I’m normally not one to really get into graphic novels; but when I was told that this comic was based on a retrospective of Alice in Wonderland, I had to take a crack at it. Hatter M, after all is the darker side of wonderland. A book full of a lot of great imagination, and a very dark story.

Suppose Alice in Wonderland, the children’s fairy tale that Walt Disney put to screen as a sweet and simple story for children to enjoy was just a cover up of what really happened in Wonderland. What if the story written by Lewis Carroll was meant to sugar coat the story of his adapted daughter Alice, whom told him the true story of wonderland, only he didn’t except the dark tale. (This is how the comic plays out the past). The real story is that the guy we all know as The Mad Hatter is in fact known as Hatter M, the bodyguard of Princess Alyss Heart. However when Alyss’s parents the the king and queen and the rest of wonderland was taken hostage by the queens evil sister, Hatter M escaped with Alyss though a portal into our world, however they ended up in different parts of the world. Now fearing for her safety and the future of Wonderland, Hatter M must fight his way though our world and try to find Alyss before it’s too late.

The graphic novel contains the first four comic books with tons of extra features. One of which includes the back story at the beginning of the graphic novel and at the end the writers answer some of the questions the fans of the comic have about the series. The book has some pretty nice looking artwork although it’s very dark and depressing looking. The time period in which the story takes place is in the late eighteen hundreds in various countries throughout Europe. The Look of the art kind of reminds of the Hellboy but in a darker sense. I’m not really that big of a comic fan so I’m going on what I know, but the art is very dark. There is not really a lot of story going on in this comic and there is very limited dialogue. But the book is action packed, and the plot is pretty much given to us at the beginning of the book which sets everything up.

Overall, I found the story to be very interesting epically since it’s a whole different take on the Alice in Wonderland story. The book is very dark and it’s very graphic as well. There is a lot of killing, blood, gore and violence in this graphic novel. Hatter M as a character is pretty bad ass, and pretty much just wipes out anyone who gets in his way. It’s a great novel to pick up if your interested on a very violent spin of a children’s fairy tale.

– Horror Bob