Dial H #0: Bumper Carla VS the Beast of Babylon

Dial H #0
"Sundial H for Hero"
Writer: China Mieville
Artist: Ricardo Burchielli

Dial H has consistently been my favorite ongoing title from DC. It features the same unpredictability and weird, stream-of-consciousness storytelling that typified the best of Grant Morrison's early Vertigo books, particularly his run on Doom Patrol, and is one of the only comics that makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

It's zero issue month at DC this September, and every book is focusing on the origin of its titular character. True to the spirit of this book, Dial H #0 doesn't give us the origin of any one character, so much as it reveals the origins of the mystical H Dial itself.

As it turns out, the H Dial was originally a giant sundial created by a Babylonian woman named Laodice, who saw the design of the dial in a "true dream."

Laodice and her servants struggle to build the sundial as the Babylonian army are massacred by a creature called Mushusshu, the Beast of Babylon, and just as Mushusshu reaches the dial, Laodice is transformed by its powers into...Bumper Carla! That's right, Bumper Carla, a domino-masked wearing heroine that drives a super-charged bumper car.

If I would have been drinking something when I first read that, I would have done a spit-take.

Bumper Carla defeats the Beast of Babylon, and then transforms back into Laodice, who is hailed as a Queen and protector of the Empire. The plot moves forward a few years, and Laodice is visited by a friend who has spent years searching for her "magic chariot."

We learn that Laodice destroyed the sundial which transformed her into Bumper Carla, and that her friend isn't Laodice's only visitor; a mysterious stranger who came to see the Queen was imprisoned for wizardry, and apparently knows something about the magic dial.

Without spoiling the entire issue, let me say that this issue did a great job of showing us the origin of the H Dial without giving away all the mystery of how it works and why. There is still a lot to learn about where characters like Bumper Carla and Chimney Boy come from, and how the H Dial brings them into our world.

This is Ricardo Burchielli's first issue of Dial H, and I don't know if he's taking over for Mateus Santolouco or not, but I thought his art fit this issue fairly well. It wasn't fantastic and if I had to nitpick I'm sure I could find things, but Bumper Carla had a great design and her appearance in the book gave it a much needed boost in the art department. Whoever does the art needs to be flexible, and Burchielli's contrast between Babylonian period details and carnival superheroics showcases that flexibility very well.

Dial H #0 is not an origin issue that a casual reader could pick up and understand how it connects to the larger narrative, but it would give new readers a good idea of just how strange, funny and unexpectedly poignant this series can be.

Dial H #4: Nelson VS the Nullomancer

Dial H #4
Writer: China Mieville
Artist: Mateus Santolouco
Cover: Brian Bolland
August 1st, 2012
DC

Dial H has been consistently crazy since it's debut issue 4 months ago, but underneath all the randomness of its premise, an theme about what it takes to become a hero has been bubbling beneath the surface.

Finally, in this fourth issue, our overweight, everyman hero Nelson grows a pair, saves Manteau, and fights back against X.N. even without the help of the H Dial.

China Mieville's script has been gonzo from the get-go, but this issue really grounds the insanity with some great character moments and revelations. It seems that our unlikely trio of heroes are, despite appearances to the contrary, much more ordinary than they appear, and once the origin of the Void is revealed he/it seems to be more of a tragic figure or a wounded star animal than an arch-villain from the beyond the stars.

Dial H reminds me of the work Grant Morrison was doing in his early Vertigo days, particularly his run on Doom Patrol. There's madness in these pages, to be sure, but there's a strong meta-fictional undercurrent running throughout this series, an ironic commentary on what it means to be a comic book creator working for a corporation with a pre-existing stable of characters, trying to create something new from that mess of continuity and history, perhaps?

I haven't quite settled on what Dial H is really about, but the meaning is there somewhere amidst the chaos. I'll be honest, Issue #4 is the closest this comic has come to making any kind of sense.

Mateus Santolouco has really done a fabulous job transforming China's scripts into a visually exciting and sense-making work. I can't even imagine how these scripts must read, but Santolouco always seems to get it right. The art manages to capture the humdrum world of Nelson, as well as the unpredictable powers brought on by the H Dial. Santolouco's art in Dial H balances expertly between scenes of the fantastic imaginary world and the dreary malaise of post-industrial culture (a balance this is literally personified in the character of Chimney Boy, one of the super-personaes transferred by the H Dial).

Dial H is one of the most underrated titles being published by DC Comics. It deserves your money and the full duration of your attention span.