'The Thirteenth Floor, Vol. 1' – Wagner, Grant, Ortiz (Rebellion)

I told you I'd have something bookish for you, today, and this one is a little bit of a gem. The book that is, not the post, although I do try my best ;o) But anyway...

Lets wind the clock back to the early eighties, I was in hospital for something or other and was given the first issue of 'Scream' to keep me ticking over in between meals. I loved it and particularly enjoyed 'The Thirteenth Floor', a story about a rogue AI running a tower block and dealing with resident's problems in a lethal way. I loved the whole comic actually but I already had a regular weekly comic ('The Victor', happy memories of that comic...) but 'Scream' died a death after something like fifteen issues and my days of sneaking a read, in the newsagents, came to an abrupt end.

I always thought that 'The Thirteenth Floor' would just remain one of those vague childhood memories, where you end up wondering if it was even a thing, so I was really happy to be proved wrong when I saw it had been collected into two volumes by Rebellion. I must have missed it but apparently, 'The Thirteenth Floor' found a home in the 'Eagle' comic and ran it's course there (shame that 'The Dracula File' didn't make it, that story freaked me out as a kid...)

Of course I was going to buy a copy, I had to see if 'The Thirteenth Floor' was as creepy as I remembered it being...

AN EXPRESS ELEVATOR TO HELL - GOING UP! Maxwell Tower is a state-of-the art tower block; a bold, experimental council tenement, run by an A.I. called Max. As building superintendent, Max's primary function is the welfare of his tenants, which he takes very seriously. And if anyone threatens either the residents or the building itself, they can expect a visit to the thirteenth floor - a place where nightmare and reality become one!

So... Thirty six years later and I finally got to venture up to the thirteenth floor again, this time I even got to see how the story continued and where it ended up (for now that is, there's a second volume that I'll be buying next payday). How did a read, through adult eyes, go? Well...

Revisiting old favourites is always a little dangerous as the passing of time very rarely lets you see something in the way that you saw it back then. 'The Thirteenth Floor' is no exception, unfortunately. What scared me here, as a kid, doesn't hit that spot now and that's probably fair enough, given that Wagner and Grant were more than likely writing with one eye on the censor. Having said that though, there's still a lot to enjoy in 'The Thirteenth Floor', some of which did creep me out, just a little bit.

While Max's 'thirteenth floor scenarios' scared me as a kid, re-reading the story made me realise that it's Max himself that scares me these days. A malfunctioning AI that can enter any flat, in Maxwell Tower, and hypnotize unwitting residents into getting rid of the increasing number of corpses. An AI that will commit murder in order to keep Maxwell Tower residents happy (and has no problems justifying it's actions)... Now that is scary.

Wagner and Grant have created a character in Max that you can't help but like because, well... he's lovely isn't he? Max will do anything for any of his residents because that's his job. But every now and then, Max not only takes it too far but also displays a real vicious streak in how he comes up with a punishment to fit the crime. But he's lovely, isn't he? You're never quite sure and that's what makes Max such a compelling, and unsettling, lead.

And I'll tell you what else is scary... If Max loses power then so does the Thirteenth Floor and if that happens, anyone there will just disappear, even though they're real and the Thirteenth Floor isn't... Seeing that happen to Bert Runch (possibly the only true innocent in this piece) really got me. No-one is really safe in Maxwell Tower.

It's not just the characterization where Wagner and Grant excel; the story itself has a lot more going for it than you would think. What initially starts out as a 'what's on the Thirteenth Floor this week?' approach becomes a lot more as Wagner and Grant take the story outside the tower and introduce situations that Max (stuck within the building) is unable to control. I loved this approach as not only does it ask a lot of Max (and we get to see what he comes up with) but it also leaves us in a position where we're actually cheering on the psychotic murderous AI as he fights to stay one step ahead of the police. I was going to read the next volume anyway but the way that this one ends just sealed the deal really. There's a lot going on here and there's the promise of more to come.

Jose Ortiz' artwork is just perfect for this story in that it not only delivers some dark looking horror, on the Thirteenth Floor, but it also effectively displays some of the more mundane (but just as dangerous) horrors of the early eighties, corrupt local government and skinheads for a start. Artwork and plot complement each other perfectly here and I'm hoping for the same team up in Volume 2'.

'The Thirteenth Floor, Vol 1' was a eerie trip down memory lane and one that I really enjoyed being scared by, even if it wasn't for the same reasons as back then. Bring on Volume 2...