The Hernandez run of this is one of the best American comics I've encountered, taking an irresistible concept (architect/detective uncovers the secrets of a city whose esoteric architecture drives citizens to insanity) and executing it as a playful, jazzy pulp caper. Unfortunately, without the brothers the comic sort of collapses -- the city becomes window dressing and the generic characters and criminal intrigue take center stage. It's still fun, but it could've been great. Read the first half....

Very cool art. The whole concept is original and fun. After the first 3 or 4 issues plot twist happen. Then the twist those twists until by the end nothing makes much sense. Read a couple, flip through all the art and move on before you go INSANE!!!!

“This room…is the worst…the very shape of it. It’s all wrong…all wrong for people…it crushes…this city was not meant for people…”This has not one, not two, but three forewords/introductions in it. So already we see too many people involved and we haven’t even started the main body of the book yet. One of the first things that becomes apparent about the art work is that it has a strange clash of retro with dated futurism to create quite an unsettling dystopia, which sets up the tone nicely.There

This one started out strong and then seemed to unravel about midway through. It's weird and heavy on the noir, so it's possible it was intended to have an eventually incoherent plot to send a message about sleep disorders, work culture and futility.

This is the complete collection of the early 1990s series "Mister X" with a few extras. I've read the latter part of the series collected in "The Modern Age" which I did like much more than this early work but this is still great stuff. It's a futuristic look at a utopian city which turned out to be a nightmare. The story involves the architects, a myriad of new-fangled pharmaceuticals and identity switching more complicated than any Shakespeare play. The art is outstanding! Most of it done by t...

If it was all like the few Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean pages, I'd have probably really liked it. alas. potentially interesting premise, but after about three "who is Mr. X _REALLY?!_ identity twists, I srsly couldn't manage to care.

Gorgeous, page-turning, and intricate, but also hard to follow and to keep characters straight. I'm glad I read it, but at not necessarily a book I'd recommend.

Not as good as Motter's later Mister X works. Especially when he's drawing too. The story line was so confusing that at the end you have no idea who is who. It was bad enough that he had to write an epilogue to explain his way out of it. Seth's art never quite got Mercedes and Santos right.

Beautiful and moody 3 color artwork makes the story just jump off the page as it draws your eye in the exact intended manner, this is a gorgeous book!Psychetecture; it's like Feng-Shui, but aggressively effective. And the city was warped by the mind of a madman. Only the unsleeping speedfreak, Mister X can fight insanity with insanity! The story is very much a human one, but also contains subtle yet unmistakable social commentary.Highly original story and artwork.

Really interesting art and some really neat concepts. The storylines were way convoluted, maybe not even cogent through the end. Maybe that's not the point. I liked reading it but I'm not sure it'll stick with me.

Mr. X was one of my first comics obsessions, in the 80s. I remember trying (and eventually succeeding) to track all of these issues down, along with the later Vortex series. The series had a big impact on me - it was one of the first comics I read that put a lot of effort into overall design and thematic tone, and it also was using a sort of noir/art deco/retro future style that was really appealing. The story was a bit baffling at the time, and after re-reading it in this (really very excellent...

Great artwork with a sometimes incomprehensible story.

Stylish, ambitious and inherently flawed. The first few chapters are nicely focused but the remaining 3/4 of the volume replaces inchoate, vapid plotting.

Anyone loving Fritz Lang's Metropolis will be in love with Mister X. It is an amazing crossbreed with Rick Kirby, 40's noir, psychobabble, art references and unique 80's visual style. It is an offspring of Ballard's Vermilion Sands grown out of any proportion, filled with ladies and robots, wealthy crime bosses and impossible drugs. And through it all, above and below, through walls and secret passages, goes Mister X - the mysterious figure who can be one of the inventors of Radiant city, transf...

Vaguely intriguing plot, but more mystery for mystery's sake. I picked this up because of the focus on cities and city design. The architectural elements are ubiquitous throughout, but they become more superficial as the narrative goes on. Ultimately, the story doesn't really hold up. Nonetheless, it was enjoyable to read and the Archive Edition includes a lot of fantastic art and additional commentary that provides a lot of insight into Motter's vision.

It's very interesting & fun when you read a story and say to yourself, "this reminds me a lot of ____". Then you realize that this is the influence for much of what you've already read. Fun art & story, leaving you with as many questions as answers.

A very ambitious attempt at a series. The artwork is Art Deco in style. The story has problems at times as it gets bogged down in details and becomes hard to follow at times. For this collected edition, the series creator has redone the finalIssue.

In terms of design, themes and tone, this is a freaking masterpiece. Even the initial storytelling is wonderfully done, but as it goes along, the narrative threads start to rip apart at the seams and by the end it's an incomprehensible mess, so I understand why this classic has been overlooked compared to other important classics from the 80s. That said, anyone with a passing interest in experimental comic art should definitely check this one out.

I only read the Hernandez Bros. issues and skimmed through the rest since I’d heard the post-Hernandez stuff isn’t as good. I’ll just pretend the series ended when they departed because their run is phenomenal. Beautiful artwork and psychologically engineered architecture gone awry. Really great stuff!As a side note it’s really funny that Seth of all people worked on the series for a while in the back half of this collection.

Mister X is a bit similar to Grendel, in that's ambitious and extremely flawed. It's a comic that was extremely influential and a watershed book. It's a pure vision. With plenty of buzzwords thrown in...German Expressionism, Art Deco, Noir and Retro-futurist. It's graphic design made universe building.Its an Ayn Randian hero--an architect who built the perfect city, basses on psychogeometry only to realize it had all gone horribly wrong due to lesser visionaries diluting his vision.He now lives