Terminal City

Terminal City

by Dean Motter, Michael Lark (Illustrator), Mark Chiarello (Illustrator)

Venture back into Dean Motter and Michael Lark's Terminal City in this oversized library edition!

The city has been in decline since a group of celebrated adventurers--Kid Gloves, the boxer; Monty Vickers, the explorer; Eno Orez, the Man of 1,000 faces, and Cosmo Quinn, the human fly--each disappeared into obscurity. Now, a series of strange mysteries brings the four men together once again . . . with explosive results!

This new edition of Motter and Lark's beloved work features new, never-before-seen sketchbook materials, housed in an oversized hardcover--sure to delight any fan!

Collect Terminal City #1-9, Terminal City: Aerial Graffiti #1-5.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Dc Comics, Fiction, Comic Book

400 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

Dean R. Motter is an illustrator, designer and writer who worked for many years in Toronto, Canada, New York City, and Atlanta. Motter is best known as the creator and designer of Mister X, one of the most influential "new-wave" comics of the 1980s.

Dean then took up the Creative Services Art Director's post at Time Warner/DC Comics, where he oversaw the corporate and licensing designs of America’s most beloved comic book characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. In his off-hours he went on to create and design the highly acclaimed, retro-futuristic comic book series, Terminal City-- and its sequels, Aerial Graffiti. and Electropolis.

Reviews

[Jeff]

Any creative team that can channel Fawlty Towers, The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello amongst other influences in a noir-deco package and tie it together with punny word play, dozens of wacky characters and violence has my attention.

This one hits the ground running with an amnesiac with a briefcase, who’s chased by mobsters and falls through the window skylight window at the local hotel.



Roger Ebert, the late film critic for the Chicago Sun Times, once mentioned the symbiotic, back-and-forth relationship of a shared visual language between cinema and comic books. It’s no more evident than here in the opening sequence as the amnesiac is being chased through town and observed concurrently from multiple perspectives.

Cosmo Quinn, ex-daredevil, current window washer, and main character is on the case as he feels the shadow of his former life exerting itself.



Cosmo dabbled in electrocaine once too often…



…but feels the calling of the swashbuckler.





A large array of characters are all interconnected in some way. From Cosmo’s glory day’s they include a “man of a thousand faces”, a boxer down on his luck…



…and a long lost huckster/adventurer, back from gone missing/being dead.



Bottom line: The book moves at a dizzying pace as it jumps from character to character and scene to scene pulling out plenty of twists and action sequences as it throws lots Easter eggs and skewed pop culture references into the blender.



My one quibble would be the narrative voice that likes to equate Terminal City with a jungle – this one goes on way too long and it’s “cleverness” wears out its welcome after a few panels. This was one of Vertigo’s jewels from back in the day and should be given a look-see.

Four and a half stars

[Chad]

My favorite work by Dean Motter. Terminal City is a retro-futuristic fictional city that is starting to rust and decay from its glory days. Motter has assembled a quirky, ensemble cast connected by the Herculean Arms, a hotel and crossroads of Terminal City. He mixes gangsters, politicians, daredevils, robots, boxers and more and makes you care about every character. Michael Lark's art looks fantastic. He's designed a Metropolis (the movie) inspired locale that stands on its own.

[Ana Cristina Lee]

Al abrir las primeras páginas nos sumergimos en una ciudad extraña: una especie de Nueva York retro-futurista, con grandiosos edificios Art-Deco y llena de zepelines, robots y personajes inusuales que poco a poco nos van revelando sus secretos.

Pero todas estas impresionantes estructuras – magníficamente dibujadas – albergan una sociedad decadente y oscura, una ciudad llena de personajes insólitos. Por ejemplo, Quinn, el Hombre Mosca, que al haber perdido el favor del público que ahora se entretiene con la televisión, tiene que trabajar limpiando ventanas en los rascacielos.

Son 9 volúmenes llenos de referencias al mundo de la CF y el pulp, una mezcla que funciona y nos asombra con su fantasía desbordante, llena de tramas y subtramas.

Los dibujos de Michael Lark son preciosos, una gozada para amantes de la arquitectura.

Para una reseña más completa:
http://universodecienciaficcion.blogs...

