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Friday Recommendation: Dial H

By | October 19th, 2012
Posted in Columns | 2 Comments

Here is a book that I talk about so much that it’s probably starting to get annoying. The problem is that I think that this book is going to get cancelled for the 5th or 6th wave of the DC Comics New 52. When that happens, a single tear will stream down my cheek, at best. I will be a sobbing mess of a man-boy, at worst. I shudder to think which it will be.

Though low readership is going to defeat this book eventually, I still feel like it’s my civic duty to let everyone know the many reasons why I love this series. Let’s begin:

1. Hugo-award winning sci-fi writer China Miéville has been let loose in the great visual medium of comic storytelling.

It would be easy for DC Comics to continue to hire from within its stable of familiar writers and end up with a known quantity. I don’t know much about comic book contracts, but I can’t imagine that an award-winning novelist like Miéville is working with the same types of editorial mandates that the average writer does. After all, it’s clear from the first issue of the book that “Dial H” is pretty separate from everything else in the New 52. That’s a wonderful thing, because it shows that on some level the higher ups at DC have an appreciation for the talent and the quality of a product that goes beyond how much they sell. They could have easily slipped another Batman book by some mediocre talent into the 2nd wave and it probably would have sold more. They wanted to go with someone that clearly has a sensibility for fantasy and science fiction very different from what we normally see.

Miéville’s novels are packed with endlessly weird concepts, tons of incomparable characters, and political or societal themes. These are, on a smaller scale, all present in his work on “Dial H.” His political and social underpinnings are just barely there, never getting in the way and only serving to enrich the world the characters inhabit. His skills haven’t entirely translated to the comic medium, as some early scenes were hard to follow or interpret, but his vision has come together really nicely over the first arc and I hope that once his work on this series is over, he’ll get another chance to tackle comics.

2. There are no apologies made for the inventiveness or silly factor of the dialed heroes.

Shamanticore: a lion-headed shaman.
Boy Chimney: a slender skeletal man in a top-hat.
Captain Lachrymose: Like if Superman listened to Morrissey a lot. It’s better than it sounds.
Double Bluff: some kind of weird playing card magician guy.
Pelican Army: it is what it sounds like.

My personal favorite? Iron Snail.

Those couple Iron Snail pages were the best war comics that DC released in a year where they had “G.I. Combat” and “Men of War.”

3. The visuals have been (and likely will continue to be) wonderful.

As evidenced by the above concept page for Iron Snail, Mateus Santolouco has a knack for character design. He has risen to every weird challenge that Miéville has placed at his feet and I’ve no doubt that he has been the key to the series, even more than its award-winning writer. The fact that the concepts like “Boy Chimney” and “Pelican Army” can even be taken seriously owes everything to how good the visual design is.

There are pages where I’m convinced that Miéville just threw out as many weird names as he could and dared Santolouco to draw something acceptable. He has succeeded every time.

“Frankenstein” artist Alberto Ponticelli is coming in a few issues, which may or may not work just as well. Readers of “Frank” know that the concepts are pretty much as weird as they get, too.

4. There’s real heart and character at the core of the story.

Our hero is an overweight, chain-smoking ne’er-do-well that is continually asked to find ways to be a hero and win the day. Our villains are a colorful and sinister secret cadre of manipulators – all of them probably living life considered freaks due to the way that they look. And each and everyone of them is memorable in some way.

Continued below

Issue #4 was a big turning point in my opinion of the true quality of the series. In just four issues, Miéville made me care about a villain in a way that I haven’t gotten from a currently running comic book in a long time. I hesitate to spoil anything, but there’s some really satisfying redemption stuff going on here, from both the heroes and the villains of Miéville’s series.

These are all characters that are starting from square one with readers Рall created by Mi̩ville. That they could be so memorable, sympathetic, and layered in just a handful of issues is a testament to his writing skill.

5. If nothing else, “Dial H” represents the willingness of a “Big 2” comic company to try something different.

Like I said earlier, it would have been easy for DC Comics to dial up another Bat book. Want to sell 50,000+ copies? Throw a bat symbol on someone’s chest and have at it. They had to know the risk of going with a completely original cast in a rebooted hero-dial concept that hasn’t gotten a toe-hold in decades when it comes to sales figures. They were prepared for this book to struggle, I’m sure. And from what I’ve heard and read, it’s been teetering on that “cancellation figure” for a few months now. While I think that’s a shame, I can’t fault DC Comics for having to go with the numbers. After all, they have to make money, and the same people that make these green-light or cancellation decisions are not the ones that are holding a bottom-line for profitability in their face with their feet to the fire.

On some level, I have to grumble that comic fans won’t try something that they aren’t familiar with and won’t stick with something that doesn’t immediately grab them. Yet again, I can’t fault comic book readers that have budgets and have to make a lot of increasingly numerous decisions at their LCS every month. $2.99 is as cheap a floppy as you get, save for promotions and whatnot, but it’s still a lot of money to pay for a 20 page book, when there are so many good ones out there. I don’t fault anyone for having to be choicey.

At the end of the day, I ask anyone who has read this to at least consider checking out the trade, pick up a few digital issues, or go find the back issue floppies. Get caught up. I think it’s worth it. This book will be cancelled and you’ll see lamentations about it for months or years on message boards and Twitter. It’s that kind of book.


//TAGS | Friday Recommendation

Vince Ostrowski

Dr. Steve Brule once called him "A typical hunk who thinks he knows everything about comics." Twitter: @VJ_Ostrowski

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