by L.A. Mood Comics and Games

By Dan Brown

SPOILER WARNING: This column contains plot details from Dean Motter’s Mister X: The Modern Age, so stop reading right now if you value surprise! 

Here’s the lowdown on the most recent meeting of the L.A. Mood Graphic-Novel Group, which was held Saturday, June 14.

The book: Dean Motter’s Mister X: The Modern Age, which collects all of the Mister X stories published by Dark Horse Comics. 

The discussion: The full range of opinions was represented around the table.

There were people, like me, who love the book. There were others who felt meh – who didn’t give the book a thumb up or down, but a sideways thumb. And there were some who didn’t even feel motivated enough to finish reading the 360-page tome.

Gord Mood, L.A. Mood’s co-owner, argued for including Mister X on the 2025 reading list at our January pitch meeting. He is among those who love it. Gord also brought some examples of Motter’s early work from Media 5 when he was a student at Fanshawe College. (Late Town Crier Bill Paul published that sci-fi fan publication.)

I knew very little about the character beforehand. Knowing it had been praised for blending film noir, Art Deco and German Expressionism, I was expecting something ponderous and pretentious.

Wrong!

In my view, it’s an amazing graphic novel. DC can only wish that Batman were as cool as Mister X!

It takes place in Radiant City, where it always seems to be 4 a.m. Its nickname is Somnopolis, because of the large number of residents who can’t sleep.

The title character is possibly one of the original architects who founded Radiant City, it’s never made clear. The closest he gets to revealing his identity is when he states, “I want to fix my city. I want it to run as designed.”

The problem? The city’s architecture is driving its residents insane. 

None of this, of course, is meant to be taken literally – which Gord’s business partner Carol Vandenberg touched on when she mentioned the humour of the book. The key, for me, was to not take anything in the book at face value.

I appreciated how Mister X is a riot of invention. Some members of the group pointed out the many references in the story. For example, one robot who shows up is an homage to Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still. 1984 is referenced, as well as CanCon icon Nash the Slash.

The characters have the clipped speech of detectives in films from the 1940s:

“You’re the man without a name,” an interrogator tells Mister X.

“That’s what I’m called,” the mystery man replies.

Even better, Motter adds his own creative touches, elevating The Modern Age to a level above a mashup. Mister X is an insomnalin addict, meaning if he doesn’t feed his habit, and falls asleep, he will automatically die. 

There are insomnatoriums on each block. Zombycillin is a drug that can bring the dead to life. Pscychetecture describes the style of buildings in Radiant City and how they torture the human mind.

Further reading: Instead of reading, I would say watch Blade Runner or episodes from Batman: The Animated Series, as well as Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie.

L.A. Mood’s Graphic-Novel Group meets the second Saturday of each month. Next month’s selection is Roaming, by cousin creators Jilliam and Mariko Tamaki. We continue our streak of Canadian books established in recent months!

We’ll reconvene July 12 at the gaming tables in the store at 11 a.m. 

All are invited to come join the discussion!

Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.