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Ex Machina | The First Hunderd Days

We’re in a golden age for good comic book series. I’m talking about classic series that are very well written and amazingly illustrated. Ex Machina continues that trait as Tony Harris gets down and dirty and gets stuck into a sequential story after playing around in the DC University on books like JSA and some other things. I’ve not picked up any of that stuff, but to be fair if I did it wouldn’t be for the characters or the writing and only for the artwork; it’s something I refuse to do nowadays as I look for the ultimate combinations which as hopefully Splash Panel is showing there are plenty of those knocking about.

Brian Vaughan is not an unknown property. He’s proved himself with Y The Last man. That series didn’t really tickle my fancy, both from the story POV and the artwork however he’s really firing on all cyclinders in Ex Machina as I see this as his magnus opus. When I think of Vaughan, I think of Ex Machina.

So what is this series about? Mitchell Hundred was the mayor of New York City between 2002 and 2005 and he’s telling us the story of his term in office. The difference is that Mitchell used to be a vigillante or tried to be a superhero. After a weird accident (which hasn’t been completely explained) at the bottom of Brocklyn bridge his face fused with something that was growing there and he can now listen and talk to machines. With this new found ability he was talked into ‘helping’ people. However it because apparent very quickly that there were better ways to do this and so he ran for office.

While the premise sounds very comic booky, I promise you the rest of the series isn’t. The series has many great characteristics, these include the cast of characters that all have a distinct voice which Vaughan does a great job of making them shine through the spectacular dialogue he’s got them saying. Oftentimes the characters will go off on a complete tangent and talk about a random bit of historical point about the city of New York. It’s crazy because Brian really looks like he’s done his homework, because I doubt he could make this shit up and I guess you learn a little bit more about New York City’s short history. It is very amusing most of the times, shocking in other times.

First of all I’ve got to say that it was a major coup for Wildstorm to pick this series to publish it because it would have feel in the Vertigo category more easily, except and I really hate saying this, better production values. Vertigo is not known for flashy interior artwork and this is seen by the fact that they don’t use glossy paper for their books and the colour palette that is used for their books is always relatively muted. It’s a terrible shame because most of the Vertigo Comics artists can run circles around the average superhero comic book artist. In this book the Jolly Roger team really put their stamp of the look of the book. It simple screams class in every panel.
Tony Harris and his co-consiprators have seriously removed all the stops and it really shows how much fun their having with this series. The facial expressions are always spot on and the designs all look incredible real.

At the back of the book there are a few goodies that seem to be more rare and rare these days. The only people that seem to actually add ‘DVD’ style extras at the back are the ones that are self publishing their books or publishing them through Image. This book shows us the process in which the artwork is made. All of the panels (at least the ones where it’s really talking bodies) are done through a process of setting up the scene in real life with friends and randoms I guess acting the roles of the characters. Harris uses the lighting and whatever to help him build the scene and then comes everything else. Some people would think that this was cheating and that Harris is a hack for needing to use photoreference; I say the man’s found a technique that works for him. All that matters is the final page that you see and that page is always spectacular.

Final element of this book that I’ve got to mention is the fact that it’s a wrap around cover. I really miss these things, as usually in a trade paperback that option is often forgotten or not used and I really think it’s a missed opportunity to felx your artistic muscles. Glad to report that Harris not only takes this opportunity but also continues it in all the future trade paperbacks. That’s a nice touch and one that sets the series above the rest straight away from something as simple as a wrap around cover, it just looks like a different series straight away.

What’s great is that if you’re still on the fence you can download the first full issue from the official website right here. Also while you’re at it, check out the official Ex Machina website. It’s not that great, as the flash is kinda choppy and a bit lame in parts, but it’s good to see that the creators are at least trying to make something more for this excellent series.