One thing I have come to expect from the work of Dave Baker (as seen in our coverage at Broken Frontier of his multiple comics collaborations with Nicole Goux) is a willingness not just to play with the form’s storytelling tools but also to challenge us to think about what comics can be, not simply what we assume they are. In Mary Tyler MooreHawk – surely one of the most ambitious titles of 2024 – he goes a step further by combining graphic novel and prose novel in two narratives that are interlinked and interwoven, and yet distinct and separate at the same time. It’s experimental, multi-layered stuff and by its very denseness it asks for its reader’s full attention. Reading these opening words you will probably be unsurprised, then, that it comes via Top Shelf Productions, a publishing entity whose eclectic range has a proven track record in bringing us projects that seek not just to push boundaries but to break through them.
Normally at this point in a review a brief summary of the premise and early story structure would be the easy, pedestrian part to write. Not so with Mary Tyler MooreHawk where narrative is so inextricably entwined with the audience’s gradual and personal interaction with the page. On the one hand we have the comic strip exploits of teen adventurer Mary Tyler MooreHawk, the protagonist of a series of self-published comics and an eventual TV show (the meta references are a key aspect of the book), and her family and friends in the MooreHawk Institute for Increasing Tomorrows. They include her bodyguard Roxy Racer, her reanimated cybernetic brother Cutie Boy, and her distanced stepmother Merdith MooreHawk-Cho, and we observe the dynamics of this found family group as they battle otherdimensional beings, demonic-type entities, and attempt to stop the destruction of reality.
Counterpointing this are the prose chapters taken from Physicalist Today as a journalist one hundred years in the future – in a world where possessions are banned and entertainment can only be broadcast on dishwashers – attempts to discover the story behind the short-lived TV show Mary Tyler MooreHawk, the wranglings and intrigues behind its creation, and the whereabouts of its actual creator, a cartoonist named Dave Baker. Adding to the intrigue here is that said journalist is also named Dave Baker, and the story begins with the Dave Baker of contemporary times receiving a mysterious package. As I said, MooreHawk leans very heavily into the meta with its twists and ultimate revelations.
Story aside for a moment, this is a book that is a triumph of design. Baker’s pink-hued comics pages are intricate, packed and crammed with detail. And yet for all their copious footnotes and text-heavy panels they also ironically represent a simpler time of storytelling and the kind of protagonists who fit into that mould of do-gooder genius kids. Complementing this, of course, are the pages of Physicalist Today on which Baker worked with designer Mike Lopez and photographer David Catalano, the look, feel and “authenticity” of which play an integral part in framing this future world for us.
How these strands come together, of course, is a discovery for the reader to come to themselves but the way in which each narrative, cross-media component sits in its own space and yet echoes its partner marks this out as work that can (for now) be placed in that much overused term of the unique. Ultimately it’s a book that is as densely packed in themes as it is in presentation. It speaks to us of how we (to use an admittedly crass but relevant term here) “consume” pop culture, of the very nature of fandom itself, of fictional archetypes, and of creative identity, self-value and exploitation. Mary Tyler MooreHawk won’t be a book for those unwilling to invest significant time and consideration into its pages. But those who do will find themselves experiencing one of the most intriguingly experimental comics offerings of the last decade.
Dave Baker with Mike Lopez & David Catalano • Top Shelf Productions, $29.99
Review by Andy Oliver
