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Dial H TPB #1-2
Dial H: Deluxe Edition
Dial 4-3-7-6 to call on…Boy Chimney! Iron Snail! Human Virus! Shamanticore! Captain Lachrymose!
Overweight, unemployed slacker Nelson Jent is not a hero. But with the twist of a dial, he can become one. A broken-down payphone down a forgotten alley holds the power to transform anyone with the right number into a host of different superheroes. And Nelson knows the 4-3-7-6. The number that spells HERO.
Award-winning novelist China Miéville (winner of the World Fantasy Award, the British Science Fiction Award, the Hugo Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award) and artists Mateus Santolouco (AMERICAN VAMPIRE) and Alberto Ponticelli (UNKNOWN SOLDIER) breathe new life into a classic Silver Age series with this surrealist masterpiece. This special Deluxe Edition includes the complete series of DIAL H as well sketches from the artists and afterword by China Miéville. Collects DIAL H #0-15.
Overweight, unemployed slacker Nelson Jent is not a hero. But with the twist of a dial, he can become one. A broken-down payphone down a forgotten alley holds the power to transform anyone with the right number into a host of different superheroes. And Nelson knows the 4-3-7-6. The number that spells HERO.
Award-winning novelist China Miéville (winner of the World Fantasy Award, the British Science Fiction Award, the Hugo Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award) and artists Mateus Santolouco (AMERICAN VAMPIRE) and Alberto Ponticelli (UNKNOWN SOLDIER) breathe new life into a classic Silver Age series with this surrealist masterpiece. This special Deluxe Edition includes the complete series of DIAL H as well sketches from the artists and afterword by China Miéville. Collects DIAL H #0-15.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2015
7 people are currently reading
271 people want to read
About the author
China Miéville
159 books15.5k followersA British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He has stood for the House of Commons for the Socialist Alliance, and published a book on Marxism and international law.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
August 31, 2021
award-winning genius China Miéville takes a deep stab at writing comics by rebooting Dial H for Hero, and he really gets the knife right in there, wiggling it around, taking it out again to look at the results, then stabbing it back in, again and again. his attack on traditional comics is ingenius. unfortunately, the ingenuity on display did little to relieve the sense of irritation I had at trying to make some kind of sense of this cacophonous mess. this was a draining experience. a real-life stabbing done in slow motion would no doubt be equally draining.
random notes for a random book:
- the author's well-established love of language and word play definitely take center stage in this story. I'm reminded again of the similarities between Miéville and Lewis Carroll.
- funny to realize that not only do Miéville and Grant Morrison look rather alike, they share the same interest in anarchic narratives that twist and loop into themselves and subvert the very idea of a linear narrative. twinsies!
- bonus points for having the two protagonists be an obese middle-aged man and a bookish elderly woman. unfortunately, the art consistently makes sure to make the former look as grotesque as possible whenever he appears. which is all the time.
- the art in general is a good match for the writing but not often a good match for my eyes. still, overall the art is memorably hallucinatory despite adding to the chaotic lack of logic on display. the last issue features 20 different artists, 1 per page. which is an impressive achievement! and also very fitting for a story about a magic dial that summons up radically different superheroes whenever it is dialed.
- this was a problem for the previous iterations of this comic (which I read as a kid, and loved): most of the superheroes created by the H-Dial are just so wearyingly stupid.
- the author does create two fantastic villains: a "nullomancer" for the first arc (power over nothingness!) and Centipede in the second arc. both are strikingly original creations that I would love to see return in other comics. especially Centipede, whose control over his own timeline's past selves - i.e. the self that walked to the door, the self that opened that door, the self that walked through the doorway, etc - was fascinating to see deployed and was really well-visualized by various artists. didn't love Centipede's goofy centipede-head mask though.
random notes for a random book:
- the author's well-established love of language and word play definitely take center stage in this story. I'm reminded again of the similarities between Miéville and Lewis Carroll.
- funny to realize that not only do Miéville and Grant Morrison look rather alike, they share the same interest in anarchic narratives that twist and loop into themselves and subvert the very idea of a linear narrative. twinsies!
