424 MOTTER, DEAN
Marvel and Th e Flash for DC, and has helmed several radical re-workings of major
titles, notably New X-Men. His run on All-Star Superman , with artwork by Frank
Quitely, produced some of the best Superman stories since the 1960s, and in his
“Batman R.I.P.” storyline, Bruce Wayne disappeared and later appeared to be dead.
Beyond comics Morrison has become involved in writing scripts and treatments for
fi lms and computer games. He has written two plays and several short stories, many
of which are collected in the anthology Lovely Biscuits (1999).
Chris Murray
MOTTER, DEAN (1953–). Dean Motter is an American designer, art director, and
comic-book writer and illustrator. His fi rst published work as a writer of comics was
Th e Sacred and the Profane , printed in the science fi ction anthology magazine Star Reach
in 1977–78; he later revived this series in EPIC Illustrated (1983 – 84) in collaboration
with artist Ken Steacy. Motter is most often associated with the character Mister X and
the two noir-infl ected Terminal City miniseries he wrote for the Vertigo imprint of DC
Comics. Motter’s Web site draws attention to his design work in comics, as Creative
Services Art Director at DC Comics in the 1990s, and work outside comics on album
covers and other commercial projects.
Motter was the fi rst writer on the stories featuring Mister X, published by Vor-
tex Comics beginning in 1984. He has scripted the adventures of the character for
more than 20 years, including most recently another revival of the character for Dark
Horse Comics ( Mister X: Condemned ). Motter also wrote the series Terminal City for
DC/ Vertigo, drawn by Michael Lark, and wrote and drew the series Th e Prisoner , a
comic-book follow-up tom the popular British TV show, also for DC. His Batman:
Nine Lives (also illustrated by Lark and published by DC in their Elseworlds series)
won the 2003 Eisner Award for publication design. Motter served as art director for
DC in the 1990s, and has at diff erent times headed up a design agency.
Mister X was a comic that followed the adventures of the titular architect as he tried
to save Radiant City, an urban landscape that was driving its residents insane. X pro-
pounded the theory of “psychetecture, the theory that the very shape and size of a
room could alter a person’s mood or neuroses” (Motter, 77). X felt responsible because
his designs for Radiant City should have fostered a utopia, but because corners were
cut, the eff ect was instead to create a dystopia. Th e visual look of Mister X, bald head
and round sunglasses and wearing a sharp lapelled black trench coat, made the charac-
ter immediately recognizable, and early appearances were drawn by some outstanding
talents, including the Hernandez Brothers , Ty Templeton, and Paul Rivoche. Later
collaborator Seth developed a bold new style working on the book that built an artistic
bridge to his work on Palookaville and elsewhere.
Motter’s interest in the urban landscape recurs in much of his work, a signifi cant
element in his two Terminal City miniseries for DC/Vertigo as well as in his short-
lived Electropolis book for Image Comics. In nearly all of his work, concerns of plot
are sublimated to design; as the urban background increasingly dominates the frame,
