The 13th Floor

The Thirteenth Floor #1

by John Wagner, Alan Grant, José Ortiz (Illustrator)

Maxwell Tower is a state-of-the art tower block: a bold, experimental council tenement, run by an A.I. called Max. As building superintendent, Max’s primary function is the welfare of his tenants, a duty which he takes very very seriously. If anyone threatens his precious residents or the building itself, they can expect a visit to the thirteenth floor… A place where nightmare and reality become one! 

The iconic series from classic British anthologies Scream! and The Eagle returns in this terrifying collection!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Science Fiction

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

'What if the Punisher were an English council block?' is not the most obvious premise for a comic, but my goodness it works, at least initially. Maxwell Tower is a bold new piece of municipal housing (back before that element was itself fantastical) run by Max the computer. And Max wants to look after his tenants - by any means necessary. The beauty of it is that he doesn't just use the horrors of his thirteenth floor to torment bullies and thieves, but bailiffs and high-handed housing officers - this is, in short, a socialist avenger, and I found myself wishing we had more like him. Though he's not as limited in his methods as other avatars of vengeance – yes, he'll kill threats to his people, or drive them permanently insane, when necessary. But where possible he's just as happy to scare them into mending their ways. And it's not just an excuse for a rampage; he really does care about the tenants, being just as devoted to reminding them of appointments or helping to peacefully mediate domestic disputes as he is to lethal sanctions.

Alas, then horror comic Scream folds, and the story moves to the Eagle, where despite retaining the same creative team (the prolific Alan Grant and John Wagner write, drawn very nicely by Jose Ortiz), it instantly goes off the rails. Max starts making sloppy moves, risking discovery and framing tenants, in a way utterly at odds with what's gone before. The Thirteenth Floor's capabilities move ever further from semi-plausible SF into outright fantasy, becoming ever less defined and ever more unreliable. There's no hint of it in the introduction, but I can only wonder if some editorial ghost of the Eagle's didactic founder felt the need to insist that righteously murderous municipal buildings should not be presented in such a straightforwardly heroic light. Whatever the reason, the second half of the collection still has its moments, but is very disappointing compared to the proper Scream stuff.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

An interesting horror tale based around an apartment building run by a sentient computer. The computer is able to basically create an alternate dimension, "The Thirteenth Floor", where it has absolute control. Things start out with the computer using the thirteenth floor to punish the guilty, but as is usually the case then the computer goes a little nuts and even the innocent are no longer safe.

I liked the art, but the stories did get a little repetitive. There was also a lot left unexplained. When the series starts off, the thirteenth floor only exists in people's minds, but in the middle of the volume it starts to become an actual reality with no real explanation given.

But still, this is an 80s comic, and if you can get past some of the plot holes it is an entertaining read. There's two more volumes of this, which surprises me since it felt a little tired by the end of this one. I'm curious to see how they continue the story.

[Ben Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not everything about the plot adds up, but that’s not the point and I was very much okay with it. Instead I allowed the story to lift my spirits and carry me along, cheerfully rooting for Max to find his way out of each new debacle. The Thirteenth Floor is billed as 17 stories of pure entertainment, and on that it won’t let you down.

Full review at Beyond the Veil (https://gobeyondtheveil.co.uk/comics/...).

[Lee Bright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute blast of pure nostalgia. I haven't read these stories in 36 years, when they first saw print in 1984. I remember pestering my mother to buy me the Scream comic, even though it looked way too scary for an 8 year old. After a while Scream merged with Eagle which I then started buying so I could carry on the stories of Max and his Thirteenth Floor.

Now, 36 years later I am finally rereading these classic stories and they really do stand up to the tests of time, Max the computer is awesome and could still be seen as futuristic.

Artwork and storytelling is top notch.

I will be purchasing Vol. 2.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y... llegaron los saldos de Dolmen. A ver, esto era inevitable. La línea Albión —cuyos títulos no bajan de los 30 euros— no da un duro (solo Dredd y tal vez, solo tal vez, Anderson), así que... ¡a saldar se ha dicho! Hasta ahora, esto es lo más digno que han vendido a precio de costo (a ver, son 50 euros por tres álbumes de 170 páginas cada uno aproximadamente, o sea, algo medianamente razonable). Y es ciertamente un buen trabajo de Wagner, Grant y, sobre todo, del gran José Ortiz, con una premisa bastante cachonda: al ordenador que administra un edificio se le va la olla, crea una planta fantasma y mete allí a todo aquel que se atreva a amenazar de la manera que sea a sus inquilinos, utilizando sofisticadísimos hologramas para llevarlos al borde de la muerte (o a la muerte, directamente), y así llevar a cabo su particular concepto de justicia. Wagner y Grant están tan creativos como siempre, y Ortiz está espectacular a los lápices, por lo que... oigan, así sí. Los saldos molan si las editoriales roban, no hay más.

[Bo Malpas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding, max is my hero.

[Simon Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undoubtedly an exercise in nostalgia, this is a book that ticks all the boxes when it comes to reliving one’s childhood. I was a year or two off of being a teenager when the comic Scream launched. My friend discovered it first and it was only rooting around in his Eagles (I was getting 200AD and Return Of The Jedi comic at the time) that I happened upon a the first couple of issues. But I was hooked. There was one particular short story of a hideous creature lurking on a beach that I found equally horrifying and captivating, and there was The Thirteenth Floor.

The Thirteenth Floor was about a tower block with a futuristic sentient computer called Max. In today’s parlance that’s a sophisticated AI. Max looked out for his tenants, making sure they were healthy, entertained, and never fearful of being alone. Sounds ideal, but the problem is that when the neer-do-wells did turn up, and turn up they most certainly did, Max’s programming demanded he took action. And that meant the criminals and the bullies ended up on his thirteenth floor, a product of his digital mind that confronted the miscreants with their nightmares, and often in a way that darkly reflected their crime.

As a concept there was lots of potential to play with, and Max’s rendering as demonic distorted screen was a terrific bit of design. But an episodic villain of the week was never going to succeed long-term, so a venture into a deeper story with a more involved plot began to take shape.

All these years’s later, with dangerous AI a concept thoroughly explored in science-fiction, there are certainly aspects of Max’s existence that don’t date too well. But it’s a product of its time, not to mention the age group it was aimed at, so even though the villains can be a little pantomime or cliched at times, they were the right fit for the story. After all, all we were really interested in was the horror that would befall them.

Ortiz’s mono artwork is thoroughly brilliant throughout. The tower block and the residents may well be a humdrum thing to have to draw, but once Max got fired up there was no telling what sort of demonic beastie or dreadful scenario would be required to right that wrong. Ortiz wields shadows and darkness masterfully, generating depth, atmosphere and suspense across the panels. It’s not easy doing horror for kids, but Ortiz showed how it was done, not unlike the Dark Judges over in 2000AD at around the same time.

A nice thick volume to boot, this is well worth the trip down memory lane. Just steer clear of the tower block at the end of it.

[Javier Iglesias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cómic con ya 40 años a sus espaldas que, sin embargo, encuentra hoy día una escalofriante relectura en los tiempos que vivimos, donde nos empieza a costar mucho trabajo distinguir qué imágenes están o no generadas con Inteligencia Artificial, Max es una calabaza de Halloween parlante inserta en el cerebro de un superordenador de un edificio high tech, capaz de crear falsas pero terroríficas realidades sin otro objeto que amedrentar, y tantas veces matar, a sus enemigos de puro terror.

Si eres capaz de poner en un segundo plano lo repetitivo tanto de la fórmula como del esquema narrativos, no en vano estamos ante una publicación periódica, "La decimotercera planta" acaba siendo el para nada desfasado relato de una IA que comienza por ser el típico Vigilante Reaccionario, al tiempo juez, jurado y verdugo, para acabar mutando en un desatado y en colapso serial killer de muy armas tomar.

José Ortiz, como de costumbre, deslumbrante.

[John Appleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was always one of my favourite strips from the Eagle comic as resurrected in the 80s. An all-powerful computer, Max, running a tower block, with an obsession for looking after its residents at absolutely any cost, is an intriguing premise. Looking at it from today's eyes, with AI all over the place, perhaps more so.

This books covers maybe close to a year's worth of the strips, with a fully story arc running throughout, rather than self-contained episodes. This gives me a view of the strip I didn't really see back in the day, and ratchets up the tension so much more, as we see what lengths Max will actually go to, in order to stop the powers that be from turning him off.

It end on a cliff-hanger, what with there being at least a further book in the series. Might have to seek that one out.

[Paul Griggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a sporadic reader of “New” Eagle in the 80s, so I remember Max the mad computer and his Thirteenth Floor or horrors used to punish people who would do his tenants wrong. This first volume nicely draws together the ongoing plot line while still seeing the individual one-off events also. Special mention of the talented Jose Ortiz whose unmistakeable art was familiar to readers of Battle, Eagle, 2000ad and more. REcommended.

