Electropolis

by Dean Motter

Menlo Park is a reprogrammed janitor robot working as a private eye on the neon streets of Electra City, a town designed to generate and conduct massive amounts of electricity. Sixteen years after the apparent suicide of his human partner atop the world's tallest tower, a blond femme fatale gives Menlo some new information about the cause of death. As Menlo and his assistant, Anesta, reopen the case, their journey takes them from Electra's high society to its dark underbelly. Clues from zeppelin pilots and shadowy architects alike reveal a connection between Menlo's partner's death, a mysterious object called the Astrolade, and the origins of the city itself.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

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

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

As personagens principais no trabalho de Dean Motter não são os heróis das aventuras que descreve. É o seu estilo gráfico, inspirado no retro-futurismo dos anos 40. As histórias de Motter decorrem num puro Gernsback continuum, de dirigíveis, arquitetura art deco, carros voadores e robots eletromecânicos. Neste Electropolis, a cidade de futurismo decadente é palco de um puro policial noir, com o robot de um detetive morto em circunstâncias estranhas a não desistir de deslindar o mistério da morte do patrão, ajudado pela assistente. Junte-se a isso uma cidade cujo poder político é controlado por criminosos, e o tom é de puro policial em ambiente dieselpunk.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A traditional hardboiled detective story with a healthy portion of science fiction tossed into the mix. The story has all the twists and turns that you might expect, but that's not the real reason to read this book; the dialog is cleverly written and the world is well built, and those two factors make this a compelling read. Clearly a passion project for Motter, my only technical complaint is with the layout of some of the dialog, which was sometimes confusing.

[Gregg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid work, visually pleasing & sketch-book styled art which fits with the sort of story it tells. The cameos from "Terminal City" & "Mister X" are nice, but wouldn't have had as much novelty to them if I hadn't read other stories from Mr. Motter. Short & entertaining, it needn't be the greatest noir story ever told.

[Daniel Watkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this one. The puns were terrible and distracting - why would I care about a suspect named Red Haring? The lettering was not great - sort of a random mix of basic fonts, and the speech bubble layout was frequently unclear.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Electropolis: The Infernal Machine" is hands down one of the best graphic novels I have read this year. Expect, a complex mystery, retro futurism up to your eyebrows, some surprisingly deep observations on the human (and robotic) condition and lots and lots of puns.

[John Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this