I was grabbed by the same things that had grabbed everyone about Rivoche’s posters: the soaring, neon, Deco city, the Expressionist shadows, the mysterious bald man in the coat and shades.

I vaguely assumed that it had something to do with the track ‘Mr X’ on Ultravox’s 1980 album Vienna, and maybe it did, somewhere back in the mists of inspiration (the figure in the song certainly seems reminiscent of the character in the comics, and Motter knew his New Wave music). None of which I knew when I wandered into Mega City Comics in Camden in 1986 and saw the book on the shelf. The produced an initial four issues that were then packaged together as a paperback. In the end new young comics stars Los Bros Hernandez - three Mexican-American brothers best known for their comic Love and Rockets - were brought in to get the comic rolling.

The character was created by Dean Motter, who then worked with artist Paul Rivoche to build out his fictional world, in the process creating a series of stylish and intriguing posters that caught the attention of the comics world and drove up anticipation for whatever it was they were producing. The title makes it sound like a sequel but Mister X was not, in fact, returning he had barely arrived in the first place.

The Return of Mister X is a comic with a fraught history. Only the mysterious Mr X, who stalks the shadows in his billowing overcoat and wraparound sunglasses, seems to have a plan to save the city. Radiant City was supposed to be the city of the future, with revolutionary architecture engineered to make its citizens happy and fulfilled, but the developers cut corners on the materials and now it is a dark metropolis that drives its inhabitants mad.

Mister x comic book