Title hero Hatter Madigan proves to be an appealing, if fairly one-note, creation: consumed with guilt over letting his charge slip away from him, he remains focused on finding and rescuing young Alyss from our "dark world." He has a courtliness that suits him well in meetings with the likes of a young Jules Verne and is attracted to the light of imagination, which in Beddor's world is a force to be reckoned with. He also is, of course, capable of seriously wielding his blades.
Cunningly illustrated by Ben (30 Days of Night) Templesmith, the first volume of Hatter M ultimately proves strong enough to stand on its own as a story, though I'm sure Beddor wouldn't mind if the graphic novel drew readers to his prose takes on the Looking Glass Wars. Beddor's liberties with Wonderland lore are frequently quite amusing (as when the voluptuous Red Queen directs her henchmen to lop off her enemies' "stinking, boring heads"), while his embellished dark fantasies are compellingly rendered by artist Templesmith. (Carroll's world has always had its dark side, of course, though not as dark as this.) The gray world of the evil orphanage is especially well realized, with its grim-faced "Conformist Art" instructors and appropriately early industrial draining machinery.
As an artist, Templesmith can occasionally let his love of atmosphere override his storytelling clarity, but I've personally grown fond of his jug-eared characters. He arguably has the most difficult task when it comes to swaying the readers: the John Teniel caricatures that accompanied Carroll's original children's books are so firmly entrenched that we can't help comparing 'em to Templesmith's. Occasionally nodding toward Ralph Steadman's takes on Lewis Carroll, his cartoony inkwork manages to both evoke and expand upon the original, capturing a hint of Carroll-ian whimsy in the midst of all the heightened nightmares. He's the graphic novel's not-so-secret weapon: a high-hatted soldier of sardonic imagination.
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