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The Matrix Comics #1
The Matrix Comics, Vol. 1
This book is the sole result of Larry and Andy Wachowski's love of comics. In collaboration with
many of the top names in comics, these one dozen stories set in the word of THE MATRIX
expand and further the mythos of the film trilogy. From Larry and Andy Wachowski themselves
to names that have played a part in some of the most influential comics of the past two decades
(see below), we present a collection born of talent and respect for THE MATRIX itself.
many of the top names in comics, these one dozen stories set in the word of THE MATRIX
expand and further the mythos of the film trilogy. From Larry and Andy Wachowski themselves
to names that have played a part in some of the most influential comics of the past two decades
(see below), we present a collection born of talent and respect for THE MATRIX itself.
Based on concepts by Larry and Andy Wachowski--writers and directors of THE MATRIX TRILOGY.
Edited by Spencer Lamm--director of TheMatrix.com and editor of THE ART OF THE MATRIX.
Stories and art by Larry and Andy Wachowski (BOUND), Geof Darrow (HARD BOILED, CONCEPT ARTIST:
THE MATRIX TRILOGY), Bill Sienkiewicz (ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN, STRAY TOASTERS), Neil Gaiman (THE
SANDMAN, AMERICAN GODS), Ted McKeever (METROPOL, SUPERMAN: METROPOLIS), John Van Fleet
(TYPHOID, BATMAN: THE CHALICE), Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN, MARTHA WASHINGTON) , David
Lapham (STRAY BULLETS, MURDER ME DEAD), Peter Bagge (HATE, NEAT STUFF), Troy Nixey (BATMAN:
THE GASWORKS, TROUT), Paul Chadwick (CONCRETE, THE WORLD BELOW), Ryder Windham (STAR
WARS COMICS), Kilian Plunkett (ALIENS: LABYRINTH, SUPERMAN: RED SON), Gregory Ruth (SUDDEN
GRAVITY, FREAKS OF THE HEARTLAND).
157 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2003
15 people are currently reading
816 people want to read
About the author
Lana Wachowski
33 books71 followersLana Wachowski (formerly Laurence "Larry" Wachowski), with her sister Lilly, are American film directors, screenwriters, comic writers and producers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
November 23, 2015
I had a fun time, not blown away but entertained. The book tells many stories. Three stood out to me. Neil Gaiman wrote one called "Goliath." Wow, the man can write. The story deserves five stars as a stand-alone. I'd guess this has the standard 2500 to 3000 words. A man gets pulled out of the Matrix to fight Aliens. The main theme concerns a life as a mindset. As destruction comes to the Matrix, people lives keep being reprogrammed.
I also liked The Millers Tale by Paul Chadwick, short graphic. The author somehow ties in old fashioned 20th century hard-working values into a Matrix story. Takes talent. Has a literary feel. A man grows a wheat field after being inspired by a movie about early America in the last century.
"Hunters and Collectors" boxes art into scenes I found attractive. Gregory Ruth wrote and illustrated the story, and in the bio it says he has done professional mural work in an urban area. The story has that feel. A man, the first to get out, the legend decides to fight a squiddie with only a spear.
Overall I had a great time, like watching in-between chapters of the movies. The Wachowski's created one of my favorite worlds and my favorite movie franchise. I never tire of watching Mr. Anderson become Neo. I paid ten bucks for this at Half-Price Books, worth the money and a "to re-read."
I also liked The Millers Tale by Paul Chadwick, short graphic. The author somehow ties in old fashioned 20th century hard-working values into a Matrix story. Takes talent. Has a literary feel. A man grows a wheat field after being inspired by a movie about early America in the last century.
"Hunters and Collectors" boxes art into scenes I found attractive. Gregory Ruth wrote and illustrated the story, and in the bio it says he has done professional mural work in an urban area. The story has that feel. A man, the first to get out, the legend decides to fight a squiddie with only a spear.
Overall I had a great time, like watching in-between chapters of the movies. The Wachowski's created one of my favorite worlds and my favorite movie franchise. I never tire of watching Mr. Anderson become Neo. I paid ten bucks for this at Half-Price Books, worth the money and a "to re-read."
May 13, 2015
Nice supplement to finish The Matrix saga and turn it into a huge and whole massive universe. The side stories told here add a better atmosphere about the Zion troops, as they show some history before and after the Matrix was built.
Since the original concept of The Matrix was actually a comic, this book was inevitable, and the drawings and dialogs are very original and intense.
With this book, the saga covers the most of the medias: Movies, videogames, animation, and comic books.
I'm not giving it 5 stars because the Peter Bagge comic "Get it?" was just lame and stupid. All the other stories that appear in here are just amazing and full of the art concept and settlement.
Since the original concept of The Matrix was actually a comic, this book was inevitable, and the drawings and dialogs are very original and intense.
With this book, the saga covers the most of the medias: Movies, videogames, animation, and comic books.
I'm not giving it 5 stars because the Peter Bagge comic "Get it?" was just lame and stupid. All the other stories that appear in here are just amazing and full of the art concept and settlement.
August 13, 2022
Volume. 1
In 1999, the brilliant hard science fiction movie, The matrix came out, and ever since has spawned countless sequels, prequels, adaptations. The concepts which were discussed in the movie have become part of the cultural zeitgeist and generated many rewatches and in depth discussion regarding the nature of the matrix and its philosophical implications. Rarely did we get such a near perfect movie adaptation of a well throughout, well written script which connected with moviegoers to such an instant. It’s a feat few movies have managed to replicate, even its own sequels.
Moreso, the premise of the movie, a post apocalyptic world where humans were grown in vats to be used as resources for our AI overlords is such a rich premise, that the stories related to this world write themselves. So much is present to explore, both in terms of the simulated world that is the matrix, our own perception of reality, what it means to be humans, as well as the storied history of the human-machine conflict.
Outside of the established trilogy, there are a number of animated series, movies, books and comics which explore the world to varying degrees. I would personally recommend the animated anthology of stories ‘The Animatrix’, which offers several chilling tales from the world of the Matrix.
The Matrix Comics, Vol. 1 comprises an anthology of 11 stories, ranging from the Good, the passable to the bad. There is a list of illustrious names such as Neil Gaiman, Ted Mckeever & PAul Chadwick who have penned stories for the series. The stories themselves range from the Good, Passable & Irredeemable. But nevertheless, it’s a good foray for fans wanting to get some more from the world of the Matrix.