- bonus points for having the two protagonists be an obese middle-aged man and a bookish elderly woman. unfortunately, the art consistently makes sure to make the former look as grotesque as possible whenever he appears. which is all the time.
- the art in general is a good match for the writing but not often a good match for my eyes. still, overall the art is memorably hallucinatory despite adding to the chaotic lack of logic on display. the last issue features 20 different artists, 1 per page. which is an impressive achievement! and also very fitting for a story about a magic dial that summons up radically different superheroes whenever it is dialed.
- this was a problem for the previous iterations of this comic (which I read as a kid, and loved): most of the superheroes created by the H-Dial are just so wearyingly stupid.
- the author does create two fantastic villains: a "nullomancer" for the first arc (power over nothingness!) and Centipede in the second arc. both are strikingly original creations that I would love to see return in other comics. especially Centipede, whose control over his own timeline's past selves - i.e. the self that walked to the door, the self that opened that door, the self that walked through the doorway, etc - was fascinating to see deployed and was really well-visualized by various artists. didn't love Centipede's goofy centipede-head mask though.
March 31, 2019
It's a funny thing how China Mieville is considered such a celebrated writer of a genre I should normally like, and yet I have still NOT found anything of his that I can confidently say I like. Not Kraken, not The City and The City and, in the end, not this.
The concept of Dial H from DC Comics, given a horror twist by Mieville (and blindingly amazing covers by Brian Bolland) is a good one, but the series is a prime example of a good concept taken too far and stretched too thin.
The team up between ultra-loser Jent Nelson and Manteau (especially when you find out who and what she is) is brilliant, a dynamic rarely seen in comics, and the trope of addiction to superpowers is well used. However, the overarching story is so weird and convoluted, so mind-achingly meta, that the final 25% of the series is liable to inflict a headache.
The concept of Dial H from DC Comics, given a horror twist by Mieville (and blindingly amazing covers by Brian Bolland) is a good one, but the series is a prime example of a good concept taken too far and stretched too thin.
The team up between ultra-loser Jent Nelson and Manteau (especially when you find out who and what she is) is brilliant, a dynamic rarely seen in comics, and the trope of addiction to superpowers is well used. However, the overarching story is so weird and convoluted, so mind-achingly meta, that the final 25% of the series is liable to inflict a headache.
March 7, 2016
I've always had a certain fondness for Dial H for Hero. I first encountered it as a bonus insert in one of DC's other titles back in the early 80's or so. The idea of a magic dial that turned its user into a different superhero each time was a fun concept. I've been done with buying actual comics for some time now--buying the occasional graphic novel or manga volume, and borrowing titles from the library is about all my finances will support--so I hadn't known of this new series until I saw the book. This was fantastic! Novelists writing comics can be a hit-or-miss proposition, but China Miéville makes the transition superbly. I love how the main characters are not the typical musclebound supermodels in tights that usually populate comic books. And the heroes they dial up are some of the most gleefully Dada concepts since Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol. The story and art are both superb, and they really shine in this deluxe hardcover. Highly recommended!
December 13, 2018
I love variations on a theme.
The first arc is the best, because it has time to breathe, and the second one feels a little rushed, while the third is pure insanity on the page. Drama goes out the window (ha) to make room for craziness. Wish it had time to land any kind of emotions.
The first arc is the best, because it has time to breathe, and the second one feels a little rushed, while the third is pure insanity on the page. Drama goes out the window (ha) to make room for craziness. Wish it had time to land any kind of emotions.
December 11, 2018
By far, the weirdest thing I read from Miéville. A great job from ilustrators to bring to (visual) life a wild imagination. I do not know the original story, and can only write about this one.
The premise is quite interesting.
The hero part of someone is an identity. Superheroes often lead double lifes. That is the classic way. Bruce Wayne has a secret identity, Batman. And his daytime self feeds on and feeds his mask-and-cape self. It's like a split personality, or a life that is dual. In the case of Superman, Clark Kent is the alternate personality (not the other way around), as other people have pointed out.