[DrCrower]

"Terminal City", de Dean Motter y Michael Lark, es una gozada. Sucede en un presente alternativo donde se mezcla el retrofuturismo y el noir, en el que flota una especie de "hauntología divertida" (el futuro que nunca llegó a ser que parecían anunciar las ferias de la ciencia del pasado, con robots atendiendo en los hoteles, arquitecturas demenciales, zeppelines sobrevolando la ciudad, etc). Alrededor del Hotel Herculean Arms conocemos a una serie de personajes insólitos, diferentes, todos ellos muy bien definidos y reconocibles por sus características. Entre sus protagonistas tenemos a Cosmo Quinn, en el pasado el escalador de edificios conocido como La Mosca Humana, caído en desgracia y actual limpiacristales, la recién llegada B.B., una joven sin familia ni amigos en busca de trabajo, la violenta gánster Li'L Big Lil o su incansable perseguidor, el capitán de policía Hbib. El detonante: un misterioso sujeto amnésico con un maletín esposado a su brazo incapaz de recordar nada de su pasado, y que hará que a su alrededor se desate una oleada de crímenes, aventuras, acción, combates de boxeo (hombre contra hombre, hombre contra mono, ¡hombre contra robot), y mucho humor.
Aparte de un cómic que leí hace ya demasiado años y que tendría que releer más pronto que tarde basado en la serie "The Prisoner", no tenía en mi radar a Dean Motter más allá de oídas, especialmente por esta serie y por la inédita en España (creo, acepto correcciones y además me harían muy feliz) "Mister X". Ahora quiero leer más cosas suyas (de momento, la secuela "Terminal City: Graffiti Aéreo" ya está en mi poder). El dibujante, Michael Lark, hace un trabajo extraordinario, que recuerda un poco a los ochenteros cómics de Paul Smith para "X-Men" o "Dr. Strange". Y tiene un maravilloso uso del color, obra de Rick Taylor. Lo recomiendo encarecidamente.

[Michael]

Nice ensemble piece, with plenty of quirky memorable characters. Motter's scripts have usually come up short, but this one comes through on most counts. The mystery of the suitcase is left unresolved, and the case's original carrier is completely forgotten, but the rest of the cast had convincing, engaging stories. Nice noir atmosphere.

Lark's art is a bit loose and sketchy. It's not his best work, but it's solid. Unlike his more recent work, I was thankfully able to tell all of the characters from each other.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel]

Los clichés del Noir, el Pulp y las seriales de matiné mezclados en un relato coral estupendo, dominado por un elenco cautivador cuyas vidas - y muertes - giran en torno a una ciudad que conoció mejores épocas. Nostalgia muy bien servida.

[Abel Loro]

Una historia de personajes, de segundones y de sueños truncados. Una historia de la ciudad del pasado futuro. Dibujo brillante, guion simplemente cumplidor. Las referencias a la cultura popular, a la literatura distópica y al cine de ciencia ficción son abrumadoras. Entretenido pero olvidable. Qué pena.

[Juan José]

Meh. Supongo que hace 30 años molaría más

[Sasha Boersma]

Read it very recently, but the story itself didn't stick with me. I can't recall how it ended.
But I gave it 4 stars because I do remember the images and some brilliant cross-references to other classic literature. It was also a difficult one to really get I to. There was a lot happening on only a few pages - easy to miss story hooks. I loved the dystopian Art Deco feel to the visuals.

[Nikki in Niagara]

After having read Motter's "Mr. X", I was really excited about reading this one. However, it was a letdown. It is set in the retro-future and the art is neat but the story just doesn't hold up. A pulpish crime story with Dick Tracy bad guy names, it just wasn't exciting. I got a few laughs but really had to push myself to finish it. Nowhere near as good as "Mr. X".

[Ron Sadowski]

Graphic Novel 7-27-2012

[pierlapo quimby]

Uomini senza memoria, misteriose valigette, dame in rosso, boss criminali in bianco, eroi dimenticati del passato, farsa grottesca, noir.
Tutto questo ed altro ancora accade a Terminal City.

[Jp]

Art Deco noir. What's not to love?

[Reyel2107]

I want to live here !!!!!

[Stephen J. Golds]

Worth reading for the art work and literary references alone