Hatter M: The Nature of Wonder

After his lengthy jaunt across 19th century Europe, royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan takes a trip to the New World in the latest installment of his ongoing “geographic” adventures, The Nature of Wonder. It’s a refreshing change of scenery for the character and readers, but Madigan’s principal quest remains the same: locate the missing heir to the Wonderland throne, Princess Alyss Heart. What originally started as an idea for a brief web comic to expand upon and promote the Looking Glass Wars trilogy of prose novels has turned into a monumental project that has taken on a life of its own and will shortly eclipse its source novels in total volumes.

The latest adventures are chronicled by series creator Frank Beddor along with co-writer Liz Cavalier, ensuring cohesive continuance of the ever-evolving tale of Madigan’s adventures in our world. As in past volumes, Madigan continues his search for Alyss by attempting to follow the Light, better known as White Imagination, a particular strain of good magic native to Wonderland. This volume starts in 1865, marking it as the approximate midpoint of Madigan’s 13 year quest in our world.

This time Madigan’s search leads him across the US, with notable stops along the way. In Washington D.C., he briefly encounters President Lincoln (who greatly admires Madigan’s similar choice in haberdashery), as well as members of a paranormal investigation bureau founded by Lincoln, something like an X-Files precursor. Then it’s off to Arizona where he meets an Indian shaman with a particularly strong affinity for White Imagination and helps her defend her tribe from soldiers corrupted by Black Imagination. Finally, he journeys further into the wild west in California where he meets a milliner from Wonderland, providing him a brief respite and full rejuvenation of his otherworldly weapons. Unfortunately, still no sign of Alyss, but it appears from the included sneak peak that he will continue his search in the Far East in Volume 4, Zen of Wonder.

It’s great fun to see Madigan’s adventures in the US, but the biggest surprise comes from a lengthy flashback to Wonderland where it’s revealed that Madigan has an older brother who was also a highly talented and respected royal bodyguard and also journeyed to our world, a certain setup for a future family reunion but an interesting development nonetheless. The Indian shaman is also surprising due to her significant White Imagination power, forcing Madigan to rethink everything he knows about Wonderland’s exclusivity as the primary domain for Imagination magic and as an independent world.

As in Volume 2, the art duties are masterfully handled by Sami Makkonen, showing even greater range as he fully asserts himself as the visual artistic force of the series. His engaging and extremely original art style continues to work very well for the material.

The book is supplemented by dozens of pages of bonus features including additional background about the places and people Madigan visits, full page artwork of custom Wonderland cards, art and journals from Alyss (I believe originally published in the now out-of-print Princess Alyss of Wonderland), and a brief sample from Volume 3 of the Looking Glass Wars novels. This wealth of features along with the great story combine to make the book a highly enjoyable read and left me anxiously awaiting the next installment.

Of special note and a further nod to Makkonen’s skill, Beddor is re-releasing Volume 1 (now retitled as Far From Wonder, with art by Ben Templesmith) in November with two entirely new chapters drawn by Makkonen. Those chapters are largely inconsequential to the overall story, but chronicle Madigan’s encounter with Spring Heeled Jack in Ireland as well as his temporary incarceration in a Siberian prison where he again crosses paths with intrepid reporter and ally Magda Pushkin. Fans of the series will appreciate the extra dose of Madigan, and the new cover art now nicely ties the book in with the other volumes.

Article first published as Book Review: Hatter M: The Nature of Wonder by Frank Beddor and Liz Cavalier, illustrated by by Sami Makkonen on Blogcritics.

Hatter M: Mad With Wonder

Author Frank Beddor's bold re-imagining of the Alice in Wonderland mythos gains a brilliant new chapter in this second graphic novel. Picking up from the events in the original Hatter M, the new book continues Hatter's quest with one significant change: a new artist at the helm.

Where the original had buzz-worthy and distinctive art by Ben Templesmith, the new adventure's art chores fall on the shoulders of virtual unknown Sami Makkonen. That's usually a recipe for disaster, but Makkonen remarkably contributes an equally distinctive run here that more than measures up to his predecessor's work. It's definitely reminiscent of Templesmith, with eerily distorted, fluid character designs and ink splatters aplenty, but with more fine line detail work that acts to bring the story into even greater focus. If you have any misgivings about picking up this book due to the change in artists, rest assured that Makkonen is the perfect successor to Templesmith.