But be it a power that comes from birth or a changing event (radioactive spider bite, ect), whatever defines the alternate personality becomes part of who the person is. And in some cases, there is conflict. The gift is taken as a curse. All this is the classic way to build superhero stories. The stuff I usually have no patiente for.
Here, the hero is contingent. It's not an identity. You dial and the hero that shows up and becomes you is random. At one point, we discover different dials, so "hero" and "sidekick" are fixed roles, but they just refer to the relationship between whoever becomes one or the other, temporarily. And it is when one of the main characters starts believing too much he is the heroes that keep being dialed that he starts losing himself. For that, the other main character has a trick, one identity that overshadows all heroes, a constant to all the heroes that become her.
It is a weird, bewildering, fast-pace, halucinatory, deranged, story about superhero identity as something fluid.
The premise is quite interesting.
The hero part of someone is an identity. Superheroes often lead double lifes. That is the classic way. Bruce Wayne has a secret identity, Batman. And his daytime self feeds on and feeds his mask-and-cape self. It's like a split personality, or a life that is dual. In the case of Superman, Clark Kent is the alternate personality (not the other way around), as other people have pointed out.
But be it a power that comes from birth or a changing event (radioactive spider bite, ect), whatever defines the alternate personality becomes part of who the person is. And in some cases, there is conflict. The gift is taken as a curse. All this is the classic way to build superhero stories. The stuff I usually have no patiente for.
Here, the hero is contingent. It's not an identity. You dial and the hero that shows up and becomes you is random. At one point, we discover different dials, so "hero" and "sidekick" are fixed roles, but they just refer to the relationship between whoever becomes one or the other, temporarily. And it is when one of the main characters starts believing too much he is the heroes that keep being dialed that he starts losing himself. For that, the other main character has a trick, one identity that overshadows all heroes, a constant to all the heroes that become her.
It is a weird, bewildering, fast-pace, halucinatory, deranged, story about superhero identity as something fluid.
June 15, 2015
The author takes a silver age story, where someone who does not appear to be super-hero material dials a number on a rotary phone and somehow turns into a super-hero for a short time. It's a fun jaunt thru the DC universe with the big names rarely appearing as the heroes our central character dials up come from all over the multi-verse and are usually fairly odd. The author takes us on a trip to find out where the dials come from and why.
The Deluxe edition is over-sized and fairly thick with good content to price ratio. The binding is glued instead of being sewn so it doesn't open flat right away and you'll want to open in the middle to stretch it a bit before diving into the story at the beginning.
The author description here on Goodreads sounds like he may have some left field political beliefs, they weren't particularly noticeable in this book.
The Deluxe edition is over-sized and fairly thick with good content to price ratio. The binding is glued instead of being sewn so it doesn't open flat right away and you'll want to open in the middle to stretch it a bit before diving into the story at the beginning.
The author description here on Goodreads sounds like he may have some left field political beliefs, they weren't particularly noticeable in this book.
August 9, 2015
A truly crazy story that embraces its wackiness. Yet, by the end, it comes together to tell a fascinating story. Highly recommended for fans of the weird.
November 7, 2016
Fun at times. I found the story-boarding a little off putting at times - it's pretty much non-stop action. Which would be fine, except there's almost no environment or scene setting.
December 14, 2024
A depressed loser and an old woman fight evil using a gadget that turns them into random kooky superheroes. Like Bumper Carla! Who harnesses the jouncey might of the carnival bumper car! Or Captain Lachrymose! Smiting evildoers with their own doleful memories!
Disappointing. Mieville took the Dial H franchise--a perfectly neat, goofy little story hook about a payphone that confers random superpowers--and bollocksed it up with multiverses and interdimensional aliens. When the story stays small it's entertaining: there's a fun sequence in which one protagonist dials up a racist Native American caricature. How do you go out in public to fight crime as Chief Big Heap Tomahawk? He'd do more damage to the fabric of society than can be justified by punching a purse snatcher or two. The ensuing argument is terrific reading.
But mostly this is a tiresome, convoluted story about...I dunno, sentient space trying to consume the solar system, maybe, plus some stuff about alternate dimensions? And being thwarted by a hula hoop with a chicken head? I absolutely could not follow 80% of the story. It reminded me of Grant Morrison at his most abstruse and inaccessible.
