Maybe I heard that the main character was an insomniac who routinely wandered around a retro-futuristic city, which incidentally he had been the prime architect responsible for designing. This would have checked off quite a few boxes for me. I don't really follow any comics regularly, aside from Girl Genius (which moved on-line many years ago, though it did start off as individual issues that then were collected as trade paperbacks) and Futurama (as discussed in the last post). So it wasn't like I would have seen it (Mr. X) in the shops, since I went in so rarely. Nonetheless, I must have been reading about an artist (or even a cartoonist) who was inspired by Dean Motter and his creation. (It's certainly possible that it was Warren Ellis, who came up with Transmetropolitan (which I did read roughly while it was current) and acknowledged the influence.)
At any rate, I suspect it was mid to late 2000s when I started collecting them. The first three series were long out of print, and I had to buy them from on-line comics stores (along with some missing Futuramas). While I think I had most of the collection put together by 2010 or so, there were probably a few that I bought in 2011-2 (I vaguely recalling having a few things shipped up to Vancouver right before the US to Canada postal rates went completely through the roof).
While I have the first four issues of Series I as a trade (The Return of Mr. X), I actually have single issues for the rest of Series I, II and III. It is pretty cool to have the individual issues, but pretty inconvenient for anyone starting out now.
The good news is that Series I (on Vortex) was collected into a massive trade paperback (and hardcover) titled Mr. X: The Archives and Series II (also on Vortex) was collected as The Brides of Mr. X and Other Stories. In both cases, there is quite a bit of bonus material, much of which I didn't have already.* Fortunately, the library has the Archives, so I checked it out. Last night, I found a reasonably low cost copy of The Brides of Mr. X, and I suspect after reading the bonus material, I will probably donate it to the library so others can enjoy it.
As far as I can tell, Series III -- a relatively short 4 issue series on Caliber -- has not been collected. This is quite unfortunate, particularly as I only learned a few days ago that there is a 6 part Mr. X serial (written and illustrated by Seth, who was fairly heavily involved with Series I and II) in Caliber's New Worlds Anthology, which was published back in 1996! Given that Mr. X is sort of hot again and Seth is quite an important figure in the comic world (not just the Canadian comic world), it is probably some rights issue that is preventing this from being pulled together, as the bonus material to Series III. If I had known 3 or so years ago, then there was an opportunity to get the complete run of the New Worlds Anthology for fairly cheap. Now it looks like I should be able to assemble #1-5 without too much trouble (though at some cost), but #6 is pretty rare. My guess is that I will eventually get ahold of it, but that just around that time Motter will finally release a collection of the Caliber material. It never fails...
Series IV is out on Dark Horse. Given that this is much more recent (2008-2015), it is much easier to find Condemned, Evicted and Razed. All the individual stories were pulled together into Mr. X: The Modern Age, but there are no "extras" not in the original three volumes, though The Modern Age is 10-15% larger in size than the three separate titles (so bigger pages!).
So if I was starting out trying to collect Mr. X., I would just buy The Archives, The Brides of Mr. X and The Modern Age in one fell swoop. They really are quite nicely put together. That would leave you with just the Caliber material to assemble, which is not nearly as daunting a task.
It's not clear if Motter will continue putting out more Mr. X material,** or for that matter, anything from Electropolis. (Razed was actually a bit of a surprise to me when it came out.) I'll try to keep an eye out, but I'll try not to obsess over it too much.
* I forgot the number one reason to buy or borrow The Archives is that Dean Motter completely rejiggered 14th issue of Series I, with all new illustrations. In his view, this is the finale as it was always meant to be.
** Actually, it does appear that he is working on another series called Excavations, which may hit stores in Fall 2020. There is currently a print-on-demand title called Pokerface, which collects an uncollected series about Mr. X and a gambling ring in Radiant City, along with a few pages from Excavations. I'll probably order it, though it is quite pricey given the relatively short nature of this book.
P.S. I went ahead and asked Dean Motter himself, and he answered(!), saying that he continues to write new Mr. X material (and collect it), but it would probably be a couple of years before Excavations is collected (probably with Pokerface) and that they are shopping the Caliber material around, looking for a publisher. This is great news, though it makes it a bit harder to decide what to do about New Worlds. Given that I am somewhat impatient, I will probably go ahead and order New Worlds #1-5 but not stress too much about the missing #6.
No comments:
Post a Comment