Dial H #1 Review

With all the re-boots and re-makes and dark gritty re-tellings you would think we would be sick of it by now, but, with DC's new 52 second wave, I've found an old/new book that I really enjoyed. Dial H was a title that started in the mid 1960's and again in 2003 with the quickly forgotten 'H-E-R-O' with the main attraction being that the main protagonist; the overweight, jobless, just divorced Nelson Jent, gets to be a new super-hero every month via the use of dialling a few seemingly random numbers.

Dial H is China Mievilles first foray into graphic novels and it is a great first step, most novelists find it hard to go from having complete creative control to having very little, and from being able to describe every little detail to leaving it all for an artist to imagine. I'm sure it was very daunting, but Mieville does it with grace. His writing hits all the super-hero beats we know and love, It's witty, Charming and outlandish when it needs to be. The idea of a person existing as a super-hero and themselves is wonderfully fascinating. Dial-H is a great premise that adds a new dimension to the stock standard super-hero tale.

Mateus Santolouco's art is dark, exaggerated and heavily inked, perfect for a story in a world where everything is so distorted. The art of Dial-H doesn't do too much different, there isn't any strange panelling or perspectives, but it does have a sketchy gritty feel to it, very vertigo-esque. There are very appropriately placed "artsy" panels that do nothing but add to the oddness and feel of the book. The colours also deserve mention; they feel bright and clear even though it is a very dark palette that is used.  

My only complaint with Dial-H is that there is a lot happening on each and every page, and even though it's well paced, it is sometimes hard to follow. But a quick re-read of a few panels, and I am back on track.

A great addition to the new 52 and wonderful replacement in this second wave. I'll definately be picking up next month's issue.

Nic Shaw