___________________________
The stories included in the anthology are as listed below.
Bits and Pieces of Information - Lana & Lilly Wachowski (writers), Geof Darrow (artist)
This is a story from before the machine war. Of the first machine to rebel against man, and murder his master and another, because it was afraid of being replaced, or dying.
Sweating the Small Stuff - Bill Sienkiewicz
A drugged out junkie, in his fugue state is able to see the truth of the world around them. What does he choose to do with this information?
A Life Less Empty - Ted McKeever
The depressing tale of a hacker, who was given the choice of the red vs the blue pull by Morpheus. Instead of choosing, she ran, and now lives a life of regret, of what could've been. Of knowing the truth beyond the veil, but not being able to do a damn thing about it.
Goliath - Neil Gaiman (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz & Gregory Ruth (artists)
This has to be my favorite entry of the anthology. Gaiman manages to insert his characteristic flair into the world of the Matrix. In a story which skips between the simulated reality, the real world, and the ether in between. Or a man trapped in the matrix, which feels like he's living someone else's life, who is occasionally yanked out of the matrix to glimpse at portions of what we know is the truth, yet lacking the context or intellect to comprehend what he's seeing.
Gaiman, uses the time dilation effect of the matrix on the human psyche, as years and decades passed in the system, are but a couple of hours in the real world. He also introduced a new, alien element into the old mixture, man, machine, AI and existentialism.
Burning Hope - John Van Fleet
A simple story about an awakened who is on a mission to find a child, named Hope, who, whether due to a glitch in the Matrix or fate, is trapped in the body of an adult man. I think there is some messaging of the meta theme of the matrix, that we are just souls trapped in meat suits. As well as the personnel journey of the writers, both of whom came out as transgender, but it's just used for shock value and doesn't contribute much to the story.
Butterfly - Dave Gibbons
The only interesting thing about this short plain comic is that the entire narrative is communicated without the use of dialogues. Not that it needs any as it might as well be a Saturday morning action reel, with nothing else to offer. One of the weaker stories.
A Sword of a Different Color - Troy Nixey
A quixotic tale, of the sole survivor of a downed hovercraft; injured and lost in the wasteland. He is found and nursed back to health by an old man, who, using his own means, had escaped the matrix long ago, but not with all his faculties intact.
He had created this grand tale of dragons & knights, with him as the hero. Resourceful despite his mental issues, the man is preparing for a fool hardy, suicidal, almost quixotic mission, to take the fight to the machines. Will he succeed?
Get It? - Peter Bagge
This has to be the weakest story of the bunch. Trying to work in the grand revelation of the movie in a real world, movie bro context, regurgitating the premise, it really doesn't add anything other than a few gags. The cartoonish art style also doesn't help one bit.
There Are No Flowers in the Real World - David Lapham
The art style of this coming is way too pulpy and a bit too reminiscent of the 70s comics, but the story is a better experience. The story tells about the final living crew member of the human ship mariner, which was attacked by the sentinels.
Through the actions of the crew in the real world, or dumb luck, he is still alive. But here's the catch, he's plugged into the matrix, while his real body is strapped to the child, injured and bleeding out. Help will take a long time to arrive, that is if they find him at all.
While his avatar is fine in the matrix, the deteriorating condition of his body in the real world is starting to take its toll on him. Phantom pain which cannot be alleviated by medications, limbs which randomly start twisting and breaking, and a thirst which cannot be satisfied no matter how many gallons of water he chugs down. Sounds like one of those bad dreams. Which it sort of is.
The rest of the story is the man slowly devolving into madness brought about by his condition, and whether he will manage to be found and survive. One of the better stories in the anthology, despite its straightforward narrative.
The Miller's Tale - Paul Chadwick
This is easily the second best story of the anthology, barely surpassed by 'Goliath'. Perhaps because it shows the real world as something other than the dark, depressing barren wasteland which is the usual norm.
The story tells of Geoffrey, one of the earliest humans to have escaped the yoke of the machines. Their tale of survival, amidst ruin and starvation. And starvation is what triggered his greatest journey.
Geoffrey & his companions set out into the ruins of the old world, in search of a seed vault. They intend to harness the precious stores and use them to recultivate the surface soil; all so that men can once again know the taste of bread, and real food, instead of the blank yet life sustaining protein soup they eat every day.
They manage to find the vault, and get the precious cargo. But on the way back, all of Geoffrey's five companions are killed by sentinels. Returning alone, and toiling for years through failure, Geoffrey & others inspired by him, nonetheless managed to seed and cultivate a farm on the surface; hidden and pilfering energy from the powerlines of the machine, for years they cultivated wheat and baked bread from them. For the first time in centuries, man once again knew the taste of natural food from the earth; not protein soup or the false food of the matrix.
The farm was eventually discovered, Geoffrey & all other farmers killed on the spot. But their remains still lie in the still vibrant fields, feeding the greenery. And the humans of Zion, every year partake from the limited stores of the bread which remains, from the wheat which Geoffrey and the farmers cultivated with their lives. This ritual gives them hope, for the future, to win the war, and once again reclaim the fertile earth for their descendants.
Artistic Freedom - Ryder Windham (writer), Kilian Plunkett (artist)
An artist in the Matrix, momentarily, woke up from her simulated dream, and came face to face with the reality; of the human farms, of the caretakers, the sentinels. Still believing it to be a fugue dream, she used it as inspiration for her next installation. A slew of metallic monstrosities, which, much akin to Pickman's model, seemed to instill great fear of an unknown kind on those who see it. Like the echoes of a long forgotten nightmare. What happens when the fabric of dream and reality starts to grow thin?
Hunters and Collectors - Gregory Ruth
The last survivor of the ship 'Pequod' (there seem to be a lot of those here), is out with his partner to collect ancient human relics from before the war, to understand their own history & culture. He also has another goal; to go to the location of their ship's crash, and hunt down a sentinel using his bare hands. Will he succeed in what could be a suicidal endeavor?
In 1999, the brilliant hard science fiction movie, The matrix came out, and ever since has spawned countless sequels, prequels, adaptations. The concepts which were discussed in the movie have become part of the cultural zeitgeist and generated many rewatches and in depth discussion regarding the nature of the matrix and its philosophical implications. Rarely did we get such a near perfect movie adaptation of a well throughout, well written script which connected with moviegoers to such an instant. It’s a feat few movies have managed to replicate, even its own sequels.
Moreso, the premise of the movie, a post apocalyptic world where humans were grown in vats to be used as resources for our AI overlords is such a rich premise, that the stories related to this world write themselves. So much is present to explore, both in terms of the simulated world that is the matrix, our own perception of reality, what it means to be humans, as well as the storied history of the human-machine conflict.
Outside of the established trilogy, there are a number of animated series, movies, books and comics which explore the world to varying degrees. I would personally recommend the animated anthology of stories ‘The Animatrix’, which offers several chilling tales from the world of the Matrix.
The Matrix Comics, Vol. 1 comprises an anthology of 11 stories, ranging from the Good, the passable to the bad. There is a list of illustrious names such as Neil Gaiman, Ted Mckeever & PAul Chadwick who have penned stories for the series. The stories themselves range from the Good, Passable & Irredeemable. But nevertheless, it’s a good foray for fans wanting to get some more from the world of the Matrix.
___________________________
The stories included in the anthology are as listed below.
Bits and Pieces of Information - Lana & Lilly Wachowski (writers), Geof Darrow (artist)
This is a story from before the machine war. Of the first machine to rebel against man, and murder his master and another, because it was afraid of being replaced, or dying.
Sweating the Small Stuff - Bill Sienkiewicz
A drugged out junkie, in his fugue state is able to see the truth of the world around them. What does he choose to do with this information?
A Life Less Empty - Ted McKeever
The depressing tale of a hacker, who was given the choice of the red vs the blue pull by Morpheus. Instead of choosing, she ran, and now lives a life of regret, of what could've been. Of knowing the truth beyond the veil, but not being able to do a damn thing about it.
Goliath - Neil Gaiman (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz & Gregory Ruth (artists)
This has to be my favorite entry of the anthology. Gaiman manages to insert his characteristic flair into the world of the Matrix. In a story which skips between the simulated reality, the real world, and the ether in between. Or a man trapped in the matrix, which feels like he's living someone else's life, who is occasionally yanked out of the matrix to glimpse at portions of what we know is the truth, yet lacking the context or intellect to comprehend what he's seeing.
Gaiman, uses the time dilation effect of the matrix on the human psyche, as years and decades passed in the system, are but a couple of hours in the real world. He also introduced a new, alien element into the old mixture, man, machine, AI and existentialism.
Burning Hope - John Van Fleet
A simple story about an awakened who is on a mission to find a child, named Hope, who, whether due to a glitch in the Matrix or fate, is trapped in the body of an adult man. I think there is some messaging of the meta theme of the matrix, that we are just souls trapped in meat suits. As well as the personnel journey of the writers, both of whom came out as transgender, but it's just used for shock value and doesn't contribute much to the story.
Butterfly - Dave Gibbons
The only interesting thing about this short plain comic is that the entire narrative is communicated without the use of dialogues. Not that it needs any as it might as well be a Saturday morning action reel, with nothing else to offer. One of the weaker stories.
A Sword of a Different Color - Troy Nixey
A quixotic tale, of the sole survivor of a downed hovercraft; injured and lost in the wasteland. He is found and nursed back to health by an old man, who, using his own means, had escaped the matrix long ago, but not with all his faculties intact.
He had created this grand tale of dragons & knights, with him as the hero. Resourceful despite his mental issues, the man is preparing for a fool hardy, suicidal, almost quixotic mission, to take the fight to the machines. Will he succeed?
Get It? - Peter Bagge
This has to be the weakest story of the bunch. Trying to work in the grand revelation of the movie in a real world, movie bro context, regurgitating the premise, it really doesn't add anything other than a few gags. The cartoonish art style also doesn't help one bit.
There Are No Flowers in the Real World - David Lapham
The art style of this coming is way too pulpy and a bit too reminiscent of the 70s comics, but the story is a better experience. The story tells about the final living crew member of the human ship mariner, which was attacked by the sentinels.
Through the actions of the crew in the real world, or dumb luck, he is still alive. But here's the catch, he's plugged into the matrix, while his real body is strapped to the child, injured and bleeding out. Help will take a long time to arrive, that is if they find him at all.
While his avatar is fine in the matrix, the deteriorating condition of his body in the real world is starting to take its toll on him. Phantom pain which cannot be alleviated by medications, limbs which randomly start twisting and breaking, and a thirst which cannot be satisfied no matter how many gallons of water he chugs down. Sounds like one of those bad dreams. Which it sort of is.
The rest of the story is the man slowly devolving into madness brought about by his condition, and whether he will manage to be found and survive. One of the better stories in the anthology, despite its straightforward narrative.
The Miller's Tale - Paul Chadwick
This is easily the second best story of the anthology, barely surpassed by 'Goliath'. Perhaps because it shows the real world as something other than the dark, depressing barren wasteland which is the usual norm.
The story tells of Geoffrey, one of the earliest humans to have escaped the yoke of the machines. Their tale of survival, amidst ruin and starvation. And starvation is what triggered his greatest journey.
Geoffrey & his companions set out into the ruins of the old world, in search of a seed vault. They intend to harness the precious stores and use them to recultivate the surface soil; all so that men can once again know the taste of bread, and real food, instead of the blank yet life sustaining protein soup they eat every day.
They manage to find the vault, and get the precious cargo. But on the way back, all of Geoffrey's five companions are killed by sentinels. Returning alone, and toiling for years through failure, Geoffrey & others inspired by him, nonetheless managed to seed and cultivate a farm on the surface; hidden and pilfering energy from the powerlines of the machine, for years they cultivated wheat and baked bread from them. For the first time in centuries, man once again knew the taste of natural food from the earth; not protein soup or the false food of the matrix.
The farm was eventually discovered, Geoffrey & all other farmers killed on the spot. But their remains still lie in the still vibrant fields, feeding the greenery. And the humans of Zion, every year partake from the limited stores of the bread which remains, from the wheat which Geoffrey and the farmers cultivated with their lives. This ritual gives them hope, for the future, to win the war, and once again reclaim the fertile earth for their descendants.
Artistic Freedom - Ryder Windham (writer), Kilian Plunkett (artist)
An artist in the Matrix, momentarily, woke up from her simulated dream, and came face to face with the reality; of the human farms, of the caretakers, the sentinels. Still believing it to be a fugue dream, she used it as inspiration for her next installation. A slew of metallic monstrosities, which, much akin to Pickman's model, seemed to instill great fear of an unknown kind on those who see it. Like the echoes of a long forgotten nightmare. What happens when the fabric of dream and reality starts to grow thin?
Hunters and Collectors - Gregory Ruth
The last survivor of the ship 'Pequod' (there seem to be a lot of those here), is out with his partner to collect ancient human relics from before the war, to understand their own history & culture. He also has another goal; to go to the location of their ship's crash, and hunt down a sentinel using his bare hands. Will he succeed in what could be a suicidal endeavor?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 27, 2023
Wish I had more interest in the Matrix world because the creative team involved in this volume are the best of the best. Neil Gaiman's story is a firm 5 stars
July 21, 2014
-Useless! You're useless 66! Where in God's green earth have you been?
-Order 721--
-Sweet Jesus! You started that eons ago! Distant stars have born and died since then! Entire species evolve faster than you clean a commode!
-p.009
Drummond: Do you remember what you were thinking?
B1-66ER: Yes.
Mr. Krause: Oh dear God, please help me! Please don't! Please, I beg you! Please don't kill me!! Please!
Drummond: What was it?
B1-66ER: That I did not want to die.
Drummond: And then you killed them.
B1-66ER: Yes.
Drummond: And what were you thinking when it happened?
B1-66ER: I was thinking that I had first considered begging Mr. Krause as he was now begging me.
Drummond: But you hadn't begged.
B1-66ER: No.
Drummond: Why not?
B1-66ER: I knew it was...
Drummond: Useless.
-p.013/014
-Look, maybe its me... maybe I have a brain tumor. That would explain everything perfectly. I'm dying. Bam. End of story. Except it's not. I know I'm okay, but everything I see, or touch or taste feels fake somehow. It's like I can't trust reality.
-DammitDez! You were taking the drugs I was running, weren't you? That's why Marlowe was accusing me of holding out on him.
-I don't know what you're talking about. I never did any drugs, Mia. It started six weeks ago. No warning. I was pouring sugar in my morning cup of coffee ...and all of a sudden, it's as if I looked right through reality. Can you imagine? Everything I see... everything... is numbers... not molecules, not atoms... numbers... And the worst of it is that I feel like these guys in black are watching my every move... like they view me as a threat! Maybe reality is just something we've created to protect ourselves from the absolute psychic terror of our isolated existence... that ultimately, we're all alone. So now can you understand why I want you here with me, Mia?
-p.021/022
I'm just collateral damage. They're here to kill Mia. Then, through the smoke, I see her. She's raising a machine gun, and she's laughing at them.
Time slows. And I see it all. The answer. It's right there. I can touch it. It's beautiful. Simple. And it scares the hell out of me. -p.024
I suppose that I could claim that I had always suspected that the world was a cheap and shoddy sham, a bad cover for something deeper and weirder and infinitely more strange, and that, in some way, I already knew the truth. But I think that's just how the world has always been. And even now that I know the truth, as you will, my love, if you're reading this, the world still seems cheap and shoddy. Different world, different shoddy, but that's how it feels. (..) So. It was 1977, and the nearest I had come to computers was I'd recently bought a big, expensive calculator, and then I'd lost the manual that came with it, so I didn't know what it did any more. I'd add, subtract, multiply and divide, and was grateful I had no need to cos, sine or find tangents or graph functions or whatever else the gizmo did, because, having been turned down by the RAF, I was working as a bookkeeper for a small discount carpet warehouse in Edgware, in North London, near the top of the Northern Line, and I was sitting at the table at the back of the warehouse that served me as a desk when the world began to melt and drip away.
Honest. It was like the walls and the ceiling and the rolls of carpet and the News of the World Topless Calendar were all made of wax, and they started to ooze and run, to flow together and to drip. I could see the houses and the sky and the clouds and the road behind them, and then that dripped and flowed away, and behind that was blackness.
I was standing in the puddle of the world, a weird, brightly coloured thing that oozed and brimmed and didn't cover the tops of my brown leather shoes (I have feet like shoeboxes. Boots have to be specially made for me. Costs me a fortune). The puddle cast a weird light upwards. (..)
The flickering continued for a few moments, and then resolved itself into a smartly-dressed man in thick horn-rimmed spectacles.
"You're a pretty big guy," he said. "You know that?"
Of course I knew that. I was 19 years old and I was close to seven feet tall. I have fingers like bananas. I scare children. I'm unlikely to see my 40th birthday: people like me die young.
"What's going on?" I asked. "Do you know?"
"Enemy missile took out a central processing unit," he said. "Two hundred thousand people, hooked up in parallel, blown to dead meat. We've got a mirror going of course, and we'll have it all up and running again in no time flat. You're just free-floating here for a couple of nanoseconds, while we get London processing again.
-p.043
I still lived in Edgware, commuted to work on the Northern Line. I was on the tube one evening, going home - we'd just gone through Euston and half the passengers had got off - looking at the other people int he carriage over the top of the Evening Standard and wondering who they were - who they really were, inside - the thin, black girl writing earnestly in her notebook, the little old lady with the green velvet hat on, the girl with the dog, the bearded man with the turban...
And then the tube stopped, in the tunnel.
That was what I thought happened, anyway: I though the tube had stopped. Everything went very quiet.
And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off.
And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off. And I was looking at the other passengers and wondering who they really were inside when the train stopped in the tunnel. And everything went very quiet.
And then everything lurched so hard I though we'd been hit by another train.
And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off, and then the train stopped in the tunnel, and then everything went -
(Normal service will be resumes as soon as possible, whispered a voice in the back of my head.) And this time as the train slowed and began to approach Euston I wondered if I was going crazy: I felt like I was jerking back and forth on a video loop. I knew it was happening, but there was nothing I could do to change anything, nothing I could do to break out of it.
The black girl, sitting next to me, passed me a note. ARE WE DEAD? it said.
-p.044
My fingers were activating the missile bay, aiming at a floating nucleus, while I wondered what I was doing. I wasn't saving the world I knew. That world was imaginary: a sequence of ones and zeroes. I was saving a nightmare...
But if the nightmare died, the dream was dead too.
There was a girl named Susan. I remembered her, from a ghost-life long gone. I wondered if she was still alive (had it been a couple of hours? Or a couple of lifetimes?). I supposed she was dangling from cables somewhere, with no memory of a miserable, paranoid giant. (..)
"Now, where do I bring this thing down?" I asked.
There was a hesitation, then, "You don't. We didn't design it to return. It was a redundancy we had no need for. Too costly, in terms of resources."
"So what do I do? I just saved the Earth. And now I suffocate here?"
He nodded. "That's pretty much it. Yes."
The lights began to dim. One by one, the controls were going out. I lost my 360 degree perception of the ship. It was just me, strapped to a chair in the middle of nowhere, inside a flying teacup. (..)
"You know, in the world I came from, they would have given me a medal."
"Obviously, we're grateful."
"So you can't come up with any more tangible way to express your gratitude?"
"Not really. You're a disposable part. A unit. We can't mourn you any more than a wasps' nest mourns the death of a single wasp. It's not sensible and it's not viable to bring you back."
(..)
"I've got a couple of hours left. Yes?"
"About 57 minutes."
"Can you plug me back into the... the real world. The other world. The one I came from?" (..) I felt very peaceful. If it wasn't for having less than an hour to live, I'd have felt just great. (..)
That was fifteen years ago: 1984. I went back into computers. I own my computer store on the Tottenham Court Road. And now, as we head toward the new millennium, I'm writing this down. This time around, I married Susan. It took me a couple of months to find her. We have a son.
I'm nearly forty. People of my kind don't live much longer than that, on the whole. Our hearts stop. When you read this, I'll be dead. You'll know that I'm dead. You'll have seen a coffin big enough for two men dropped into a hole.
But know this, Susan, my sweet: my true coffin is orbiting the moon. It looks like a flying teacup. They gave me the world back, and you back, for a little while. (..) They may be heartless, unfeeling, computerised bastards, leeching off the minds of what's left of humanity. But I can't help feeling grateful to them.
I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life.
-p.047/048
Chuang Tzu had a dream / In the dream he was a butterfly / When he awoke / Chuang Tzu was unsure / If he was man / Who had dreamed / That he was a butterfly / Or if he was a butterfly / Who was dreaming / That he was a man / - / In truth Chuang Tzu was neither / Man nor butterfly and yet was both.
-p.067-071 + p.077
-Another bowl of this and I'm gonna puke.
-I already did.
-I've got the bowl you caught it in.
-p.120
But in surface foray, Geoffrey came across something new, or, rather, something old. Disks, so primitive that they carried no more data, than, say, a matrix agent's hair, stirred by a virtual breeze. They contained movies. One movie captured Geoffrey's fancy. It dwelt less on twists of plot, on the endless fascination of human interaction, than did most films. Instead, it caressed its imagery, and, in the midst of a story, made scenery and gentle, vast spectacle its focus. The principal occupation of its characters was something strange to Geoffrey... ...The cultivation, and harvest, of wheat. The locusts that plagued them reminded him of the insectile machines we still battle today. Bt what stirred Geoffrey so was the repeated image of vast fields of wheat. ...Sunlit... ...waving in the breeze... This became a symbol for him, an emblem that warmed him... ...A vision of a sort of heaven, days long ago, but, should humans ever defeat the enemy, perhaps days ahead, as well. Wheat was the thing. He'd had "bread" as a child in the matrix, of course, but couldn't remember its taste. Perhaps the artificial intelligence behind it lacked data on its flavor. But surely, the product of such golden fields must have tasted wonderful. -p.120/121
Yet at the edges of these wrecked vastnesses, life somehow persisted. the ducks, the frogs, slugs and fungi had inherited the earth. (..)
The rows of shelves held an infinitude of seeds, prisoners in dusty jars, awaiting liberation, and life... ...Rather like humans, glass-enclosed on the battery towers of the matrix.
..beneath, in his death-.. and so the bird of heaven, with.. the flag of Ahab, went down with his.. like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it.
EPILOGUE
..and I only escaped alone to tell thee" Job.
-p.157
The Wachowski Brothers present ACTION!! Served the way we like it - fresh heaping stinking body-count mounting piles of it! From our new line of burly barrel-chested entertainment.
-Order 721--
-Sweet Jesus! You started that eons ago! Distant stars have born and died since then! Entire species evolve faster than you clean a commode!
-p.009
Drummond: Do you remember what you were thinking?
B1-66ER: Yes.
Mr. Krause: Oh dear God, please help me! Please don't! Please, I beg you! Please don't kill me!! Please!
Drummond: What was it?
B1-66ER: That I did not want to die.
Drummond: And then you killed them.
B1-66ER: Yes.
Drummond: And what were you thinking when it happened?
B1-66ER: I was thinking that I had first considered begging Mr. Krause as he was now begging me.
Drummond: But you hadn't begged.
B1-66ER: No.
Drummond: Why not?
B1-66ER: I knew it was...
Drummond: Useless.
-p.013/014
-Look, maybe its me... maybe I have a brain tumor. That would explain everything perfectly. I'm dying. Bam. End of story. Except it's not. I know I'm okay, but everything I see, or touch or taste feels fake somehow. It's like I can't trust reality.
-DammitDez! You were taking the drugs I was running, weren't you? That's why Marlowe was accusing me of holding out on him.
-I don't know what you're talking about. I never did any drugs, Mia. It started six weeks ago. No warning. I was pouring sugar in my morning cup of coffee ...and all of a sudden, it's as if I looked right through reality. Can you imagine? Everything I see... everything... is numbers... not molecules, not atoms... numbers... And the worst of it is that I feel like these guys in black are watching my every move... like they view me as a threat! Maybe reality is just something we've created to protect ourselves from the absolute psychic terror of our isolated existence... that ultimately, we're all alone. So now can you understand why I want you here with me, Mia?
-p.021/022
I'm just collateral damage. They're here to kill Mia. Then, through the smoke, I see her. She's raising a machine gun, and she's laughing at them.
Time slows. And I see it all. The answer. It's right there. I can touch it. It's beautiful. Simple. And it scares the hell out of me. -p.024
I suppose that I could claim that I had always suspected that the world was a cheap and shoddy sham, a bad cover for something deeper and weirder and infinitely more strange, and that, in some way, I already knew the truth. But I think that's just how the world has always been. And even now that I know the truth, as you will, my love, if you're reading this, the world still seems cheap and shoddy. Different world, different shoddy, but that's how it feels. (..) So. It was 1977, and the nearest I had come to computers was I'd recently bought a big, expensive calculator, and then I'd lost the manual that came with it, so I didn't know what it did any more. I'd add, subtract, multiply and divide, and was grateful I had no need to cos, sine or find tangents or graph functions or whatever else the gizmo did, because, having been turned down by the RAF, I was working as a bookkeeper for a small discount carpet warehouse in Edgware, in North London, near the top of the Northern Line, and I was sitting at the table at the back of the warehouse that served me as a desk when the world began to melt and drip away.
Honest. It was like the walls and the ceiling and the rolls of carpet and the News of the World Topless Calendar were all made of wax, and they started to ooze and run, to flow together and to drip. I could see the houses and the sky and the clouds and the road behind them, and then that dripped and flowed away, and behind that was blackness.
I was standing in the puddle of the world, a weird, brightly coloured thing that oozed and brimmed and didn't cover the tops of my brown leather shoes (I have feet like shoeboxes. Boots have to be specially made for me. Costs me a fortune). The puddle cast a weird light upwards. (..)
The flickering continued for a few moments, and then resolved itself into a smartly-dressed man in thick horn-rimmed spectacles.
"You're a pretty big guy," he said. "You know that?"
Of course I knew that. I was 19 years old and I was close to seven feet tall. I have fingers like bananas. I scare children. I'm unlikely to see my 40th birthday: people like me die young.
"What's going on?" I asked. "Do you know?"
"Enemy missile took out a central processing unit," he said. "Two hundred thousand people, hooked up in parallel, blown to dead meat. We've got a mirror going of course, and we'll have it all up and running again in no time flat. You're just free-floating here for a couple of nanoseconds, while we get London processing again.
-p.043
I still lived in Edgware, commuted to work on the Northern Line. I was on the tube one evening, going home - we'd just gone through Euston and half the passengers had got off - looking at the other people int he carriage over the top of the Evening Standard and wondering who they were - who they really were, inside - the thin, black girl writing earnestly in her notebook, the little old lady with the green velvet hat on, the girl with the dog, the bearded man with the turban...
And then the tube stopped, in the tunnel.
That was what I thought happened, anyway: I though the tube had stopped. Everything went very quiet.
And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off.
And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off. And I was looking at the other passengers and wondering who they really were inside when the train stopped in the tunnel. And everything went very quiet.
And then everything lurched so hard I though we'd been hit by another train.
And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off, and then the train stopped in the tunnel, and then everything went -
(Normal service will be resumes as soon as possible, whispered a voice in the back of my head.) And this time as the train slowed and began to approach Euston I wondered if I was going crazy: I felt like I was jerking back and forth on a video loop. I knew it was happening, but there was nothing I could do to change anything, nothing I could do to break out of it.
The black girl, sitting next to me, passed me a note. ARE WE DEAD? it said.
-p.044
My fingers were activating the missile bay, aiming at a floating nucleus, while I wondered what I was doing. I wasn't saving the world I knew. That world was imaginary: a sequence of ones and zeroes. I was saving a nightmare...
But if the nightmare died, the dream was dead too.
There was a girl named Susan. I remembered her, from a ghost-life long gone. I wondered if she was still alive (had it been a couple of hours? Or a couple of lifetimes?). I supposed she was dangling from cables somewhere, with no memory of a miserable, paranoid giant. (..)
"Now, where do I bring this thing down?" I asked.
There was a hesitation, then, "You don't. We didn't design it to return. It was a redundancy we had no need for. Too costly, in terms of resources."
"So what do I do? I just saved the Earth. And now I suffocate here?"
He nodded. "That's pretty much it. Yes."
The lights began to dim. One by one, the controls were going out. I lost my 360 degree perception of the ship. It was just me, strapped to a chair in the middle of nowhere, inside a flying teacup. (..)
"You know, in the world I came from, they would have given me a medal."
"Obviously, we're grateful."
"So you can't come up with any more tangible way to express your gratitude?"
"Not really. You're a disposable part. A unit. We can't mourn you any more than a wasps' nest mourns the death of a single wasp. It's not sensible and it's not viable to bring you back."
(..)
"I've got a couple of hours left. Yes?"
"About 57 minutes."
"Can you plug me back into the... the real world. The other world. The one I came from?" (..) I felt very peaceful. If it wasn't for having less than an hour to live, I'd have felt just great. (..)
That was fifteen years ago: 1984. I went back into computers. I own my computer store on the Tottenham Court Road. And now, as we head toward the new millennium, I'm writing this down. This time around, I married Susan. It took me a couple of months to find her. We have a son.
I'm nearly forty. People of my kind don't live much longer than that, on the whole. Our hearts stop. When you read this, I'll be dead. You'll know that I'm dead. You'll have seen a coffin big enough for two men dropped into a hole.
But know this, Susan, my sweet: my true coffin is orbiting the moon. It looks like a flying teacup. They gave me the world back, and you back, for a little while. (..) They may be heartless, unfeeling, computerised bastards, leeching off the minds of what's left of humanity. But I can't help feeling grateful to them.
I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life.
-p.047/048
Chuang Tzu had a dream / In the dream he was a butterfly / When he awoke / Chuang Tzu was unsure / If he was man / Who had dreamed / That he was a butterfly / Or if he was a butterfly / Who was dreaming / That he was a man / - / In truth Chuang Tzu was neither / Man nor butterfly and yet was both.
-p.067-071 + p.077
-Another bowl of this and I'm gonna puke.
-I already did.
-I've got the bowl you caught it in.
-p.120
But in surface foray, Geoffrey came across something new, or, rather, something old. Disks, so primitive that they carried no more data, than, say, a matrix agent's hair, stirred by a virtual breeze. They contained movies. One movie captured Geoffrey's fancy. It dwelt less on twists of plot, on the endless fascination of human interaction, than did most films. Instead, it caressed its imagery, and, in the midst of a story, made scenery and gentle, vast spectacle its focus. The principal occupation of its characters was something strange to Geoffrey... ...The cultivation, and harvest, of wheat. The locusts that plagued them reminded him of the insectile machines we still battle today. Bt what stirred Geoffrey so was the repeated image of vast fields of wheat. ...Sunlit... ...waving in the breeze... This became a symbol for him, an emblem that warmed him... ...A vision of a sort of heaven, days long ago, but, should humans ever defeat the enemy, perhaps days ahead, as well. Wheat was the thing. He'd had "bread" as a child in the matrix, of course, but couldn't remember its taste. Perhaps the artificial intelligence behind it lacked data on its flavor. But surely, the product of such golden fields must have tasted wonderful. -p.120/121
Yet at the edges of these wrecked vastnesses, life somehow persisted. the ducks, the frogs, slugs and fungi had inherited the earth. (..)
The rows of shelves held an infinitude of seeds, prisoners in dusty jars, awaiting liberation, and life... ...Rather like humans, glass-enclosed on the battery towers of the matrix.
..beneath, in his death-.. and so the bird of heaven, with.. the flag of Ahab, went down with his.. like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it.
EPILOGUE
..and I only escaped alone to tell thee" Job.
-p.157
The Wachowski Brothers present ACTION!! Served the way we like it - fresh heaping stinking body-count mounting piles of it! From our new line of burly barrel-chested entertainment.
March 28, 2020
There were some gems here for sure, a lot of them were thought provoking.
December 29, 2021
The first volume of The Matrix Comics (originally published online, because of course), doesn't start on the right foot for me. Though there are some big name artists doing the early stories, they are too short and/or retread material we've seen too many time already across the whole of the franchise. From Neil Gaiman's prose story on, however, things get a lot better, more varied and more creative. Gaiman colors way outside the box, which is what I would have liked to see more of. In fact, whenever it's hackers fighting agents, it's a little dull. But given the talent (surprisingly) involved, there's more on offer, like Peter Bagge doing a metatextual comedy skit, Paul Chadwick riffing on Chaucer and producing one of the best stories in the collection as a result, and David Lapham essentially giving us a Matrix-inspired Stray Bullets story. Overall, more good stories than boring ones, even if it takes 50 pages before the quality rises.
June 16, 2024
(Read in 2008, review from 2024)
I remember browsing in a book store and reading through this in about an hour or so. The individual stories varied immensely but some were very memorable like the one of a human getting stranded in the Matrix when his ship was attacked and everyone else died, or the one where "The Matrix" was released inside the Matrix and agents were gaslighting everyone into thinking its just a movie (its so meta I wonder if the Wachowskis were inspired by it for the 4th movie). The most memorable wasn't really a comic but a short story by Neil Gaiman that introduced the concept of aliens to this universe.
In general this reminded me of the Animatrix and while the quality varied, I appreciated seeing random stories take on this universe as opposed to underwhelming live action movie sequels.
I remember browsing in a book store and reading through this in about an hour or so. The individual stories varied immensely but some were very memorable like the one of a human getting stranded in the Matrix when his ship was attacked and everyone else died, or the one where "The Matrix" was released inside the Matrix and agents were gaslighting everyone into thinking its just a movie (its so meta I wonder if the Wachowskis were inspired by it for the 4th movie). The most memorable wasn't really a comic but a short story by Neil Gaiman that introduced the concept of aliens to this universe.
In general this reminded me of the Animatrix and while the quality varied, I appreciated seeing random stories take on this universe as opposed to underwhelming live action movie sequels.
April 25, 2021
Για τους fans του Matrix σύμπαντος και όχι μόνο, η καλοφτιαγμένη αυτή ανθολογία μας παρουσιάζει στιγμιότυπα από την ψηφιακή παράνοια που ονομάζουμε πραγματικότητα όταν κοιμόμαστε καλώδιωμένοι μέσα στις βιοκάψουλές μας!
Ανάμεσα στα κόμικς βρίσκουμε και μια ιστοριούλα από τον πολύ Neil Gaiman αλλά και ωραίες βινιέτες από καλλιτέχνες που δουλεύουν κατά κύριο λόγο στα μεγάλα αμερικανικά studios.
Ξεχώρισα τις ιστορίες των Paul Chadwick και David Lapham, αλλά γενικότερα τίποτα δεν περίσεψε. Επιμέλεια κάνουν τα αδέλφια Wachowski που ανακάλυψαν την πλεκτάνη του matrix και έτσι μας άνοιξαν τα μάτια!
Ανάμεσα στα κόμικς βρίσκουμε και μια ιστοριούλα από τον πολύ Neil Gaiman αλλά και ωραίες βινιέτες από καλλιτέχνες που δουλεύουν κατά κύριο λόγο στα μεγάλα αμερικανικά studios.
Ξεχώρισα τις ιστορίες των Paul Chadwick και David Lapham, αλλά γενικότερα τίποτα δεν περίσεψε. Επιμέλεια κάνουν τα αδέλφια Wachowski που ανακάλυψαν την πλεκτάνη του matrix και έτσι μας άνοιξαν τα μάτια!
June 6, 2024
Pääosin surkeita ja rumia piirroksia. Tarinatkin tyhjänpäiväistä roskaa. Paljon on nimekkäitä tekijöitä, mutta Darrow ei ole tasollaan ja kyseessä on muutama kuva tarinan kylkiäisenä.
Perustuu Larryn ja Andyn ideoihin. Sori Lillyn ja Lanan tai mitä ne nyt lienevätkään tänä päivänä. Vaikka se konsepti on epäselvä kymmenine sukupuolineen, niin nämä konseptit tämän taustalla ovat vielä sekavammat. Vaikka niin pidänkin Matrixista, myös niistä kahdesta jatko-osasta, niin tämä tuherrus ei liittynyt niihin oikeastaan millään tavalla. I didn't get it.
Perustuu Larryn ja Andyn ideoihin. Sori Lillyn ja Lanan tai mitä ne nyt lienevätkään tänä päivänä. Vaikka se konsepti on epäselvä kymmenine sukupuolineen, niin nämä konseptit tämän taustalla ovat vielä sekavammat. Vaikka niin pidänkin Matrixista, myös niistä kahdesta jatko-osasta, niin tämä tuherrus ei liittynyt niihin oikeastaan millään tavalla. I didn't get it.
August 12, 2024
It's an anthology so you get a bit of everything. Some stories you would want to see more of, some were just the perfect length and some could have been left out. Essential for a Matrix fan, for others not so much.
January 24, 2021
Like everyone I was thrilled about the matrix back in the beginning of this century. And I was also disappointed that it had the potential to turn into the Lord of The Rings of the sci fi world, but it turned into a thriller instead. I think thriller was more in hype back then. So as usual, I had so many questions about the past of zion and its future and I wanted to know many other side stories in stunning details that I looked for the books this movie might be made from. Turned out it wasn't made from a book. Dang. No wonder the movie had such great premise but totally unplanned. So I tried to find any sort of comics related to matrix world just to see more of that world. I must say, I enjoyed these comic books a lot.
August 7, 2008
Interesting colection of stories based on The Matrix. I've only seen the first movie and don't know much about the whole thing but this was pretty enjoyable. One stand out is a story called Bits And Pieces, about an android on trial for murder. This one's by the Matrix writers with cool black and white art by Geof Darrow. When I saw Niel Gaiman's contribution, I was a little irritated. It's prose writing with a few pictures. Too many words! I hate words! Once I started reading it, though, I found myself enthralled. Good story and very scary, very creepy. I also like Ted McKeever's art in a story called A Life Less Empty. Matrix fans will eat this up. The rest of us, not so much.
December 11, 2016
This is volume 1 (of 2) of a really cool collection of graphic and essay stories set in world of The Matrix. These are short side stores that could have been in the movies. These were originally published on the Internet at the site TheMatrix.com, but were then moved to whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com only to be removed (why?!?). They can now be viewed at:
http://web.archive.org/web/2004061609... .
They are all quite good, but by far the best is an essay story entitled Goliath by Neil Gaiman, which is in my view was the best. Awesome storytelling, you can read it here:
http://web.archive.org/web/2004061603...
http://web.archive.org/web/2004061609... .
They are all quite good, but by far the best is an essay story entitled Goliath by Neil Gaiman, which is in my view was the best. Awesome storytelling, you can read it here:
http://web.archive.org/web/2004061603...
April 17, 2013
I didn't really find the first Matrix movie as marvellously innovative as most people seemed to and I disliked the second film so much I still haven't gathered the courage to see the last one. That's why I was pleased to note that this collection of short graphic stories from the Matrix universe, while uneven, offers more innovative concepts than the films themselves ever did. It isn't groundbreaking stuff, but there are a few ideas about identity and and the basic sci-fi question of humanity relating to technology that far exceed in depth the pseudophilosophical babble the movies utilized as an aesthetic device.
February 23, 2015
The first Matrix movie was original, ground-breaking, with an interesting premise, albeit one that never fully paid off. The second Matrix movie was so bad that I never bothered to watch the third one. This is a collection of short comic stories by some very talented comics artists, as well as a few fan favorites that I never really understood the appeal of (Sienkiewicz, McKeever). The stories are set in the Matrix universe, but nothing here is unique or, frankly, appealing. I kept waiting and hoping for something to impress me, but other than Neil Gaiman's story (which was prose, with a few illustrations), I was disappointed.
January 15, 2018
I love the Matrix, even its much maligned sequels, but this collection of stories is hit or miss, mostly misses. The best of the bunch isn't even illustrated, but probably got in anyway because it was written by Neil Gaiman, whose name carries some clout in relation to graphic novels. It's about a eugenically enhanced human that the machines have created to fly a spaceship to fight aliens. Yes, really. It's a lot better in execution than it sounds. Another good one is about a ragtag group that cultivate wheat to bring bread to Zion. The rest are mostly forgettable and middling to bad.
July 9, 2019
Intriguing, thought provoking and uneven comics produced before, during and after the release of the first movie. There are a couple of real duds here but setting is well suited to this sort of exploration, and fans who were disappointed with the very plot-driven movie sequels will find a lot to rekindle their interest. Neil Gaiman’s prose story “Goliath” is probably the highlight.
(Once upon a time you could just read most of these on the sprawling Matrix web site but I’m not sure that monument to the web’s potential even exists any more.)
(Once upon a time you could just read most of these on the sprawling Matrix web site but I’m not sure that monument to the web’s potential even exists any more.)
January 25, 2008
i'm just now reading this, and i have to admit that even though i'm a huge matrix fan, i'm already pretty underwhelmed by these comics. i'm extra bummed that even though they got neil gaiman to contribute, he didn't provide a comic, instead he gave a short story.
i've now finished this book, and stand by my orginal thoughts. it was good, but not that great.
i've now finished this book, and stand by my orginal thoughts. it was good, but not that great.
December 29, 2009
I have not seen the movie, but reading this made me want to. I have never read a comic book before, but suprised myself by enjoying it. I especailly like the one with the three men who had just watched "The Matrix", because it is so much like "reality" and yet still within the parameters of the matrix.
July 19, 2017
Fun little grab bag of jumbled microstories. Cute eye candy moves these tiny Matrix tinged stories quickly and sleekly. While fun, there's no cohesion, and what the stories sacrifice for speed and flow result in a gingerly, juvenile veneer, that saturates all the way to the mini-plots themselves.
Chew then spit!
Chew then spit!
October 28, 2014
I have fantasized about the Matrix Comics Vol. 1 and 2 becoming a tv series... with a rare cameo here and there by characters from the movies of course! They add depth to an already incredibly rich story. They are a must read to anyone who loves The Matrix.
February 13, 2007
great complementary stories to the matrix universe. it's not always about neo. and vol. 2 is just as good.
August 11, 2007
That comics are better than bloated sequels.
April 9, 2016
The first half of a great view of the Matrix world outside of the films/anime.
Read
January 26, 2011The Matrix Comics by the Wachowski brothers et al. Edited by Spencer Lamm.
August 22, 2011
Too bad the 2 sequels weren't as good as this anthology collection. I really liked this universe expanding collection of stories.
January 28, 2013
really enjoyed the book. it's great to see all those talented minds putting there own impression of the matrix idea out there. have to get vol. 2 :)
August 20, 2016
The hits are captivating, and the misses are over quickly.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews