The first time I read Terminal City, which must have been almost ten years ago, it knocked my socks off. I’m not sure if it knocked them from the first issue, as this time through, I’m not yet without socks.

I’m close, of course. And finally knowing enough to say Michael Lark’s art here (at least with people) resembles Winsor McCay fills me with joy.

While Lark makes the visual experience of Terminal City, Motter sort of creates the place. It’s not just Lark’s drawings of this retro-futuristic city–it looks like an art deco paradise, something out of a poster for an old serial the actual episodes never delivered–it’s Motter’s history for it. He perfectly mixes character and exposition.

The first issue introduces the principle characters, a bunch of mysteries, large and small, and passes a lot of time thanks to Motter’s multilayered narrative.

I love it.