[Bene Vogt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun idea that takes less than 20 pages to become soul-crushingly repetitive with the biggest variance being how many pages it takes between an asshole appearing and an asshole being punished by the sentient building.
And don’t expect any deeper level of meaning or food for thought, it’s really just that (well, later in some non-assholes begin being threatening to the sentient building and it becomes non-asshole appears->non-asshole gets brainwashed for a bit).

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant piece of satirical science fiction horror from the best of British comics. It is wonderfully morally ambiguous, where to start with it is easy to sympathise with Max's goals, if not his necessarily his means, but more and more he becomes obsessed with dealing with petty nuisances and protecting his project no matter the costs.

[Mark L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. I read these growing up in Scream and Eagle comics and they stand the test of time. Max, the Tower Block's controlling AI punishes anyone who threatens his tenants, in darkly ironic ways on his mysterious Thirteenth Floor.

[Ztu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this nostalgic tale of a computer-automated council flat tower.

[Kieran Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic teen horror. Just as good as the first time I read it as a kid.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A self-sustaining computer running a city block gets extremely protective in this neat horror series.

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great horror comic

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of nostalgic fun for the days of weekly comic strips. Not actually scary in any meaningful way.

[Gav451 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of you will not, but I remember Starlord. I didn't read it for very long because I got into 2000ad first and 2000ad was My favorite. Money was also tight so I had to choose which I was going to read regularly and having started 2000ad first I stuck with it. It was not long after I started reading 2000ad that Starlord merged with it. This story comes from pre 2000ad Starlord but is by a writer who was brilliant in 2000ad. John Wagner was a great writer of Judge Dredd stories.

I enjoyed this collected edition. It starts off as a fairly standard Horror of the week collection of tales. The computer is an all seeing narrator who is able to create anything for anyone who comes into the tower and when I first started I thought that this Kate story was going to become a very standard set of Horror tales but I underestimated the skills of the writers.

As the tail continues it becomes more nuanced and becomes about the moral difficulties with any building that is slowly becoming self-aware. Given the age of the story in this collected edition the way that it has considered and predicted smoke the Artificial Intelligence issues we are discussing today is amazing. What is really good is that the computer slowly loses control over the people around it and the story is actually really interesting as it does so.

The art is very much of its age and is in black and white but is solid and regularly brilliant. We should remember that these stories were written to a deadline and this was a weekly comic designed for children. I was very surprised with the quality of the writing, the darkness of the tales and the complex moral issues that were raised within them.I found I was able to empathize both with the characters within the story and the computer. This was not a black and white story where all of the moral issues were clearly set out and obvious to everyone. I liked the fact that the computer had internal reasoning for what it did and in the end was doing it because it wanted what was best for all of the residents within its tower block. The way it slowly lost control and became more extreme was interesting and well plotted. I was never bored within this graphic novel.

This is a fine piece of work and a good read. The fact I got it from Humble Bundle makes it an absolute bargain. I enjoyed this.

[Max Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max of Maxwell Tower is a computer designed to help the people living inside with various home tasks. He is very concerned with their welfare. In fact, he could just murder if he determined that one of them is in danger. And as it turns out, that is quite often the case and he has just the tool for it - the titular Thirteenth Floor, which is a hologram that can be projected into the mind of any person who happens to be inside of the elevator.



This is the first volume that collects the comics from 1984-1985 by John Wagner and Alan Grant. The gist of the early short episodes is that Max finds out about someone "bad" who wants to hurt one of the tenants and then lures them into his special floor to scare them to death. This quickly escalates into Max using hypnosis to solicit help from one of the residents and later on to the police getting wise to his deadly shenanigans so it's never stale. The scares themselves are simple and charming in that early comics sense - skeletons, spiders, etc. In fact, the whole setting has that realistic vibe in it, apart from the wondrous computer the rest is decidedly mundane. Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure what year it's supposed to be set in, in the future or in the present. The art by Jose Ortiz while not my favorite out of what I've read from 2000AD black and white offerings, is excellent. If you're okay with the relative mundaneness of the depiction, this can be a fun read.

[Timo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good. The best of the Treasury of British Comics imprint I have read so far.
Everything just clicked here on these short and snappy three page long blasts. From gritty and dark art to great and fast paced writing.
Really forward for the Vol. 02.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable British Horror Anthology by two of Britain's finest comic book writers.