Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got four new comics plus a hard cover collection:

Glamourpuss – 4

Savage Dragon – 141

The Walking Dead – 55

Buffy Season Eight – 19

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

“M” by Jon Jay Muth

Back in 1990 I bought the first issue of the four issues mini series that is collected in this 2007 hard cover publication. I don’t know why I never bought the rest of the series but many times I’ve run across that one issue in my collection and wonder what the rest of the story was like. Wonder no more.

“M” is an adaptation of the 1931 movie by director Fritz Lang. Considered a classic and ground breaking movie even Muth, in his afterword, questions what would make him want to take on the task of adapting such an admired movie.

“M” tells the tale of a city terrorized by a serial child murderer. The police are desperately trying to find him as the city panics. An underground criminal organization also sees it as in their best interest to hunt down the child killer. Do criminals and murderers have the right to pass judgement on a child murderer? This is one of the questions that “M” ponders.

I’ve generally liked Muth’s artwork. I don’t think he’s done much comic book work in years but I used to buy lots of comics that he worked on. He is a painter who works from photo reference and that is what he did here. I find the art a mixed bag. Some times the art and storytelling are stiff, sometimes smooth and exciting, and sometimes Muth can hit you with an image that is just awesome. The bag was was mixed with mostly good stuff.

Muth worked hard on creating atmosphere and he succeeds pretty well at that. The paintings are in black and white with some color thrown in here and there. Mostly for symbolic story telling impact.

The only real complaint I have with this book is the lettering. It was done before the age of computer lettering but it isn’t hand lettered. It uses some sort of Times font and the balloons are mechanical looking. Plus there are large blocks of type that should have been broken up into smaller balloons. The level of craftsmanship on the art is an A while the level of craftsmanship on the lettering is a C. I wish it was re-lettered.

Overall I was glad I got to read this book after all these years. Despite it’s flaws it’s a well done story. They did a nice job with the printing too. I’ll have to track down the movie now. Not being a film buff I’ve never seen it.