Irresistibly drunk on ideas!

Utter madness, and not in a good way.I love China Mieville. Every book of his that I've read has been enjoyable, each of them injected with a rare creativity and imagination that simply can't be copied. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that he'd tackled a comic book!Upon reading it, though, it's a jumbled mess. It seems to revel more in the insane invention of new superheroes than it does in establishing characters or any kind of plot centered in logic (I mean, I get it, this is DCU

I've always had a certain fondness for Dial H for Hero. I first encountered it as a bonus insert in one of DC's other titles back in the early 80's or so. The idea of a magic dial that turned its user into a different superhero each time was a fun concept. I've been done with buying actual comics for some time now--buying the occasional graphic novel or manga volume, and borrowing titles from the library is about all my finances will support--so I hadn't known of this new series until I saw the

This was an absolute treat. I've always had something of a soft spot for Dial H for HERO since encountering it in battered Silver Age comics rescued from giveaway boxes in my youth, though as I got older I was increasingly less enamored bit the silliness of it in its '80s appearances. But here novelist China Mieville has taken a goofy, throw-away concept and built an interesting mythology around it, offering a system for the dial's existence and a rich cast of characters around the central plotl...

A truly crazy story that embraces its wackiness. Yet, by the end, it comes together to tell a fascinating story. Highly recommended for fans of the weird.

I love variations on a theme. The first arc is the best, because it has time to breathe, and the second one feels a little rushed, while the third is pure insanity on the page. Drama goes out the window (ha) to make room for craziness. Wish it had time to land any kind of emotions.

award-winning genius China Miéville takes a deep stab at writing comics by rebooting Dial H for Hero, and he really gets the knife right in there, wiggling it around, taking it out again to look at the results, then stabbing it back in, again and again. his attack on traditional comics is ingenius. unfortunately, the ingenuity on display did little to relieve the sense of irritation I had at trying to make some kind of sense of this cacophonous mess. this was a draining experience. a real-life s...

I wish I knew someone who has read this. So much to talk about. Miéville is a fascinating author whose few books of his that I have read have definitely left a mark. Here he takes a silly gee-whiz comic idea from the silver age and gives it depth and a vast history. I have not enjoyed a retcon on a character as much as this since Alan Moore took over writing Swamp Thing. This is what I was looking for when I returned to graphic novels after too long of an hiatus.

My memory of this comic when I was a pre-adolescent was that readers could submit their ideas for the heroes that were dialed up. The heroes that pop up in this are pretty impressive and I wish they had series all their own (I guess that's what fan fiction is all about). But the storyline was convoluted and the artwork, though highly impressive, could still feel like a crazed jumble of strange flashes and discord. I held on, but was glad when it was done....and seriously: why is Brian Bolland on...

It's a funny thing how China Mieville is considered such a celebrated writer of a genre I should normally like, and yet I have still NOT found anything of his that I can confidently say I like. Not Kraken, not The City and The City and, in the end, not this.The concept of Dial H from DC Comics, given a horror twist by Mieville (and blindingly amazing covers by Brian Bolland) is a good one, but the series is a prime example of a good concept taken too far and stretched too thin.The team up betwee...

China Mieville acclaimed author of “weird fiction” crafted something ingenious with Dial H. A dark, imaginative, surreal, funny and surprisingly poignant story exploring themes of identity, courage and the tale of a very strange war. Unlike anything from DC comics since Grant Morrison's acclaimed Doom Patrol, Brian Bolland provides sublime covers for both. One of the best things to come from DC comics in years.

This was the first thing I've ever read by China Mieville, but it's clear now that people were not exaggerating about how weird his stuff is. Overall, I'm not sure how I felt about the story, and it was obvious the comic got cancelled and had to wrap up all the mythology too quickly, but this was just so creative and weird that I would have to recommend it.

The best "Grant Morrison story not written by Grant Morrison" ever. A lot of weirdness and a lot of heart... at least in the first 12 issues. This series was cancelled before it's time, which meant the ending had to be rushed. Unfortunately, that also meant that only the major plot points had time to be developed, leaving aside all the really great character arcs China Mieville was constructing. Despite all this, it's a truly enjoyable read, specially if you're a little tired of American superhe...

Fun at times. I found the story-boarding a little off putting at times - it's pretty much non-stop action. Which would be fine, except there's almost no environment or scene setting.

3.5 stars

The author takes a silver age story, where someone who does not appear to be super-hero material dials a number on a rotary phone and somehow turns into a super-hero for a short time. It's a fun jaunt thru the DC universe with the big names rarely appearing as the heroes our central character dials up come from all over the multi-verse and are usually fairly odd. The author takes us on a trip to find out where the dials come from and why. The Deluxe edition is over-sized and fairly thick with go...

By far, the weirdest thing I read from Miéville. A great job from ilustrators to bring to (visual) life a wild imagination. I do not know the original story, and can only write about this one.The premise is quite interesting.The hero part of someone is an identity. Superheroes often lead double lifes. That is the classic way. Bruce Wayne has a secret identity, Batman. And his daytime self feeds on and feeds his mask-and-cape self. It's like a split personality, or a life that is dual. In the cas...

Dial H by China Miéville.Review by: Galen WeitkampDial H is a graphic novel, or rather a book length DC Comic. China Miéville created the stories and the dialog, others edited, drew, inked and colored them: Mateus Santolouco, Alberto Ponticelli, Dan Green and more.I don’t usually read comic books nor graphic novels. I was probably thirteen or fourteen since last I read one; but I have read everything China Miéville did since Perdido Street Station. So when I learned that he collaborated in the c...

I had hoped for a fun reboot of a vaguely remembered gimmick comic from my childhood and instead got this coffee can full of dog poop. Instead of using the in-story trope of a magic Little Orphan Annie decoder ring to milk proto-fan fiction for new commercially viable if pun-based characters, and cracking up the 10-year old iteration of the reviewer in the process, this book attempts to explain the cosmology of how the decoder rings (aka "dials") work and succeeds only in creating a comic that i...

I really wanted to like this one a lot more than I did, but pacing and art issues really killed it for me. Despite a strong start, the second act slowed to a crawl and then an impending cancellation led to an Act 3 that was so quick it was basically a montage of craziness happening over a couple of issues with revelations being thrown at the reader in every other panel. By the end, it no longer felt like a story, but just a bunch of things happening. What's frustrating is that the revelation of