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A review by davybaby
Dial H, Vol. 1: Into You by China Miéville
3.0
I read this as a fan of China Mieville. And while it is fun, it has nowhere near the imagination and glorious weirdness of his prose.
The story is that ordinary obese loser Nelson lucks into finding a magical phone. Whenever he dials HERO on it, he channels a random bizarre superhero from somewhere. These are often silly, and occasionally fascinating. Needless to say, Nelson stumbles into adventures. There are occasional bizarre concepts and interesting character moments, but most of the comic you spend waiting to see what the next weird hero will be. For example, my favorite so far...
The book is funny and mind-bendy, similar in tone to Alan Moore's [b:Tom Strong Vol. 1|821801|Tom Strong, Vol. 1|Alan Moore|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348565569s/821801.jpg|2108133] For example, in one scene Mieville pays homage to the painful early days of comicdom when Nelson's partner in heroing won't let him leave the house as a racially insensitive hero:
The art is fine, but I think it would be very difficult as an artist to keep up with the abstractions and weirdness that Mieville routinely explores. For example, one of the main villains in the early story arc is a sentient void-being called Abyss. Abyss is made of the nothingness between stars out in space, and so moves through space feeding on light. Its body is essentially a wormhole into the darkness of space. The artist does fairly well with this very strange concept, but I think it's stronger as an idea than it often comes out in the book.
As I said, I enjoyed this, but it hasn't yet impressed me as equal to the rest of Mieville's work. I would be curious to see what a more abstract artist may do when teaming up with Mieville (Mike Mignola, Tim Sale, or Frank Miller come to mind).
Mignola's Hellboy
Tim Sale's Joker
Frank Miller's Sin City
Or perhaps an artist with a handle on the bizarre (Paul Pope or Dave McKean maybe)
Paul Pope
McKean's cover for Arkham Asylum
Sorry. This is getting out of control. I just figured out how to post a picture. I'll stop now.
Anyway, Dial H is fun, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for those who aren't fans of superhero comics. Because it way is.
The story is that ordinary obese loser Nelson lucks into finding a magical phone. Whenever he dials HERO on it, he channels a random bizarre superhero from somewhere. These are often silly, and occasionally fascinating. Needless to say, Nelson stumbles into adventures. There are occasional bizarre concepts and interesting character moments, but most of the comic you spend waiting to see what the next weird hero will be. For example, my favorite so far...
The book is funny and mind-bendy, similar in tone to Alan Moore's [b:Tom Strong Vol. 1|821801|Tom Strong, Vol. 1|Alan Moore|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348565569s/821801.jpg|2108133] For example, in one scene Mieville pays homage to the painful early days of comicdom when Nelson's partner in heroing won't let him leave the house as a racially insensitive hero:
The art is fine, but I think it would be very difficult as an artist to keep up with the abstractions and weirdness that Mieville routinely explores. For example, one of the main villains in the early story arc is a sentient void-being called Abyss. Abyss is made of the nothingness between stars out in space, and so moves through space feeding on light. Its body is essentially a wormhole into the darkness of space. The artist does fairly well with this very strange concept, but I think it's stronger as an idea than it often comes out in the book.
As I said, I enjoyed this, but it hasn't yet impressed me as equal to the rest of Mieville's work. I would be curious to see what a more abstract artist may do when teaming up with Mieville (Mike Mignola, Tim Sale, or Frank Miller come to mind).
Mignola's Hellboy
Tim Sale's Joker
Frank Miller's Sin City
Or perhaps an artist with a handle on the bizarre (Paul Pope or Dave McKean maybe)
Paul Pope
McKean's cover for Arkham Asylum
Sorry. This is getting out of control. I just figured out how to post a picture. I'll stop now.
Anyway, Dial H is fun, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for those who aren't fans of superhero comics. Because it way is.