Skip to main content

Mad hatter - Reviews

Image
Landry Q. Walker

I'm backlogged like crazy, and feel a bit bad about posting the reviews for the Mad Hatter book before posting Btamna: The Brave and the Bold or The Incredibles. But if I don't get this out of the way now, I will never get around to it.

Anj over at Supergirl ComicBox Commentary: "Sympathy ... for the Mad Hatter! It is the sign of excellent writing for a reader to feel for a character like this."

Walt Kneeland over at Comxtreme: "Walker pulls off in this issue is giving us a character with more depth than I've seen previously, while conveying the creepy, semi-tragic nature of the guy."

Thehefner posted a review and discussion at Scans_Daily: "Landry Walker understands a little something about whimsy and character depth while still being dark and unsettling"

Matthew Meylikhov reviewing at Multiversity: "Walker shows us the compulsive disorder that the Hatter struggles with on a daily basis and truly gives us the feeling that the compulsions are heavy and overbearing."

Akamuu at iFanboy: "Mad Hatter's tea obsession being treated as though it was a hard drug was fantastic."

MisterShaw at iFanboy: "This issue did a great job of capturing just how dark and disturbing the Hatter is, but also providing a sense of tragedy because of his deep insanity."

SoldierHawk at Weekly Comic Book Review: "Hatter’s delusions and struggles are deliciously creepy, and his frustration at his inability to find “his Alice” is chilling, and not a little poignant."

Rapideyemovment at iFanboy: "Walker gives Jervis just the right balance of lunacy and obsession"

Thenextchampion at iFanboy: "Mad Hatter is actually quite insane and frightening. - The story can be quite disturbing but it gets fairly predictable towards the end."

MTHarmon at ComicVine: "In this issue you'll see how far his obsession goes and how much of a serious threat the Mad Hatter really is."

Baker1Skter at ComicVine: "I loved the writing it was very top notch, very elegant and really conveyed Mad Hatters insanity."

Icarusflies at ComicVine: "If you're a fan, you should pick this up. If not, you might want to just leave it."

Inferiorego at Comicvine: "I do really like the look into the mind of the Mad Hatter, but it wasn't enough."

Saranga at Paiwings: "Far and away the best book of the week, and not something I had expected to be written by the same guy who did Supergirl Cosmic Adventures."

Chad Nevett at CBR: "Walker’s writing, like the art, has a nice balance as it winds between the pathetic qualities of Tetch and the insane qualities."

Martin Gray on his blog Too Dangerous for a Girl: "Landry Walker takes us in one direction but, step by step, swerves into less comfortable territory entirely."

Googum at Random Happenstance: " Landry Quinn Walker delivers a good, disturbing story with a guy I always thought of as a C-list Batman villain"

Chris Murphy at ComicsAlliance: "Walker's stream-of-consciousness narration by the Hatter himself helps the reader gain an appreciation of the hectic, troubled workings of Tetch's mind."

Jason Todd at Jason Todd's Comic Spot wrote: "Story sucked, writing sucked, art sucked, and Joker rhyming sucked"

Then there are the Podcasts:

Al and Paul at House to Astonish. The relevant section is at 32:53, though the entire podcast is well worth a listen: From the podcast: "If you like batman, this is a comic you should be picking up..."

Justin and Hunter at Gotham Podcast (They have the best theme song, by the way) enjoyed the book and take special note of the color work of David Baron and overall felt: "Everything about this issue I really really enjoyed". I can't get the file to play at their normal website, so you can listen to the podcast here. The relevant section is about two-thirds in.

ComiXology seemed to feel that the book was the right balance between art and story.  "I feel so bad for Mad Hatter in this, and then they turn it right back around and tell you why you shouldn't feel bad for him." Also worth a mention, they interview my former Incredibles co-writer Mark Waid extensively about many things (including the Incredibles) in this same podcast.

