City of Dust

City of Dust by Steve Niles and Zid.

I was introduced to Steve Niles by his series Simon Dark. A series which I enjoyed a lot, at least the first 12 issues (the last 6 weren't as good). I decided to read this book because I liked Simon Dark and because I like the publisher. Radical Comics is a new publishing house (well, almost 2 years old now) and they put a lot of effort in putting out quality books for affordable prices. I haven't liked one of their books (Freedom Formula), but I have liked the other two I've read (Shrapnel and City of Dust).

This comic is a futuristic tale. It follows a cop, Phillipe Krome, whose job is to burn books, it reminds me of Fahrenheit 451. However, in this book, we have some monsters attacking people. It becomes a sort of detective story mixed with horror in a future world. I think the story does a good job and it is helped by the astonishing visuals of Zid. However, I think the last chapter in the story was weak. I think there was more potential in this book.

A good but not great book.

Simon Dark: The Game of Life (Vol. 3)

Simon Dark: The Game of Life (Vol. 3) is written by Steve Niles with art by Scott Hampton. Vol. 3 contains issues 13 through 18.

I had been eagerly awaiting this book for 8 months since I read the first two trades. However, 8 months is a long time if you have been reading many comic books as I have, so when I started reading this book I had some trouble remembering everything I needed to know about the story. The good thing is that I quickly figured out the main things I needed to remember to enjoy this book.

The main reason the first two trades are great, is that there are many questions that keep arising while reading it. Simon Dark is a very mysterious character with a lot of power and then one finds out there is a detective with similar powers. There aren't really any big villains in the first two trades as the series was building up for the main villain to show up near the end (Vol. 3 is the end of the miniseries).

The villain, is very similar to Simon Dark but instead of being noble and good, he is sinister. The artist does a very good job of creating a villain that makes you think of Simon, yet you can tell he's not Simon once you look at the face. The lettering (by legendary Todd Klein) also does a good job of making it clear which is which, I can imagine the voice of the villain (I keep calling him villain because he has no name).

The art in the whole book is quite dark, realistic and very beautiful. I enjoyed it very much. The writing was also quite fun, although I don't think the end of the series is as good as I expected it to be. Once the mystery was revealed there was little to care about, but I did like to get to know the character of Simon Dark.

I recommend reading the series, but I have to say that I was expecting more out of the ending.