When last we left our intrepid hero, royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan, he was lost in 19th century London on a fruitless search for the rightful heir to Wonderland's throne, Princess Alyss Heart. Paralleling and expanding on events in Beddor's first Looking Glass Wars prose novel, Hatter M segues directly into Mad with Wonder as Madigan continues his search in our world. This time, the scenery promptly shifts from England to the New World, as Madigan follows a tip to America where he lands in the thick of the Civil War. Along the way, he discovers that Wonderland's deposed evil Queen Redd has also made an incursion into our world and is impacting the outcome of the Civil War with her Black Imagination. Madigan's quest takes him to locales such as a "traveling miracle carnival" in the Deep South and an insane asylum in West Virginia where he encounters colorful characters and situations that hopefully bring him closer to his goal.

Madigan continues to be an intriguing character thanks to his dogged determination and devotion to Alyss as well as his impressive weapons skills. He's something like a dapper Wolverine, with a decidedly dark and deadly disposition and lone wolf mindset that make him the best there is at what he does. Beddor and returning co-writer Liz Cavalier do a fine job of enriching his characterization here and also offset his serious tone with some humorous situations that add just the right touch of lightheartedness to his fantastic tale.

Hatter M: Mad with Wonder is now available. In addition to the main story, the book contains bonus features including supplemental artwork and text documenting Madigan's historical record in our world, pages from Alyss's diary, a process gallery with script pages and draft artwork, and sneak previews of the next graphic novel in addition to the latest prose novel, ArchEnemy. For more information, visit http://www.lookingglasswars.com/.

Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars Vol. 1

Frank Beddor's comic book adaptation of his Looking Glass Wars universe has been collected in a lush hardcover "geo-graphic novel" complete with a plethora of bonus features. Although it's just one of many takes on the Alice in Wonderland story, Beddor's approach is so unique that it feels fresh and exciting.

Hatter Madigan has a huge problem. As royal bodyguard appointed to Princess Alyss, he is duty bound to protect her at all costs…but he has lost her. Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars recasts the Alice in Wonderland story as a real event from the 19th century, with Alice falling through the looking glass into our world instead of out of it. Instead of a jolly, crazy little hatter, the book portrays Hatter Madigan as a ruthless, highly skilled bodyguard who will stop at nothing in his quest to find and protect his princess. The main tool of his trade is his custom top hat that transforms into a whirling blade o’ destruction whenever needed. He’s also equipped with blades that pop out of his sleeves like Wolverine’s claws, as well as long blades protruding from a backpack that don’t seem to serve much of a useful purpose other than limited protection and coolness. In short, he’s a badass, and he’s in an extremely foul mood with his princess missing in a foreign world.

The story begins with Madigan’s search in Paris where he promptly loses his hat and his freedom before reclaiming both, while the action later moves to Budapest where he follows Alyss’s trail as it leads to some other recent arrivals from Wonderland, a few vampires, as well as a pesky reporter interested in Alyss’s story. Eventually, he gets sidetracked assisting a girl similar to Alyss, providing him with some heroic adventures while he continues his primary search. The pacing is brisk and doesn’t get bogged down with needless exposition, making this a thrilling ride told mostly through the visuals. While it’s a dark and serious tale, a few comedic touches are thrown in to lighten the proceedings, such as the Parisian tendency to lapse into an occasional Pepe Le Pew homage (“le huh?”) and Madigan’s delight upon entering a hat store (“an armory!”).

The key hook to get most comic fans interested in this book is the artwork by Ben Templesmith, who rose to prominence primarily through his work with writer Steve Niles on the 30 Days of Night series. Templesmith has a distinctly singular vision and may not appeal to more mainstream sensibilities, but fans of his loose and gory style will find much to appreciate in this series. His art is well matched to the material as he’s called on to portray numerous beasties and Madigan’s gruesome disposal of them, although the brief inclusion of vampires immediately pulls any 30 Days fans out of the story as it so closely recalls his past work. As usual, he shoulders all art chores himself, and his dramatic use of color is especially effective in this series. Love him or hate him, there’s no disputing that he’s a unique talent with an original approach to sequential art.

In addition to the 4-issue comic book miniseries, the hardcover collection furthers the conceit that its core story is real, with an introduction from The Hatter M Institute for Paranormal Travel, a posting of the Millinery Code of Honor, a Q&A session with Qs from questionable sources such as "S. Hawking, London" and "Larry and Sergey, Mountain View, CA", a page of Hatter's journal in his own encrypted text along with a cryptography key to decipher it and make your own messages, assorted ephemera supposedly collected from around the world to further substantiate the tale's legitimacy, a peek at the art process from initial sketches to finished pages, along with a concept gallery and cover gallery. The mini-series ends with Hatter's quest incomplete, so readers looking for the full story and resolution will need to read its source novel The Looking Glass Wars (as well as its new sequel, Seeing Redd) or hope that the comic book series continues in the future.

Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars is currently available in comic book stores and online at the Looking Glass Wars website.