Hatter M Volume Two: Mad with Wonder
by Frank Beddor, Liz Cavalier, and Sami Makkonen
I’m not much of a comic book/ graphic novel reader but “Mad with Wonder”, volume two in the “Hatter M” series, continued to be a good introduction to the genre.
Frank Beddor re-imagined Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” so richly with “The Looking Glass Wars” that it’s no surprise the novels has spun off into an online RPG and comics to tell all the stories. In Beddor’s Wonderland, there are no rabbit holes and no mad tea parties but a full fledged war where cards and chessmen turn into soldiers. Hatter Madigan- get it?- is the royal bodyguard with a cool array of weapons.
The comics take place within the first novel, providing backstory for Hatter M’s search for Princess Alyss Heart- having escaped assassination attempts by her power-hungry Aunt Redd and the deadly Cat. The comics, like the novels, playfully travel between Wonderland and Earth even explaining how a certain author got the story of a little girl all wrong!
It was definitely interesting to see how stories unfold in this format and the techniques used to create flashbacks or suspense from one image to another. After the story proper, each volume of the comic series includes fun extras that treat Hatter M’s adventures in and out of Wonderland as actual happenings. There are also concept art and excerpts.
If you enjoyed Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, check out Frank Beddor’s fresh take on the classic.
The Novels
The Looking Glass Wars
Seeing Redd
Arch Enemy
(Also available in audio books with exclusive content)
The Comics
Hatter M
Mad with Wonder
The Nature of Wonder (available
For more information and merchandise: The Looking Glass Wars website: http://www.lookingglasswars.com/home.html
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