In Frank Beddor’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND redux THE LOOKING GLASS WARS, it’s noted that royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan spent about 13 years searching our world for the missing Princess Alyss. Yet aside from a minor scene or two, the novel doesn’t detail his goings-on for those years.
Apparently, Beddor was saving that story for HATTER M: THE LOOKING GLASS WARS – VOL. 1, the first “geo-graphic novel” spin-off from the in-progress fantasy trilogy. Branching out into comics was an excellent idea for a series of novels already written so visually. And as pleasing as WARS and its SEEING REDD sequel were, I think HATTER M is even more enjoyable.
Part of that is because Beddor’s world is so imaginative that you want to see it as you read it. Now this book – co-written by Liz Cavalier with art by the remarkable Ben Templesmith – allows that dream to come true, illustrating Hatter’s global quest, from the streets of Paris and the alleys of Budapest to a rather frightening orphanage, encountering danger and foes at every turn. With the exception of Alyss’ forced flee from Wonderland, HATTER M doesn’t duplicate scenes from WARS.
Seeing Hatter in action – with blades emerging from his gloves and his hat turned into some flying weapon out of KRULL – confirms my initial envisioning of him as a melding of two Hugh Jackman characters of cinema: VAN HELSING and Wolverine, with a dash of The Dark Knight. In short, he kicks ass.
And so does Templesmith. Best known for his work on 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, his unique style is well-suited to this dark story. His use of interesting backgrounds is impressive – such as using a constellation map layered over a night sky – and he makes the fight sequences come alive with proper use of Adobe Photoshop’s blur tool. He’s this book’s secret weapon; it’s now hard to imagine seeing future chapters without him, so willingly he has thrown himself into the material. –Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE LOOKING GLASS WARS by Frank Beddor
• SEEING REDD by Frank Beddor
Related posts:
- The Looking Glass Wars / Seeing Redd
- Star Wars: The New Jedi Order – Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
- Star Wars: The New Jedi Order – Dark Tide I: Onslaught
- Star Wars: The New Jedi Order – Dark Tide II: Ruin
- Star Wars: The New Jedi Order – Edge of Victory I: Conquest
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