Joker and City of Dust

I recently read Brian Azzarello’s Joker and Steve Niles’ City of Dust. Both of which were awesome.

City of Dust
Remember when I said that I wanted to check out more from Radical Comics? Well I finally decided to pick up another one of their books and I cannot say enough about them as a publisher.

The story follows Phillip Khrome, a police officer in the future where stories and imagination are outlawed. He was raised by the government because at a young age he accidentally turned his father in for telling him a bedtime story.

Unfortunately, someone has created some of the beasts from our older stories (vampires, werewolves, etc…) and they are preying on people. Phillip must figure out who is doing it and then learn how to stop them.

I will try not to give anything away, and just tell you that the art and writing is fantastic. If you are a fan of future dystopian society stories, this is a good one. One of the things I like though, the book does not take us down an Orwell path, showing us how bad things are for everyone. In some ways you get to see how good things are because without stories, there is no religion, but also imagination and creativity are pretty much gone…

Joker
Many people have told me Joker is an awesome book, including my friend Travis who does not even read comics. Well those people were right, and I am a moron for not picking this up sooner.

Grant Morrison always writes a creepy, very weird Joker. Azzarello goes a different route. He captures some of that Ledger Joker, but also brings back how the Joker was a guy who also ran the criminal underground in Gotham.

He gets released from Arkham and decides to take back the streets. Unlike those old stories where he had crazy plans and silly methods, this time he skins people alive, shoots random people and just scares the living hell out of everyone.

Batman only plays a small role in the book, showing up towards the end, and he gives a great line, which I will not spoil for anyone.

Anyways, let me know what you thought of either book. And, if you are reading any of the other Radical Comics, let me know how they are.

Author: Ngewo