China sqaundered a great little gimmick.
Disappointing. Mieville took the Dial H franchise--a perfectly neat, goofy little story hook about a payphone that confers random superpowers--and bollocksed it up with multiverses and interdimensional aliens. When the story stays small it's entertaining: there's a fun sequence in which one protagonist dials up a racist Native American caricature. How do you go out in public to fight crime as Chief Big Heap Tomahawk? He'd do more damage to the fabric of society than can be justified by punching a purse snatcher or two. The ensuing argument is terrific reading.
But mostly this is a tiresome, convoluted story about...I dunno, sentient space trying to consume the solar system, maybe, plus some stuff about alternate dimensions? And being thwarted by a hula hoop with a chicken head? I absolutely could not follow 80% of the story. It reminded me of Grant Morrison at his most abstruse and inaccessible.
China sqaundered a great little gimmick.
May 13, 2023
Most of this is near-unreadable jibberish. The middle issues - where it follows a story and develops actual characters - are decent. The rest is just throwing crazy after crazy - and not in the good way.
Read
March 10, 2021Irresistibly drunk on ideas!
December 1, 2017
3.5 stars
January 7, 2016
Dial H by China Miéville.
Review by: Galen Weitkamp
Dial H is a graphic novel, or rather a book length DC Comic. China Miéville created the stories and the dialog, others edited, drew, inked and colored them: Mateus Santolouco, Alberto Ponticelli, Dan Green and more.
I don’t usually read comic books nor graphic novels. I was probably thirteen or fourteen since last I read one; but I have read everything China Miéville did since Perdido Street Station. So when I learned that he collaborated in the creation of a graphic novel, I put it on my Christmas list.
I admire Miéville mostly for his unbounded imagination and there is plenty of it in Dial H. Telephony, multiple universes, time travel, sidekicks and heros with the wildest, most bizarre appearances and powers run rampant through these pages.
Different chapters are done by a different combination of artists and it’s interesting to see how the characters are rendered from chapter to chapter.
I won’t be going out to buy more comic books, but it was fun to be thirteen again - for a short while. I learned it may be even more fun to let the artist in your own head render Miéville’s wild imaginings.
Review by: Galen Weitkamp
Dial H is a graphic novel, or rather a book length DC Comic. China Miéville created the stories and the dialog, others edited, drew, inked and colored them: Mateus Santolouco, Alberto Ponticelli, Dan Green and more.
I don’t usually read comic books nor graphic novels. I was probably thirteen or fourteen since last I read one; but I have read everything China Miéville did since Perdido Street Station. So when I learned that he collaborated in the creation of a graphic novel, I put it on my Christmas list.
I admire Miéville mostly for his unbounded imagination and there is plenty of it in Dial H. Telephony, multiple universes, time travel, sidekicks and heros with the wildest, most bizarre appearances and powers run rampant through these pages.
Different chapters are done by a different combination of artists and it’s interesting to see how the characters are rendered from chapter to chapter.
I won’t be going out to buy more comic books, but it was fun to be thirteen again - for a short while. I learned it may be even more fun to let the artist in your own head render Miéville’s wild imaginings.
September 24, 2016
Utter madness, and not in a good way.
I love China Mieville. Every book of his that I've read has been enjoyable, each of them injected with a rare creativity and imagination that simply can't be copied. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that he'd tackled a comic book!
Upon reading it, though, it's a jumbled mess. It seems to revel more in the insane invention of new superheroes than it does in establishing characters or any kind of plot centered in logic (I mean, I get it, this is DCU we're working with and sometimes logic is in limited quantities, but even still this thing is MANIC).
I'd have a hard time telling you what the hell happened at the end, honestly. It was to the point that I seriously wondered if pages had been ripped out of my copy, that somehow the plot has been altered in a way that I was missing something.
The art is pretty wonderful, and it saddens me to admit that it's the plot here that really becomes bogged down by a reliance on trying to reinvent superheroes and make them make some kind of sense.
Mieville is wonderful, but this one can absolutely be skipped.