Now there's the Youtube links:

Link 1: 

Link 2:

Link 3:

And that's basically it. Couple of short notes. While the majority of reviews are positive, there are a couple of medium to negative reviews. That's just inevitable, particularly as this (being closer to DCU continuity) is the highest profile DC work I have done. I posted the reviews because once, during our run of Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures, a friend assumed that I cherry picked the reviews just to highlight the positive. I don't. Opinions, the entire range, are equally valid. So they're all here, as far as I am aware.

Okay. That was less of a short note than I intended. Anyway...

In the next day or so I will post some of Eric's artwork from the Mad Hatter series. He was invited to do the pencils for the book, and went as far as to provide samples. Unfortunately his commitments on Batman: The Brave and the Bold had to come first and he declined teh actual job. There's some neat art that came out of it that i will happily share.

And an extra special thanks needs to go out to Keith Giffen. he came in late in the game and produced amazingly. Alot of he finer points of storytelling here (the post-it notes and the portrayal of the Hatter's scrapbook/storybook and quite a bit more) came from him. He went above and beyond to make me look good. So thanks to him, thanks to David Baron and Bill Sienkiewicz and especially editor Mike Siglain for putting the whole thing together.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FROM YEAR ONE TO DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: A BATMAN CHRONOLOGY - REVISED

Landry Q. Walker
FROM YEAR ONE TO DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: A BATMAN CHRONOLOGY Back in 1986 I picked up a comic off the shelves that changed my perception of sequential storytelling. I was 15 years old at the time and had been reading comics for as long as I could remember. Batman had long been my favorite character. Well, more specifically Robin had been - ever since I was three years old and I encountered re-runs of the 1960's Batman TV series. I was even lucky enough to meet Burt Ward (in his Robin costume) at a car show in 1976. Considering where my career has landed, it is easy to argue that this exposure was impactful. To clarify: I'm a professional comic book writer, and have been producing stories since around 1992. I managed to write a few Batman related comics in the late 00's. But long before this, dating back to that day in 1986 when I found a copy of Dark Knight Returns on the shelf, I have been trying to formulate in my own head a complete and functional Batman chronolog
4 comments
Read more

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 9th Grade - Concept art

Landry Q. Walker
Been sitting on this for a couple of years now. Figured might as well let people see a bit of what we had been thinking for Supergirl's future as she enters the turbulent world of high school. One of the things I would like to point out about these images is the evolution of Kara's design. When the first series was announced (along with an image never intended for the public) the common complaint was that our Supergirl was boyish. That she was rough looking. That she looked awkward and maybe even a little weird. Eric could have drawn Supergirl as the epitome of style and grace. But that wouldn't have been our Supergirl. Our Supergirl was a character who needed to grow. She was overly self-aware, insecure and gangly, that's part of being a young teenager (particularly as younger teens see themselves from within) and therefore an important part of the storytelling. I think with the slight changes to the artwork here we really begin to see Kara's self confidence manife
21 comments
Read more

Mezmerella incorporated into Pixar/Incredibles float at Disneyland California Adventure.

Landry Q. Walker
A life size cutout of Mezmerella is a part of the "Pixar and Pals" presentation at Disneyland/California Adventure. Mezmerella was created in late 2009 for the Boom! Studios Incredibles series I was co-writing with Mark Waid. Although he did not work on the Incredibles, Eric Jones stepped in and designed the character, which in turn was rendered by Marcio Takara (I think it's his art used here) and Ramanda Karmarga (who I believe drew the Underminer in the above image). The colors scheme for the character was selected by editor Aaron Sparrow and the name (originally Hypnotica) was the idea of my wife, Belinda Adams. So alot of credit goes to alot of people for the character. It's pretty exciting seeing something I conceived of being a part of a Disney attraction of any kind. Even more fun to see young children interact with the inanimate character by throwing things at it. My favorite quote from the video: "Mezmerella gets kneecapped!" Here the full video:
2 comments
Read more