replaced by page 17 from ep.1. Then, in ep.4, page 9 is missing, replaced by page 9 from ep.3! I don't understand a "professional" publisher letting stuff like this slip by, but it does suggest behind-the-scenes problems that led to the company going BELLY-UP only months after VOL.2 was issued-- months late. VOL.1 contains Dave McKean's wonderful, spooky "Tales From Somnopolis" episode as a prologue, and Bill Sienkiewicz's incomprehensible (and unfinished) mess, "The Brain Of Mister X", as bonuses, along with a collection of Paul Rivoche's sketches & promotional posters, SOME of which would have made BETTER covers than what actually got used. (See page 6 for what I feel SHOULD have been the cover for issue #1!) But oddly, the original "Tales of Somnopolis" back-up stories are missing. WHY??? But MY main problem is the "design" work. The book is printed on the SAME size paper as the original comics-- but the art, on those pages, has been SHRUNK from 9-1/4" to 8-1/2" in height. WHY??? Then you've got those book page numbers, enclosed in little red "X"'s, where the numbers are SO SMALL you can hardly read them. For a book so concerned with "design", this is inexcusable. Motter went on to do a sequel to THE PRISONER (the nerve of some people!) as well as TERMINAL CITY and ELECTROPOLIS, both of which can be viewed as sequels to MISTER X. Rivoche did stunning work on designs & backgrounds for Warner Bros.' cartoon series of BATMAN, SUPERMAN and JUSTICE LEAGUE. When I look at the opening credits of the feature film, BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM, I think, "WOW!!!" Those guys should adapt MISTER X into animated form. They could do it without changing the story, but the art could be done much more "consistent" in look and quality. Despite the flaws of the work and the package, I HIGHLY reccomend this (especially for the price it can currently be found at). But for goodness' sake, get BOTH volumes!!! It's the ONLY way to really, completely understand the ENTIRE story. And now, you won't have to wait years-- or even months-- between episodes.
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