I love China Mieville. Every book of his that I've read has been enjoyable, each of them injected with a rare creativity and imagination that simply can't be copied. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that he'd tackled a comic book!
Upon reading it, though, it's a jumbled mess. It seems to revel more in the insane invention of new superheroes than it does in establishing characters or any kind of plot centered in logic (I mean, I get it, this is DCU we're working with and sometimes logic is in limited quantities, but even still this thing is MANIC).
I'd have a hard time telling you what the hell happened at the end, honestly. It was to the point that I seriously wondered if pages had been ripped out of my copy, that somehow the plot has been altered in a way that I was missing something.
The art is pretty wonderful, and it saddens me to admit that it's the plot here that really becomes bogged down by a reliance on trying to reinvent superheroes and make them make some kind of sense.
Mieville is wonderful, but this one can absolutely be skipped.
March 27, 2016
I had hoped for a fun reboot of a vaguely remembered gimmick comic from my childhood and instead got this coffee can full of dog poop. Instead of using the in-story trope of a magic Little Orphan Annie decoder ring to milk proto-fan fiction for new commercially viable if pun-based characters, and cracking up the 10-year old iteration of the reviewer in the process, this book attempts to explain the cosmology of how the decoder rings (aka "dials") work and succeeds only in creating a comic that is a chore to read. What I found only slightly less comprehensible than the story arc and much of the artwork was the fact that the author is a writer of such repute that he has been awarded a PhD, along with the World Fantasy, Hugo, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards!
May 14, 2017
This was an absolute treat. I've always had something of a soft spot for Dial H for HERO since encountering it in battered Silver Age comics rescued from giveaway boxes in my youth, though as I got older I was increasingly less enamored bit the silliness of it in its '80s appearances. But here novelist China Mieville has taken a goofy, throw-away concept and built an interesting mythology around it, offering a system for the dial's existence and a rich cast of characters around the central plotline. The art by (primarily) Alberto Ponticelli and Mateus Santolouco is fantastic, reminiscent of the best work of Brian Bolland (who actually provides some cover work) and Gene Ha. Highly recommended!
September 10, 2017
I really wanted to like this one a lot more than I did, but pacing and art issues really killed it for me. Despite a strong start, the second act slowed to a crawl and then an impending cancellation led to an Act 3 that was so quick it was basically a montage of craziness happening over a couple of issues with revelations being thrown at the reader in every other panel. By the end, it no longer felt like a story, but just a bunch of things happening. What's frustrating is that the revelation of the 0 issue would've made for a much, much more interesting story but got brushed aside pretty quickly.
September 20, 2015
The best "Grant Morrison story not written by Grant Morrison" ever. A lot of weirdness and a lot of heart... at least in the first 12 issues. This series was cancelled before it's time, which meant the ending had to be rushed. Unfortunately, that also meant that only the major plot points had time to be developed, leaving aside all the really great character arcs China Mieville was constructing.
Despite all this, it's a truly enjoyable read, specially if you're a little tired of American superheroes.
Despite all this, it's a truly enjoyable read, specially if you're a little tired of American superheroes.
January 13, 2016
My memory of this comic when I was a pre-adolescent was that readers could submit their ideas for the heroes that were dialed up. The heroes that pop up in this are pretty impressive and I wish they had series all their own (I guess that's what fan fiction is all about). But the storyline was convoluted and the artwork, though highly impressive, could still feel like a crazed jumble of strange flashes and discord. I held on, but was glad when it was done.
...and seriously: why is Brian Bolland only doing covers?????
...and seriously: why is Brian Bolland only doing covers?????
June 24, 2015
China Mieville acclaimed author of “weird fiction” crafted something ingenious with Dial H. A dark, imaginative, surreal, funny and surprisingly poignant story exploring themes of identity, courage and the tale of a very strange war. Unlike anything from DC comics since Grant Morrison's acclaimed Doom Patrol, Brian Bolland provides sublime covers for both.
One of the best things to come from DC comics in years.
One of the best things to come from DC comics in years.
