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The Compleat Terminal City
Visionary designer and comics creator Dean Motter (Mister X, Elecropolis, Batman: Nine Lives) returns with the purest expression to date of his patented retro futurism! Terminal City is a place where transistor-tube robots rub elbows with old-time gangsters, where bright, shiny technologies cast deep noir shadows. The city has been in decline since a group of celebrated ad...more
Paperback, 350 pages
Published
March 20th 2012
by Dark Horse Comics
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Maybe it's just that I've seen a lot of retro-futuristic comics over the years, but I really wasn't impressed by Terminal City. It's puns and references were partially interesting and partially distracting, and the overall story seems to place no importance on the climax. The first series is better about that, but the followup series (also contained in the book) manages to place no impact on the climactic moment of the book, and then takes five pages wrapping up plots that felt like they could h...more
Recommendation from a co-worker while discussing graphic novels.
The two comic book series are set in an impressively realized retro-future vision of a large city extrapolated from a World's Fair vision for America. This sets a nice tone with the juxtaposition of how messed up things are now with how optimistic and naive the world was back then. It's a bit heavy handed, but it works.
There is also a Watchmen-like vibe, following the exploits of some extraordinary gentlemen types who are way past t...more
The two comic book series are set in an impressively realized retro-future vision of a large city extrapolated from a World's Fair vision for America. This sets a nice tone with the juxtaposition of how messed up things are now with how optimistic and naive the world was back then. It's a bit heavy handed, but it works.
There is also a Watchmen-like vibe, following the exploits of some extraordinary gentlemen types who are way past t...more
As histórias de Terminal City remete-se para divertidas referências à ficção pulp e cinematografia dos anos 40, misturando escroques elegantes que raramente acertam nas fraudes, criminosos violentos e os seus capangas musculados, políticos corruptos em que Motter homenageia as visões distópicas de Welles, Huxley e Orwell, manipuladores compulsivos que secretamente dominam os destinos da cidade, jovens raparigas a viver um misto de aventuras e agruras de uma vida on the town ex-ditadores vagament...more
The Compleat Terminal City is a collection of Dean Motter and Michael Lark’s Terminal City series of the mid 1990s. The artwork is superb and it brings to mind the work of Chester Gould. Awesome art deco retro-futurism, I really enjoyed it. Having said that, a couple of the stories were a little weak, although the artwork more than makes up for some goobered stories.
All in all, I think Dark Horse Comics cranked out a nice product; and I highly recommend it for the comic book fan or the retro-fut...more
All in all, I think Dark Horse Comics cranked out a nice product; and I highly recommend it for the comic book fan or the retro-fut...more
Very fun graphic novel with noir qualities intermixed with science fiction. It is well thought out and has an engaging plot with beautiful illustrations. I have only recently discovered the joys of graphic novels so I am not aware of the author’s or illustrator’s previous work but I very much enjoyed reading this one. The illustrations themselves were quite ‘cartoonish’ and very colourful.
My only concern was that it was quite difficult to read the text on the galley I downloaded as the print was...more
My only concern was that it was quite difficult to read the text on the galley I downloaded as the print was...more
A victim of its own cleverness. While I found the world and the design intriguing, the stories themselves left me unimpressed. I had to reread the endings of both of the included stories and I'm still not entirely clear as to what happened. There were many seemingly extraneous characters and tangents that took 'screen time' away from the central stories. But in the end I don't think that mattered. I'm not sure the stories were as important as the general atmosphere and the kinetic feeling of lif...more
Terrible beautiful book. Exquisite art, but no real storyline nor clear characterizations. Nothing but in the art deco/noir style drawings and vacuous characters and recurrent ecological/depression era memes. In the end you don't really give a shit about the plot, the story, the events, the timeframe, nothing. A bitter disappointment, I was expecting a lot more. The author would've been better suited in making a book with nothing but sketches versus trying to wrap a story around his work
A playful retro-futuristic noir that, quite refreshingly, refuses to take itself too seriously. The characters are colorful, likable and plenty; the plot is mcguffin driven and a bit ridiculous; the art is superb and evocative, and the humor involves ample sight-gags and puns.
This book is fun, but kind of all over the place. Some plot threads get resolved for too easily, while others don't get resolved at all. Characters come and go seemingly at random, sometimes disappearing entirely, despite the fact that they are seemingly important to the central narrative. In other words, the story is a bit of a mess. However, the book manages to get by on a healthy dose of charm. The world Motter has created is detailed and fun, and the book is filled with great word play (part...more
This was suprisingly great! I loved the art and story telling. The setting was of the time of the World Fair back in the early 1900's and seemed to stay that way. I loved all the little pop references of literature, movies, and art. I would highly recommend to anyone interested in a stand alone graphic novel.
4 1/2 stars. Sharp artwork, snappy dialogue, and tons of fun little details (sleepwalkers walking on the outside walls of buildings, junkies addicted to electrococaine, etc.). Very impressive!
Lovely to look at, and the world building is often absorbing. But it seems like the actual plotlines were, at best, secondary concerns for Motter. All too often, the intended story gets lost behind the scenery. And yet, it's still an enjoyable book, because the scenery is just that good. The art is vibrant, detailed where it needs to be and simple where it can get away with it. And Terminal City itself is an almost endlessly fascinating place. It would have been so much better if Motter hadn't f...more
This books is definitely delightful, retro-futurism at it's best! The writing and the art pair in a beautiful rare way.
Super recommend it to all!
Super recommend it to all!
Dean Motter provides a typically amusing look at the past's version of the future.
an interesting world with a surprisingly quick wrap up of storylines.
Pretty entertaining. Pick this one up if you enjoy dystopian future/flawed crime fighter stories...and who doesn't???
Great writing and art that came with a little bit too much hype. That, combined with the (lazy?, primitive?) "old school" style of coloring did not help this age well,
but it was an enjoyable read
none-the-less.
but it was an enjoyable read
none-the-less.
Good stuff, and a much more fun hard-boiled story than I'm used to. The characters are interesting, and the plot engrossing (though the ending to Aerial Graffiti is a bit obtuse). Lark's art is great, too.
Very fun read, combining sci-fi and noir into a steam punkish kind of world.
Apr 23, 2013
Sarah Petersen
marked it as to-read
Apr 10, 2013
Derek
added it
Apr 10, 2013
Amy
marked it as to-read
Apr 06, 2013
Eric
marked it as to-read
Apr 02, 2013
Marcele
marked it as to-read
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Dean 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 mo...more
More about Dean Motter...
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 mo...more
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