Shatter [Paperback]

Mike Saenz (Author), Peter Gillis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2006

Yesterday's future returns in this sparkling archival collection of the world's first computerized comic book. In the day before tomorrow, all jobs are temporary, and control is in the hands of a few ruthless men. The world's biggest, most influential media syndicate has accidentally discovered a limitless source of cheap creative talent: stealing people's brains out of their heads. Only one man can stop them: a temporary cop with a golden brain. A man on a mission whose mind is capable of absorbing the talents of others... permanently. A man named Sadr al-din Morales. His friends call him... SHATTER.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The story content of this reprint from the mid-1980s is still interesting, but the art looks stiff and awkward. However, the art is what makes it really worth reprinting: Shatter was the first comic to be drawn on a computer, a Macintosh that could produce art at 72 dots per inch vs. today's typical 1,300 per inch. Pioneering artist Saenz was learning how to control this new tool and simultaneously demonstrating that a computer could be a valid creative platform. Appropriately, Gillis's script echoed Blade Runner by following an alienated detective's investigation of the scary but intriguing possibilities of new technology. The eponymous hero is a freelance cop for hire who tries to maintain his own integrity while solving RNA thefts that threaten to compromise individual identity. The art sometimes reinforces the story's mood by its dazzling complexity, sometimes distracts by its low-resolution gawkiness. At their best, though, the episodes in this collection do communicate the excitement of discovering new possibilities. Each page seems to be saying, "Maybe this experiment doesn't work, so we'll just try something else—and we can do it better next time!" In fact, the current crop of comics artists has learned to do it better. But Shatter did it first. (July)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: AiT/PlanetLar (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932051449
• ISBN-13: 978-1932051445
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,767,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sci-Fi at it's best, October 30, 2007

By 

sead0g - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shatter (Paperback)

This is and always will be one of my favorite graphic novels ever. HOWEVER, buyer be warned that there are two versions of this novel, a colored and a black and white one.

This is the black and white one.

This product also leaves out the last episode that finishes the novel, for some wacked out reason. That's the only reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. My suggestion is to find the colored version, which usually has the same looking front cover except the background is BLACK instead of white.

As far as the story and art is concerned, it is TOP NOTCH, especially being the first comic ever to be done using a computer. LOVE IT!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fairly neat--uses a rat brain-- cheaper than a MICROCHIP any day!, January 28, 2007

By 

7-zark-7 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shatter (Paperback)

This is a very cool, highly recommended book. If you're a digital artist of whatever stripe, you'll be interested in the art and production of "Shatter." Long time veterans of digital graphics will either look at this with either warm nostalgia, as I do, or with dread recalling the old days of computer graphics. Either way, you have to admire the intricate, painstaking work of creating a comic in one of the earliest paint programs (MacPaint). In black and white. With a mouse. *click!* *click!*

Stylistically, Mike Saenz' work reminds me of a jittery, over-caffeinated digitized version of French cartoonist Moebius (Jean Giraud). That's a good thing. 1985's "Shatter" itself is set in a world that's a head-on collision between 1982's "Blade Runner" and 1997's "The Fifth Element."

I have the original comics from the eighties, which were in color whereas this graphic novel is in black and white. I'm a little torn on the color issue, but the art in this book is actually much, much sharper than it was in the original comics, and works well, maybe even better, without the color. The original comics were colored by hand using watercolors, I believe, after being printed on a dot matrix printer.

All in all, this is a very solid book, and I'm very pleased that it is back in print for a new generation of fans.