October 2, 2017
I wish I knew someone who has read this. So much to talk about. Miéville is a fascinating author whose few books of his that I have read have definitely left a mark. Here he takes a silly gee-whiz comic idea from the silver age and gives it depth and a vast history. I have not enjoyed a retcon on a character as much as this since Alan Moore took over writing Swamp Thing. This is what I was looking for when I returned to graphic novels after too long of an hiatus.
May 23, 2017
This was the first thing I've ever read by China Mieville, but it's clear now that people were not exaggerating about how weird his stuff is. Overall, I'm not sure how I felt about the story, and it was obvious the comic got cancelled and had to wrap up all the mythology too quickly, but this was just so creative and weird that I would have to recommend it.
July 23, 2015
The art is neat, the general premise is interesting and a lot of the individual things throughout are amazing, but as for what the specific plot throughout is, I was/am completely lost. I'll need to give it a re-read someday, but I don't think I understood everything this time around.
May 16, 2015
Worth reading for its pure insanity. Just an all around crazy book
March 25, 2016
Very inventive but needlessly weird and, at times, almost incoherent. And this is coming from someone who owns all of China's work.
August 28, 2016
You're gonna read this and think, "what the fuck?" ... but in a cool kind of way. It reads like Grant Morrison, but doesn't take itself as seriously.
October 9, 2016
Too much focus on being bizarre instead of developing its characters.
February 15, 2017
I really think this book got screwed by the DC tumult of the last few years.
January 27, 2021
Una propuesta muy interesante que tal vez debido a las características del titulo tenia poco tiempo vida, era esperable que no fuese un superventas. Debe contar toda su historia en 16 números, desarrollar su universo, presentar unos personajes interesantes y cerrar el viaje, tarea difícil, que logra de manera correcta. Lamentablemente, si bien la propuesta me encanta, un mundo que hule al vértigo de los noventa y con una inspiración de Morrison muy marcada, no puede desarrollara unos personajes adecuadamente, el ritmo se siente super acelerado, le falta respirar un poco. El final es algo precipitado y con muchas explicaciones, a veces este carácter de explicarse le quita ese elemento misterioso y absurdo. Nelson y Roxie se merecen una desarrolló mas amplio, el ciempiés es un gran antagonista que logra brillar pero no lo suficiente. Se siente que no hay un tema concreto a desarrollar, podría ser que es ser un héroe, o sobre la fluidez de las identidades que propone el dial, o algo que reflexione sobre el superhéroe como concepto, todo esto se toca pero no sumerge en ninguna. Pero repito con el tiempo que tuvo para trabajar salió bastante airoso, talvez con 30 números como mínimo estaríamos ante una propuesta mas resuelta. Aun con todo, el universo se siente alucinógeno, bizarro y divertido, y la diegesis tiene un manera de funcionar similar a la Doom Patrol de Morrison, esta ontología de cables (multiversales) cruzados que propone me compro muy rápidamente. Algunos de los héroes son conceptos que sacan una sonrisa. Al final, es una propuesta memorable y recomendada para los lectores de Vértigo y gustosos de un comic de superhéroes mas autoconsciente y delirante.
March 17, 2019
Really enjoyed this comic. I've been a fan of Miéville for a long while, but it is the first time I read him in comic form. I was happy to see all of his idiosyncracies pop up in this comic. The strange structure, the purplish prose, the oddballs and weirdness.
This is a really bad comic for bathroom reading. The story is convoluted and rather hard to follow at times. You have to take some time to read it through, understand the characters behind the series of superheroes.
Two arcs in the comic, the first one is rather simple, simply fight a mad scientist called Ex Nihilo. The second arc is more interesting as it delves into the origin of the power-granting dials.
Liked the art, it is odd and everchanging, kind of like the story Miéville has crafted.
This is a really bad comic for bathroom reading. The story is convoluted and rather hard to follow at times. You have to take some time to read it through, understand the characters behind the series of superheroes.
Two arcs in the comic, the first one is rather simple, simply fight a mad scientist called Ex Nihilo. The second arc is more interesting as it delves into the origin of the power-granting dials.
Liked the art, it is odd and everchanging, kind of like the story Miéville has crafted.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews