Category Dial H

Nov 12 2012

Dial H 6

Today, Patrick and Taylor are discussing Dial H 6, originally released November 7th, 2012.

Patrick: Fall of 2010, I went to a movie at Chicago’s Music Box theatre with Taylor and Shelby. The movie was Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void. If you haven’t seen Enter the Void, the reason we were attracted to it was because the log-line is aggressively surreal: a single-shot, first-person perspective trip through life and death of an American expatriot in the sleazy underbelly of Tokyo. Sounds promising — and super weird — right? All three of us tolerated the visual and audio assault for the film’s 3-hour run time, but it wasn’t until we stepped out of the theatre and Taylor said “So, that sucked, right?” that I was able to process what the hell just happened. The movie is so relentlessly strange, that I couldn’t even respond to it as I was experiencing it. That’s frequently how I feel about Dial H: especially given the conclusion of the previous story arc – I just couldn’t get a handle on it. But now, China Mieville is kind enough to show us the cold light of day, and seeing them plainly, these characters and this world is boundless and exciting, with a healthy sense of humor about its own absurdities.

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Oct 9 2012

Dial H 5

Alternating Currents: Dial H 5, Taylor and Drew

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing Dial H 5, originally released October 3rd, 2012.

Taylor: Here’s the thing: metaphysical thought is messy, very messy. Thinking about where man came from, what he is made of, and where he is going yields no solid answers and often times leaves the thinker more confused than when he or she first began to ponder those ideas in the first place. When you add the outside world (and universe) to this equation things are obviously going to get even muddier. What is this something we see? What is this nothing we don’t see? If there’s nothing, doesn’t that mean there has to be a something to validate the nothing’s nothingness? It’s not easy to discuss these confounding and complex ideas in an artistic way given that you can’t ever really speak about them in a straight forward manner. To do that would feel somewhat dishonest and wouldn’t accurately reflect the feelings that come with this philosophical territory. In Dial-H 5 the reader is presented with some of these questions, but rather than falling back on stale mythologies or old tropes, the issue embraces the chaos of messy questions and does so with stylish story telling and complimentary artwork. Continue reading →

Sep 12 2012

Dial H 0

Alternating Currents: Dial H 0, Shelby and Drew

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Dial H 0, originally released September 5, 2012. Dial H 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Shelby: Our biggest complaint about Dial H has been, not that it’s too weird, but that it’s too inscrutable in its weirdness. I love the madcap collection of heroes in this world and sad-sack Nelson, but this universe is damn confusing. The zero issue takes great steps forward in not only explaining a little bit more how the dials work, but also gives us an idea of just how broad this universe is. Turns out, this universe extends further through time and space than I ever realized.

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Aug 6 2012

Dial H 4

Alternating Currents: Dial H 4, Drew and ShelbyToday, Drew and Shelby are discussing Dial H 4, originally released August 1st, 2012.

Drew: I’m not a fan of origin stories, or really the starts of narratives in general. They often require large exposition dumps to make everyone’s personalities, means, and motivations clear to the audience. One of my favorite ways authors avoid cramming that much exposition into the beginning of a story is to start in medias res. Sure, the whys of the situation aren’t always clear — or even what exactly is going on — but that creates curiosity, a genuine interest in learning more, which almost never happens when we’re just given bare-faced facts with the understanding that this will be important later. Writer China Mieville has taken this tack to the limits of my curiosity in Dial H, delivering three months of questions without any real answers, leaving us floating uncomfortably in a confusing sea of possibilities. With this issue, we finally start getting some answers, helping the events of the previous three fall into place with surprising ease. Continue reading →

Jul 9 2012

Dial H 3

Today, Peter and Patrick are discussing Dial H 3, originally released July 4th, 2012.

Peter: Dial H is probably the weirdest book that I am currently reading. If you had told me a year ago that I would be reading a book about an overweight, chain smoking 30-year old man that uses a magic rotary dial to turn into obscure heroes, I probably would not have believed you. China Mieville has weaved an interesting world, full of lush characters and voices. The entire premise of this book is very interesting, but at this point, I am still unsure about the longevity of this series.

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Jun 8 2012

Dial H 2

Today, Shelby and Peter are discussing Dial H 2, originally released June 6th, 2012.

Shelby: I didn’t know anything about Dial H when I started reading it last month. The characters were foreign, the setting new, even the physics of the Dial H universe were wholly unknown.  After the first issue, I was excited. Things were mysterious and unique! This is a superhero process I’ve never seen before! I couldn’t wait to know more. Well, China Mieville must have heard me, and decided to cram as much new stuff as possible  into the second issue.

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May 4 2012

Dial H 1

Today, Patrick and Peter are discussing Dial H, originally released May 2nd, 2012.

Patrick: The first issue of any series has an awful lot of work to do. When Drew and I started these things, we covered the first 3 issues of a series. This was partially because it was November before we got our asses in gear, but there’s also the legitimate benefit of having something to evaluate. Set-up can be tricky, but most of the New 52 titles circumvented the laborious expository process by relying on known entities: Flash, Batman, Green Lantern, whatever. Even those titles that were super new to me – like Batwoman, Batwing and Captain Atom – still had their roots in time-tested franchises. Dial H has to build its world, its premise and its main character from the ground, up.
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